When nerves are compressed, you may experience a range of symptoms such as pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, and reduced range of motion. This can be caused by muscular or nerve injuries, which can lead to the perpetuation of muscle spasms in the affected muscle. These spasms are usually felt as tender muscle knots or regions in a tight muscle band that hurt when pressed. This muscle knot is known as a trigger point.
When examined microscopically, trigger points consist of multiple individual muscle fibers with knots. When present, muscles shorten, tendons stretch, blood vessels contract, and nerves that cross the area are compressed. This can cause local pain and sometimes far from the site, as well as sensory symptoms such as numbness and tingling. Additionally, a restricted range of motion may occur.
The general consensus is that the formation and maintenance of muscle activation points is the reason why patients experience pain and sensory symptoms. Trigger points can form quickly after trauma or slowly over time when pressure is gradually applied to the muscle; this is often seen in common injuries due to poor posture or repetitive movements. When a trigger point develops, the host muscle becomes shorter, thicker, and less efficient. Since muscles are made up of 75% water and water is not compressed well, they become functionally inflamed, often causing tension in the band that can have additional pressure effects on local tissues. Trigger points can also cause other issues such as an inability for the inner thighs on one side to lengthen the same as the one on the left side, making the knee higher.
Since 1999, Niel Asher Education has won numerous awards for education and services provided in the field of trigger point therapy. The active trigger points can cause symptoms even when not pressed. There is a well-established trigger point therapeutic protocol for treating cubital tunnel syndrome (Palmaris Longus, Flexors). Ultrasound-guided perineural injection of a local anesthetic and a steroid has been found to yield excellent results in cases where nerve entrapment is suspected. A common misdiagnosis is trigeminal neuralgia, which may be caused by trigger points in the sternocleido-mastoid muscle. The carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common condition related to trigger points and is easily treated through a trigger point intervention.
However, conditions such as Guvon canal and ulnar collateral ligament are very deep and difficult to feel. Active myofascial trigger points (MTRP) are hyperirritable focal points of tension in soft tissue that cause symptoms regardless of whether they are pressed or not. Since 1999, more than 100,000 therapists around the world have adopted the Niel Asher technique to treat trigger points and it has been applied to the treatment of several common musculoskeletal injuries. Intense physical activity that increases pressure on the nerve can cause cubital tunnel syndrome (sometimes due to abnormal bone growth in the elbow region), since it is a condition caused by compression of the ulnar nerve, often by connective tissue or bone but sometimes functionally by trigger points. The pronator teres syndrome (PTS) is a rare but interesting case study that many think is directly related to triggers of pronator three of the forearm. I have treated people with scalenes (trigger points) who thought they were having a heart attack because their chests started to hurt and they started to feel tingling in their arms and getting sleepy.
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