What you can expect from trigger point therapy?
After talking through any niggles you have with your therapist, they will work with you to find your trigger points and alleviate any pain through a magic combination of pressure, manipulation and stretching. Don’t be afraid to let out a little yelp or whimper, as this will help your therapist get to the root of the problem. A few deep-breathing exercises later and you’re good to go, homework in hand and mind, body and soul renewed.
Good to know
- You may feel a little worse before you feel better – as they say, no pain, no gain.
- Don't wait around when you experience pain. Muscle function will diminish when trigger points are not addressed in time. This eventually could end up causing damage to nearby nerves and the pain might spread to other areas of the body.
- Don’t expect to be cured after one session – some injuries may have taken years to appear and the older the injury, the longer it takes to heal. Your therapist will come up with an excellent treatment plan to suit you.
The sciencey stuff
Let’s break it down: a trigger point is a tight area within the muscle that causes pain. When our muscles are overworked or injured, these hotspots of pain are ‘triggered’ and form a pesky knot. Catching the culprit isn’t as easy as it sounds though, as trigger points sometimes send their pain to another site and fool us into thinking the problem is somewhere else, which is why pain is often misdiagnosed. Trigger point therapy is wise to this, thankfully!
