Trigger Point Therapy

A trigger point is sometimes known as knot. It is a palpable area in a muscle that is painful on compression and can refer pain to another area of the body. Almost everyone that we see in our Brisbane massage clinics will have trigger points. It just depends on whether or not to they are impacting them in their every day life. Trigger point pain is usually related to pain during activity, although sometimes it can be constant and occasionally it can interfere with sleep.

 

​Elimination of trigger point pain can be an important component of the treatment and management of musculoskeletal pain in your body. 

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​Trigger Point Therapy is a remedial massage technique and is never usually a session on it's own. It is something that is incorporated into every massage or myotherapy session. It involves identify trigger points in the body. To your therapist these feel like palpable nodules or thick muscle tissue, that are tender to touch for you. Pressure is applied over the area to reduce muscle tightness and pain.

 

Your therapist will often ask if this 'refers' anywhere else (which helps them identify if they are on the right spot and if the trigger point is 'active'). Once pressure is applied they will ask you to let them know when the pain starts to dissipate, a sign that the trigger point is starting to release. The exact mechanism behind trigger point therapy is unknown. However the treatment technique is widely used for the treatment of muscloskeletal pain, with good results.

 

Generally trigger point therapy is quite painful and can cause pain around an 8/9 out of 10 on the pain scale. Your massage therapist will generally wait until this pain has dissipated under a 5/10 before they will release their pressure off a trigger point.  From our end is also feels like pressure under our thumb is starting to give way. That is why we will often start to comment about the change at the same time as you feel the decrease in pain.

How can trigger point therapy help me?

To answer this question we need to look at common trigger point referral patterns. Please note that quite often underlying pathologies have similar symptoms to trigger point referrals. That is why your remedial massage therapist will do an assessment and thorough health history before they start treating you, to work out the possible cause of your pain.