A Trigger Point massage is a type of massage therapy used to treat chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts longer than 3 to 6 months and can be caused by irritable trigger points in the muscles that can't be relieved. Symptoms related to chronic pain may include muscle weakness, tingling, and stiffness. The goal of Trigger Point therapy is to release or soften a muscle knot to reduce (or eliminate) knot pain and associated pain.
This release occurs by applying various levels of pressure to the muscle knots and then stretching the affected areas through a full range of motion. As long as you don't experience any negative reaction, you should massage any trigger points that seem to need it at least twice a day, and up to half a dozen times a day. Quintner, Cohen and Bove believe that the most popular theory about the nature of trigger points (muscle tissue injuries) is “flawed both in reasoning and in science, and that treatment based on that idea achieves results “indistinguishable” from the placebo effect. You might love the idea of massaging your trigger points at home and correcting those knots. While the “map” of muscle trigger points and associated pain is complicated, the process of relaxing the trigger points is simple.
Most importantly, the pain of a trigger point should seem “relevant”, that is, the pain of the spot should appear to be related to the discomfort you are trying to treat, and not to some other type of discomfort that is simply in the same area. It can't be treated if it isn't found, but finding the trigger points is the hardest part, even for experts. Studies have shown that there is a real lack of consistency in the diagnosis of cases of myofascial pain syndrome, which could mean that there isn't much evidence of trigger points. While trigger points are a matter of debate among scientists, who are not yet 100 percent sure that they exist, some people claim that they have experienced healing effects by eliminating these painful spots with a massage. For example, it could fail for “very simple technical reasons” due to the neurological phenomenon of “referred pain”, the trigger point may not actually be located in the same place as the pain. You can develop myofascial pain syndrome (the fancy term for muscle pain, yes, including trigger points) in various parts of your body, such as your triceps or buttocks. The first rule of trigger point massage is that any good massage is probably better than bad trigger point therapy.
This important article demonstrates that the biochemical environment of the activation points is acidic and contains many metabolites that cause pain. You can limit the scan to a fairly small area of muscle tissue around the “epicenter” of symptoms, but some trigger points are surprisingly far from the pain they cause, usually closer to the center of the body. Trigger Point massage can be an effective way to reduce chronic pain caused by irritable trigger points in muscles. It's important to remember that finding these trigger points can be difficult even for experts. If you're considering Trigger Point massage as an option for treating your chronic pain, it's best to consult with a qualified massage therapist who has experience with this type of therapy.
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