Trigger Point Therapy.

Trigger Point therapy is used by many different types of Practitioners as an effective way of releasing muscles. It is the ‘knot’ people feel when a muscle is tight and this knot can have significant impact on the muscle, surrounding muscles and fascia, nervous system, circulatory system and also the structural alignment.

Essentially when a muscle becomes contracted it does not contract evenly but rather there are focal areas which become the most hypertonic spots (or knots) in the muscle. These are the Trigger Points. These spots are sensitive when palpated and can refer pain to other areas. By releasing Trigger Points it is an effective way to normalise the muscle tone and bring the muscle back to normal Range of Motion (ROM).

There are two types of myofascial Trigger Points, Active and Latent, the primary difference being that Active Trigger Points refer pain. The referred pain usually travels in a predictable pattern specific to the muscle. At times when there is an acute area of pain, many Trigger Points may refer to that one area, all reproducing the patient’s symptoms. Every muscle can develop Trigger Points and many muscles have multiple Trigger Point locations.

Both Active and Latent Trigger Points often lead to muscle weakness and impaired proprioceptive information (relating to balance). Thus there is not much difference between them (Travell & Simons 1983).

If Trigger Points are causing or contributing to a Patient’s pain it becomes obvious in the treatment, when the practitioner locates the Trigger Points and presses on the specific spot this will often reproduce the same symptoms and once them Trigger Points are released this can provide immediate relief.

At Sydney Essential Health all of the Massage Therapists are trained in Trigger Point Therapy. We also have a Massage Therapist who specialises in Trigger Point Therapy and teaches workshops to train other Practitioners.