Trigger Point Therapy - Oh the Pain (Part III)

Like most of my experiments, I decided to give trigger point therapy (as prescribed by Clair Davies) a thorough vetting, despite discomfort and pain.  Forty plus trigger points is a lot to deal with at one time.  In the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, Davies recommends specific massage protocols for eliminating trigger points.  The basics of Davies' recommendations is to massage the trigger points at a pain level of 7 (out of 10) for six to twelve strokes three to six times per day.  For one or a few trigger points, this would equate to a few minutes per session per day.  But for my forty plus trigger points, I ended up spending over an hour per session and didn't end up treating all of my trigger points each session.  Fortunately, I started over Thanksgiving break so I was able to commit to three sessions per day - three very painful sessions.

There is something in the massage world called post massage soreness and malaise (PMSM).  PMSM is exactly what it sounds like - you feel sore and tired.  I was sore and tired and developed symptoms similar to a really bad cold (sore throat and stuffy head) in addition to the soreness and tiredness. Then my urine changed color slightly, was more brown than normal.  A search for the cause of this particular symptom resulted in discovery of the condition of Rhabdomyolysis, a term used to describe the breakdown of muscle fiber, which releases the contents of the muscle fiber into the blood stream.  To read up on Rhabdomyolysis, click here for the NIH link.  Rhabdomyolysis can be dangerous but it didn't seem to be overwhelming my system, so I opted to continue but monitor for worse symptoms.  After about a week and a half, my PMSM subsided, leaving only the pain of the massage.

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)

Trigger Point Therapy - Fumbling in the Dark (Part II)

In my quest for effective alternative treatments I often feel like a blind man in a forest searching for the right tree - never knowing when or where I'll find the next tree and always having to investigate to find out if the tree is worthy of consideration.

So it was that I was surfing the web when I came across the website of Dr. Ben King, an acupuncturist and chiropractor in the Toronto area.  One of his posts recommended a book called The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies for treating myofascial pain.  I usually don't buy books the first time I see them but for some reason I opted to pull the trigger.  Just under 12 bucks and a week or so later, the book arrived to my doorstep.

It sat on a table, unopened for a few weeks while I remained busy with work. One Friday I finally picked it up, began reading, and began fumbling, literally, through the folds of unseen and sometimes hidden muscle.  The book contained diagrams that helped identify muscle groups, the trigger points in each muscle group, and the areas of the body impacted by those trigger points.  While looking at the diagrams, I probed the area searching for the specified muscle.  In some cases, like the bicep, I had no issues identifying the muscle.  However, other muscles, like the scalenes and the psoas, were much more difficult to locate.  When I found a muscle, the next step was to identify any trigger points.  This step was considerably easier than I anticipated.  When pushed, the trigger points caused pain to shoot into the area diagrammed by the book.  In some cases the pain emanated over a foot away from the area I probed.  Pushing on my scalenes (on the side of the neck, attaching to vertebrae and ribs) shot pain to my upper back and down my arm.  Pushing on my pecs shot pain into my shoulder.  Each time I pushed on a trigger point, pain showed up exactly where the book diagrammed.

It took two days to catalog all of my muscles with trigger points - a total that came to over forty.  The next question was what to do about my investigations. 

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)

Recommendation (Book) - The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook

On a whim, I picked up The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, by Clair Davies to give trigger point therapy a try for my chronically tight muscles.  After reading through the first few introductory chapters it was clear that Clair's observations, experience, and training, correlated well with my own observations.

As soon as I dug into the technical chapters, which help a novice identify muscle groups, trigger points, and their referred areas, I was converted into a believer.  I am relatively early in my exploration of trigger point therapy but am amazed by the short-term results and very optimistic that with continued effort they will become long-term results.  Without hesitation, if you have muscle aches, headaches, or other chronic muscle and myofascial issues, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is worth your attention.