Trigger Points can be as small as a pinhead and are often in the grain of rice to pea size range although they can be as large as a pencil eraser! The eraser size are most likely to be in the thigh muscles.
Acupuncture is only effective for Trigger Points when the Trigger Point coincidentally lies on an acupuncture meridian (estimates range from 40-80%).
The most well documented treatment for Trigger Points is Trigger Point Injection by a very competent medical practitioner (M.D.) trained in locating and injecting individual Trps. The injection process is an art and it takes A LOT of experience to do it properly. Dry Needling of the specific Trp's is just as effective as Trp Injection. The same caveats regarding experience in finding and hitting the individual Trps hold for Dry Needling as with Trp Injection.
Note: These techniques are <i>painful</i> but no pain no gain. Also as Trigger Points can quickly reform the injections, to be effective long term, will most probably need to be repeated.
After injection, Spray and Stretch and Manual Trigger Point Release methods, such as Myofascial Release are both proven effective Trp treatment strategies.
Trigger Points can be as small as a pinhead and are mostly in the grain of rice to pea size. The eraser size are most likely to be in the thigh muscles.
Acupuncture is only effective for Trigger Points when the Trigger Point coincidentally lies on an acupuncture meridian (estimates range from 40-80%).
The most well documented treatment for Trigger Points is Trigger Point Injection by a very competent medical practitioner (M.D.) trained in locating and injecting individual Trps. The injection process is an art and it takes A LOT of experience to do it properly. Dry Needling of the specific Trp's is just as effective as Trp Injection. The same caveats regarding experience in finding and hitting the individual Trps hold for Dry Needling as with Trp Injection.
Note: These techniques are <i>painful</i> but no pain no gain. Also as Trigger Points can quickly reform the injections, to be effective long term, will most probably need to be repeated.
Do not stretch a muscle with a Trigger Point! If you do you will make yourself worse! Delay stretching and strength hardening exercises in a muscle group or groups until the Trp is resolved. Beating up on sick muscle while it's still in full compression will just make things worse!
Muscles affected by trigger points need to have the Trp released before any stretching program is begun.
When compression of a muscle fiber occurs the uncompressed portions are already being stretched to their maximum as are the tendons, aoneuroses and raphes they are connected to.
To fix myofascial problems yourself, you need to understand about your body and it's physiology.
Learn about your muscles and your individual trigger points! Correcting trigger points requires that you understand the nature of Trigger Points and be in touch with your body and understand how the muscular system works A trigger point causes the affected muscle to be permanently compressed. If stretching worked you wouldn't have a Trigger Point and there would be no
pain/cramp/stiffness and /or bowel/stomach/genital/urinary problems and you would feel fine.
The good news is that self-treatment can give you a good result in relieving pain without drugs provided, you follow the specific guidelines for treating myofascial pain, instead of what sounds good from your PT/Trainer/MD etc. If they specialize in Trigger Points fine but if they don't have the depth of medical knowledge specifically about Trigger Points then you can do tremendous harm to your body.
Get both:
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook (second edition) by Claire Davies
This has specific treatment/exercise options for Trigger Points (Trps) located in specific muscles as well as general information on Myofascial Pain the forward is by David G. Simons (see below)
and the Concise Book of Trigger Points(2nd Ed.) by Simeon Neil-Asher. Both books are excellent compendiums of information. My personal experience is that you really need to have multiple books on the subject to fill in the gaps in each.
The above are 17-20 bucks used on Amazon.
If you are really crippled by Myofascial Pain you really should have Travell and Simons'
: Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction:
The Trigger Point Manual, Vol. 1: The Upper Half of Body
and
Travell and Simons':
Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual, Vol. 2: The Lower Half of Body
Travell and Davies are the mother-source for virtually all trigger point information out there. Every decent book that I've ever read on the subject credits them for
not only pioneering in developing the field but pretty much being the
only people out there studying the problem using a rigorous
scientific methodology.
These are medical textbooks so expect to pay textbook prices I just bought a
used copy of volume 1 for $85 plus shipping volume 2 sells for even more
used.
the good news is that, because they are textbooks, Amazon
guarantees to buy back the copy just spent $85.00 for $67.95; when
you're done, just sell them back.
Post edited by: bshapiro, at: 04/12/2011 12:42 PM
