Trigger Point
About eight years ago, I was a licensed massage therapist in California. I have always been facinated with how the body works. One of the many reasons that I love what I do today. To this day, I continue to buy books regarding massage.
One of the books I use on a regular basis is “The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook” (http://www.triggerpointbook.com). Until recently however, I have been all about doing this as treatment for my husband and others. I have just recently began to experiment on getting myself “straightened out”. These little knots are facinating things, painful as anything when they’ve gone too far, and the relief once they’ve been remedied is astounding.
What are Trigger Points? Travell and Simons define them as “a highly irritable localized spot of exquisite tenderness in a nodule in a palpable taut band of muscle tissue.” In other words, these little knots are crazy painful, and are found as knots in tight bands of muscle tissue.
Without going into way too much detail, trigger points literally can cause your body to stop using a muscle. When you stop using a muscle, it will shorten and tighten up, making the situation worse, not to mention the stress caused on surrounding muscles due to the fact that they are trying to overcompensate for movement within that area.
Many times, pain and discomfort in an area have nothing to do with that area at all. For instance, you may feel pain in your glutes (butt) for a period of time, well, after ignoring that pain long enough, it seems to have gone away, or is less intense. Then one day, you find that your lower back is killing you doing every day activities. Well, remember that pain in your glutes? It could be directly causing your back pain and discomfort due to your body overcompensating for trigger points in your glutes.
Remember that song you’d sing as a kid…your ankle bone connected to your leg bone, or something like that? Well, the same goes for our muscles. Along with learning to create movement properly, I’d highly suggest either learning about trigger points and addressing them yourself, or consulting a local professional that knows about trigger points and can help you sort yours out.
A little side note…having trigger point therapy work done is not pleasant at the time. You may feel like the person doing it (even if it’s yourself) means you harm. Just remember the relief in the long run is well worth it!
