Trigger Point Therapy

“Myofascial trigger points are the most common cause
of ubiquitous enigmatic musculoskeletal pain”

(D.G. Simons, md).

Trigger Points are areas of muscle fibres, commonly called ‘knots’, which are permanently contracted and painful, keeping the muscle tight and weak.

They refer pain to other areas as well as preventing normal function by restricting movement in the muscle and often cause joint pain by keeping constant tension on the muscles’ attachments near adjacent joints. In certain muscles they can even cause nausea, dizziness, sore throat and the kind of stitch you get in your side after running. Toothache and jawache that baffle dentists may well be caused by trigger points.

Trigger Point Therapy releases the trigger points using ischaemic compression (pressure using a thumb or finger for a number of seconds or until the point releases) followed by stretching. They are released automatically during Myofascial Release Therapy.

It is the the fact that trigger points send pain to another part of the body that confounds most conventional treatments. Treating the site of the pain while overlooking the cause, often some distance away, is not going to be helpful. Likewise, taking painkilling drugs which simply mask the problem is to ‘kill the messenger and ignore the message’, as the pain is telling you there is a problem needing attention.

Trigger Point Therapy combined with Myofascial Release goes straight to the heart of the problem and for most cases relieves the pain in between 1 and 6 treatment sessions.