What is Trigger Point Therapy?

If you are feeling pain in your body, it may not be what you expect. Resulting from acute trauma, mechanical distress or imbalance, or some other form of physiological dysfunction (like poor posture), trigger points are aching areas of muscle that radiate pain to other areas of the body.

The right chiropractor can help ease trigger points by locating the points and manipulating them to reduce pain. Trigger points are part of the body’s protective mechanism, which is a system of reflexes that keeps the body safe. They occur when this reflex misfires or works continuously – causing ongoing stiffness and pain.

How can trigger point therapy help?

This unique type of therapy encourages muscles to relax, soften, lengthen, and strengthen. By manipulating the trigger points using moderate pressure (too much pressure can cause the muscles to tense up) and stretching, a chiropractor can help you reduce pain and increase mobility.

During trigger point therapy, your chiropractor will locate trigger points by pressing on muscle tissue or manipulating the muscle fibers. Once the trigger point has been located, the therapist applies pressure to gradually reduce your pain.

What can I expect from trigger point therapy?

As they apply pressure, your chiropractor may ask you to rate your discomfort on a one-to-ten scale, with one being the lowest level of discomfort and ten being excruciating pain. The chiropractor will apply gradual pressure until you reach a five or six on this scale, then apply steady pressure until the pain dissipates to a level two or lower. At this point, the trigger is assumed to be “deactivated.”

However, if the pain does not dissipate, it may not be a trigger point. In this instance, the therapist will stop and move on to another point.

A trigger point specialist may be hard to locate. The practitioners at Kennedy Chiropractic can help.

What you should know about Trigger Point Therapy:

• It is sometimes called myofascial trigger point therapy (myo for muscle and fascia for the connective tissue surrounding the muscle).
• It took time for the muscle to develop a trigger point, and it may take more than one appointment to deactivate it.
• To avoid the trigger point reactivating, you may need to change the way your body moves and improve posture.
• Trigger point therapy may be uncomfortable, but should not cause pain. In fact, painful therapy will work against you, causing muscles to tense up in response and reversing the effects of the therapy.

More questions about trigger point therapy or chiropractic care? Give us a call today, or visit our Wauwatosa office on North Ave for a free consultation.