When you wake up in the
morning with a knot in your leg, have you
ever wished there was a button you could push and have the pain would
go away? There is! Relief can be at your fingertips:
There may be a tender spot in your muscle
tissue somewhere. You just need to explore your own bod, each arm
&
leg for your 'personal' tender button(s). This spot
(or
spots) can really hurt when you press on it: it's
called a “trigger point” & may feel like a knot or
small bump
that can range in size from a pinhead to the
size of a pea (it may even be the size of your
small fingernail in larger muscles). Trigger points can cause any
pain, anywhere! They
can cause headaches, eye
pain, jaw pain, low back
pain, tennis elbow, wrist pain, joint
pain, etc. In
addition to pain, the effects of these built-in 'knots' can include
limited
range of motion, muscle weakness, numbness or tingling.
There are two trigger point types:
- An active trigger
point will
frequently refer pain to other areas of
the body & it’s painful when pressed. (The Japanese call these
“Ah-shi” points; we call them ‘ouch’ points!)
- A latent
point is a
silent
point (no pain, but like a cell phone silently waiting to ring). It may
feel like a lump or knot & may produce
pain when pressed.
So the pain you have in your head may actually
come from a spot in your leg or the pain in your
lower back may come from muscles in your hip. Some activities cause stress (poor posture, prolonged keyboard use, eye
strain, muscle strain, etc). These spots are also thought to be
activated by poor nutrition, vitamin deficiency,
depression, anxiety, even
low thyroid levels! These spots make muscles tight & slow blood flow, compressing nerves, even
causing an endless cycle of pain &/or spasm ("charley-horse") in
muscles. This can result in decreased flexibility, limited movement
and bad postural patterns that may continue the pain cycle for
years.
Trigger point therapy and some Soft Tissue therapies are effective
methods to help you get relief from the pain that trigger points bring
(they do hurt when compressed). Some people are reluctant to
have trigger point therapy done for this reason. Newer Soft Tissue therapies can be amazingly effective by relaxing
muscle and attachments & the nervous system {some Soft Tissue
therapies
can even bypass these painful points}: Ask us about Naturopathic GentleTouch
Technique or Myofascial techniques.
If you’re doing your own pressure-point therapy, a repeated 'stroking'
action can move the blood and lymph fluid out efficiently. To work out
your own tender points, begin by warming the affected muscle with
slow, repeated muscle strokes along the entire length of a
coarse band that can be felt within the muscle. Work from one
end of the
muscle to the other. Your pressure should start out light, and
gradually increase. Follow this by holding pressure over that tender
spot for 7-10 seconds, breathing deeply. Then release the pressure
& move the
affected part through its range of motion gently; you'll soon feel
the
release of that 'personal' spot.
When deciding what good pain versus bad pain is, aim at a pain level of
7 on a scale of 1-10. You decide what you can
tolerate. Repeat each sequence of pressure & movement; until
your pain level is lowered to about
2 or 3. Often you'll see some immediate improvement, but don't worry: sometimes
it takes more than one 'press' to feel relief.
Used correctly, trigger point therapy can be a great tool in helping to
reduce your pain & gain greater range of motion. We have a do-it-yourself handbook {DIY: "A
Hand Full
of First Aid, Plus!" } that
shows you how, when & where to use over 150 of these pressure spots.
You
can
download it today at: http://www.totlhealth.com/firstaid.html, if you
wish.
®