This technique focuses on the treatment of trigger points that are sensitive place in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin and articular capsule. They are characterized by local irradiation and pain to pressure, depending on the type. The active trigger point causes local or remote discomfort and pain, and the latent only local. Irradiation of pain is characteristic for each point, which means that at some point the pressure may cause pain at a distant form of the relevant points. So for the feeling of a heart attack the responsible point might be on rib muscles, low back pain point in your back or abdomen. Trigger points in the abdomen may cause nausea, loss of appetite, indigestion and pain and cramps in babies, those from the neck muscles can cause tics on the face and around the eyes, trigger point around the jaws can cause a feeling of toothache. Symptomatic picture of chronic trigger points can sometimes give a picture of inflammatory degenerative disease with stiffness of individual or groups of joints.
They are usually the size from tip of an needle, until the size of a pea. It is not always easy to find. They might occure due to acute (sports) or chronic muscle overload, anatomical anomalies, psychological factors (stress, fear), chronic infections, metabolic disorders (lack of vitamin C and B6) or are the result of excessive consumption of coffee or alcohol.
Acute trigger points can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, pain in the sinuses and the lower jaw, local and remote pain in the neck, various parts of the limbs, chest and abdomen, spine and spinal muscles, can cause problems in the genital area, and untreated may arise asymmetry of the locomotor system and even greater consequences, as well as coordination and balance disorder.
A trigger point sometimes, due to pressure on a nerve that passes in the vicinity, may cause severe pain and tingling as is the case with piriformis syndrome. In this case, the clinical picture is similar to sciatica.
Symptoms of Trigger Point may be the causes of wrong initial diagnosis such as acute trauma, inflammation, degenerative and tumor diseases. For treatment to be successfully performed, it is necessary to make a good diagnosis, so the treatment is faster and more efficient. The treatment is performed by stretching the affected tissue and deep massage.
Stretching is performed in a way that the tissue is cooled and relaxed, so that stretching can be generous and effective. Stretching can affect the entire muscle or group of muscles and therefore the stretching is only a part of the treatment and usually serves as an introduction to the technique of deep-tissue massages.
Deep massage provides the best results and directly releases tensed tissue through a fine palpation and adequate prolonged short-term pressure, where physiotherapist reduces the pain and tension on trigger points, improves blood circulation and metabolism process, which means fetching cells of nutrients and elimination of waste by-products.
With physical therapy, acute myofascial pain can be eliminated usually within three to fifteen days, and long-standing chronic trigger point can be significantly improved, but in six weeks.
Duration – 20, 40 or 60 minutes