Sue Rucker LMT Therapeutic Massage
Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger Points (TrP's) are painful and tense points that can be found in the muscle and fascial tissue throughout the body. TrP's can feel like a tiny bead or a larger nodule. Their characteristic is to be tender to touch but worse yet to refer pain via pain patterns to other areas of the body.
Trigger points develop due to muscle and connective tissue damage from things such as poor posture, overuse, strain or trauma. Trigger points have two stages active and latent.
In the active stage trigger points can be painful, even debilitating. When pressed on TrP's cause radiating pain. The shortened dense fibers of a TrP left unchecked can lead to nerve entrapment creating further pain and create tension in the surrounding tissues.
A TrP in the latent stage may lay dormant in the tissues unnoticed until palpated. The dense and fibrous tissue of a latent TrP can cause restricted motion, stiffness, weakness or muscle imbalance.
Trigger point massage involves palpating to locate the source of pain or dysfunction and holding direct, point pressure to elicit a softening or release of the contracted tissue. Often referred to as 'deep tissue massage' in reality TrP therapy uses appropriate pressure for each individual. The desired outcome is to return contracted muscle fibers to their normal state thus reducing pain and restoring function.