Trigger Point Therapy

[confuzzl3don3]

After reading Stuart McRobert's Beyond Brawn and a large number of people about how great trigger point therapy, and also applying some static pressure to my medial thigh during this period of rehabbing my adductor injury, it led me to wonder how exactly it worked and if it was just merely about applying static pressure to the right spot (trigger point). Experiences/advice about trigger point therapy is welcome, as well as any good books to get about it. In the foam rolling thread i saw Iliftalone recommend "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair Davies, sufficient?

[mstrofbass]

I've gone in for a few massages and they've almost all decided to hit some of my trigger points. By far the most painful part of the massage...impressively painful, to be exact. That being said, it's my muscles that need to be massaged, so the trigger points didn't do anything particularly helpful. So, it's not the end-all-be-all of therapies, but I suspect that it can be pretty helpful given the right circumstances.

No idea how it works though.

[fmerges]

Hi,

I have the book you mention, and it's nice, it has a lot of images, easy to read, if you want to do self treatment go for it. Beside of that, I would recommend you to go to a fisio or ostheo practician to get the initial work done, fascia release and trigger point massage; I think it's useful as it gives you a "feeling" of the "good pain" when he grind your thigh with his/her elbow. Good luck ;-)

[RichBristol]

Have bought this book and been targetting trigger points in my glutes in order to attack some chronic back pain I've had for over a year after DL'ing too much. It seems to be working.

The Trigger Point Therapy workbook is pretty extensive... and some of the conditions it is supposedly effective for are shocking. Trigger points can apparently be responsible for chronic cough, chest pain, lower back pain, joint pain, headaches, tinnitus, all sorts. The explanation given is that the trigger point (a permanently contracted knot in the muscle created as a result of injury) is continually pulling a band of muscle, and can also press/pull on adjacent nerves and arteries, causing all sorts of symptoms. Also interesting is how far pain can be "referred" from a trigger point - e.g. trigger points in the upper quad referring pain to the inner knee.

Might be a plausible explanation for persistent lower back pain after disc surgery, "tendonitis" that wont go away, etc. Could well be worth exploring if you're currently stumped by injury and considering surgery.