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Trigger point therapy is a form of bodywork that relieves pain and dysfunction in the body by applying pressure to certain points in the muscle belly. The belly of the muscle forms an adhesion or a fibrous band within the muscle fibers which creates a knot. This is caused by some sort of trauma, physical and/or emotional stress. Sometimes the relief is in other parts of the body or sometimes the pain is localized. By applying pressure to these certain points in the muscle, relief is felt by a release of the toxins that have built up in the adhesion. Sometimes massage can be included into the trigger point therapy session for better results, but that depends on the circumstance and the patient.

Trigger points are said to be hyper irritable and located in skeletal muscle. They are tight small palpable lumps or nodules in the muscle. Due to these knots, there is a reduction in the exchange of oxygen, the amount of fresh blood being supplied to that area and an increase in lactic acid build up. This causes a decrease in circulation, inflammation and pain in the area. Since these trigger points are full of toxins, they are often sore when touched. These are called “hot spots” and the ones that are less sensitive are called “satellites”.

Trigger points actually already exist throughout the muscle but unless they become active or “hot”, they do not cause a problem. Once they are activated the person will usually start feeling pain and can refer pain and tenderness to another area of the body when pressure is applied. It is the therapist’s job to find the trigger point at the site of pain or the point of origin. The therapist will apply pressure directly to the trigger point for a few seconds. This will release the toxins that have built up in the area by breaking up the muscle fibers in the adhesion. The pain will diminish and the muscle fibers that were broken up will begin to repair themselves and eventually return to their original state.

A trigger point can affect a different area in the body from where it is located. An example of this would be like when a nerve is pinched and the muscle that the nerve runs through forms trigger points along the nerve, not just were there was injury. There may be pain signals sent to the brain from these spots even though there was no injury there. The pain that is felt away from the point of injury would be considered referred pain. There are also latent trigger points which only cause pain when applied pressure to and do not refer or transfer pain to different areas of the body. They are thought of as one of the causes of stiff joints and the loss of range of motion of old age.

Trigger point therapy helps by interrupting the neural signals that cause both the trigger points and the pain. The purpose is to eliminate the pain and re-educate the muscles to be pain-free. There is also improved flexibility, coordination, and circulation in the muscle as well as relief of tension. Another benefit would be an increase in range of motion.

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