Do you feel that annoying, distressing pain in some part of your body that you gently massage to feel relaxed? You might want your partner to press your neck or get a ball and roll it over your back. It’s that pleasant pain we want that gives us much-needed relief later.
If you’ve tried this, you’re undoubtedly doing the right thing. To give you some more guidance on trigger point massage and how this help manages any aches and pains you are suffering from.
With the outbreak of Covid-19, work from home has become a normal concept – but with that comes a whole lot of positional and postural problems. The development of trigger points is one of the unfortunate outcomes of this period – so understanding WHAT they are and what it does helps make this time a lot easier.
The back, neck, and shoulders are common places for these points of pain to occur. Particularly if we think about the maximum sitting jobs, we are performing. For example, the neck and shoulders get overstressed from bent working over the kitchen table, and our back gets tight from insufficient seating in our makeshift office.
About trigger points
Tight and overused muscles are a common cause of back and neck pain. You might feel these muscle knots causing pain by rubbing these tender muscles.
Trigger points are similar to muscle knots. However, this may cause more than just point pain. Trigger points are like those knots in the muscles that develop from direct injury and the overuse of the muscles. These injuries make sensitive areas of tensed muscle— trigger points — of two types — acute and latent.
Acute trigger point
Acute trigger points are like muscle knots that cause aches and pains when resting. The pain worsens when you press the tight tissue or may feel the pain in other areas of your body, known as referred pain.
It’s not rare for trigger points to develop pain in areas of the body that seems completely dissimilar to your trigger points.
Latent trigger point
You may not experience pain with latent trigger points. However, these tight sets of tissue affect movement and mobility and cause muscle weakness.
Though trigger point is a type of pain condition that triggers temporomandibular joint, tension headaches, or low back pain, trigger points are also caused by tension and stress related to other chronic pain conditions.
Irrespective of the cause, trigger point massage is one of the primary treatments.
What is trigger point massage?
Trigger point massage is a non-surgical, drug-free alternative treatment for musculoskeletal pain. It aims to improve chronic pain by freeing muscle tension in the body with trigger point massage, dry needling, and self-myofascial release.
A trigger point is a type of massage that targets areas of the muscles that have overused and developed small, fibrous nodules that are painful to the touch, referred to as “knots.” Unfortunately, pressing these points also causes pain in other areas, sometimes in the nearby areas from the point of origin.
Unlike other categories of massage that involve the whole body, trigger point therapy aims at these particular areas by applying point pressure, followed by release.
3 ways to get rid of trigger points
There are three common ways for releasing trigger points in the tissues; manual trigger point massage, dry needling, and self-myofascial release.
Manual trigger point therapy
Manual trigger point therapy involves pressing the trigger points to boost them, get rid of them, or soften them. There are different views on the length of time to compress these points, should the person be passive or active in the process, and what to do after the treatment.
There are a bunch of studies on the lengths of times: 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 15 seconds, or a whole minute. What was confirmed by this research was that holding these trigger points for 7 seconds was all it would take to release pain.
Dry needling
Dry needling is a process where a small needle is inserted into the trigger point. Is it painful? Yes. Effective? Occasionally remarkably. An experienced doctor or therapist performs dry needling. The practitioner maps out the trigger points based on the symptoms and then inserts the small needle straight into the point. Sometimes these needles are removed and reinserted numerous times. Sometimes the needle is mildly rotated in the middle of the trigger point. This method has been shown to be effective in releasing trigger points.
Self-myofascial release
Are you wondering if you can release these points yourself?
Yes, you can!
Using balls or foam rollers to release tight knots is often known as Self Myofascial Release. Most people who do this ball rolling think about releasing this sticky fascia and hydrating these tissues. That’s all good, but it gets even better when you know the trigger point location and their pain referral patterns. The use of these therapeutic balls to release these trigger points is very effective as it is an empowering tool to have in your toolkit so that you can look after yourself.
Trigger points are effectively released with the help of a practitioner through physical pressure or with the help of dry needling. You can also relive them yourself with a ball or other tools.
Trigger point massage offers quick results for releasing tight knots
Trigger point massage involves a lot more of the body than most people imagine. This results-oriented technique is best for treating chronic pain or injury as well as offering pain management cures to people who start to advance this condition.
Trigger point therapy is very effective for treating common muscular conditions and damages. Proctor usually sees trigger point massage working well for conditions like:
- Tennis elbow with the help of elbow joint pain relief wand
- Sciatica pain affects the feet, lower back, glutes, and legs
- Computer shoulder
- Plantar fasciitis
- Shin splints
- Migraines
- Chronic pain in joints such as tight back and neck
- Rotator cuff injuries or immobility
Sometimes it’ll merely take one trigger point massage session to start noticing results. Sometimes it takes a little longer. Instead of putting a band-aid on your problem, you’re actually approaching the problem and fixing it with trigger point therapy.
Bottom line
Many people have misunderstood the concept of trigger point massage that the person who gets trigger point massage must undergo high levels of pain and remain sore for days after the massage to be beneficial. In reality, the purpose of a trigger point is not to offer more pain but to reduce pain and heal injuries.
There may be a bit of discomfort and tenderness in the spot that you’re pressing, but you shouldn’t be scared to communicate with your doctor to limit the pressure on your therapist. Everyone is different, so don’t hold your breath and bear down to stand the pain.
When you undergo trigger point therapy, you will feel soreness when the doctor applies pressure. But overall, it is a therapeutic experience where you feel relief after the pressure is put on the trigger point. It helps eliminate pain, release tension and encourage a better range of motion.
Elbow joint pain relief wand is a great tool for many issues to unlock different areas in the body, but it’s also great to increase circulation and helping muscles regain full function.
