Trigger Point Therapy - Relief (Part IV)

After my post massage soreness and malaise (PSMS) relented, I continued to perform the trigger point massage routinely.  Due to the quantity of my identified trigger points (forty plus) and the hour it took to perform one session, let alone the six recommended by The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, I aimed for three sessions a day. 

I had a feeling that the trigger point therapy was providing relief well into the second week but it wasn't until I took a break from the therapy - a day's lapse - which allowed my muscles to rest and recuperate, that I felt the full benefit.  My calves, tight for over a decade, no longer felt like rubber bands at full stretch.  They felt somewhat relaxed.  Of course, as I rolled them on my 5" foam roller ball, they were still tender (and are still tender in some areas), but they were noticeably different - better.  Previously painful muscles in my deltoids  (shoulders) were no longer painful when rolled.  My pectoralis major, though still tender, felt less irritated.

The relief was real and definitively attributable to my work with trigger points.  Despite the noticeable relief in my calves, deltoids, and pecs, I still had major work to do.  My quads, hamstrings, subscapularis, trapezius, serratus anterior, scalenes, and many more muscle groups remained tight.  (sorry for the muscle names - as I learned in this process, most muscles only have Latin names).  I played with my massage techniques, using different balls, foam rollers, and a theracane in different positions, finding some new tools and positions that worked better than before.

As of today I have been exploring trigger point therapy for approximately two months, attacking tight and painful muscle group after tight and painful muscle group.  The results have been consistent and amazing - so much so that I can't stop talking about trigger point therapy to anyone that will listen.  I have long suspected that tight muscles were amplifying my symptoms if not actually causing them - and my experimentation with trigger point therapy has helped reaffirm that belief.  In addition to the relief in muscle tension and pain, my energy level has increased, I am less irritable, my digestion seems to be much better, and as long as I continue to work on my muscles I no longer react as severely when going off my diet.  Relief has been obtained on a number of fronts - with more expected as I continue to dig in to the tightest and longest-maligned muscles.

To read more about my experiments with trigger point therapy, click the following links:

Dr. Travell, the White House Physician of JFK (Part I)
Fumbling in the Dark (Part II)
Oh the Pain (Part III)
Relief (Part IV)