Trigger Point Therapy
What is a Trigger Point?
A trigger point may feel like a knot, nodule, hard lump, or taut, ropy band of fibers in a muscle. Technically speaking, a trigger point is defined as follows: a hyperirritable spot in skeletal muscle that is associated with a hypersensitive palpable nodule in a taut band. The nodule is painful on compression and can give rise to characteristic referred pain, referred tenderness, motor dysfunction, and autonomic phenomea.
Example: Glut Medius Trigger Point and Associated Pain Pattern
Pain Patterns
When a trigger point is stimulated or irritated, it refers pain to other areas of the body in specific, predictable, characteristic patterns. Stimulation of some trigger points may also cause seemingly unrelated signs and symptoms, including:
- Headaches
- Jaw (TMJ) pain
- Neck Pain
- Lower back pain
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Carpal tunnel-like symptoms
- Bruxism (grinding of teeth)
- Painful menstruation
- Paresthesias (sensation of pins and needles on the skin)
- Sciatica
- Leg cramps
- Sweating
- Congestion
- Joint pain that can be mistaken for arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, or ligament injury
Trigger Point Therapy
Treatment of trigger points typically involves compression of the specific trigger points as well as assisted stretching techniques. Initially, compression of the trigger point may re-create the associated referral symptoms. Patients quickly note that following the release of the trigger point, the associated localized and referred pain has resolved. When the trigger point has been totally relieved, there is no longer a palpable nodule or knot in the muscle. Pushing on the area does not re-create pain.
