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Trigger Point Release Self Treatment

Myofascial Release

Talk with your physician about it the possibility that you have myofascial pain. Find out if it is practical for you to learn to self-administer myofascial release. Pain is a warning, and you should make sure nothing more serious is causing your pain. Also make sure it is safe for you to do deep stretching of the affected areas of your body.

A simple and easily self-administered method for controlling and preventing MPS exists. The steps in myofascial release are

1. Recognize the problem

Going home from work with sore arms or getting slowed down in your work because of pain during the day should not be accepted as simply "part of the territory."

2. Make the Commitment

If you have the problem, make a decision to do something about it. This means committing yourself to altering some of your routines and habits.

3. Compress the Trigger Points.

Trigger points can be released by compressing them. This literally begins to iron them out and loosen them. Press on the sore spots in your muscles, beginning at the joint and working down along the whole length of the muscle. Press each sore area for seven (7) seconds, holding the pressure steady at 20-40 pounds (find out how much this is by pressing on a bathroom scale with your thumb). For trigger points in the back muscles you might want to buy a Backnobber (see below)

4. Stretch the muscles

Follow this trigger point compression with slow, deep stretching of the muscles. For the arms, this means pulling steadily on the hand using the opposite arm, flexing the wrist first one way, holding the stretch for thirty (30) seconds, then stretching the opposite direction. Arms should then be outstretched and the hands rotated so that the palms are up and the thumbs face behind you. Hold this for thirty (30) seconds, then reverse the rotation, all the way so that the palms again face up and the thumbs point back. This will produce a very pleasant releasing and relaxing of the arms.

The above procedure is called "myofascial release" and is commonly used by sports medicine physical therapists. It will not give permanent relief unless it is done regularly. If you have a lot of fairly strong trigger points in your muscles, make a plan to compress then stretch the areas twice a day, before going to work and after coming home. The whole process of compressing trigger points and stretching can take about twenty (20) minutes. One big challenge in doing this is to decide that you have to commit this much time to taking care of your own needs and nobody else's each day.

Progressive Relaxation

Myofascial release will work best if you learn to notice and switch off unnecessary muscle tension. This skill can best be learned by practicing with an exercise called "Progressive Relaxation." In Progressive Relaxation you make yourself more aware of tension and better at controlling it. The process is simple. You tense slightly one muscle group at a time, study or observe the feelings of tightness in the muscles, then then slowly relax that area of tension and notice the pleasant feelings of relief and release. By working through each major muscle group in the body this way, you can become a much more relaxed person. Many people eliminate headaches, back and neck pain, and pain from overuse of the muscles in the arms and shoulders using this technique.

If you learn the above methods and use them to eliminate the worst of your pain, it is important to follow through. You should take several short breaks during the work day. During these few minutes it is not necessary to compress triggered areas, but simply to do the stretches. This should take only about three (3) minutes per break.

If you think in terms of restoring muscles to their normal length, you're on the right track. Muscles that are lengthened and relaxed are easier to strengthen. Triggered muscle can be incredibly sensitive. If doing the above procedure makes you worse the next day, YOU DOING IT TOO HARD! It should "hurt good" while you're doing it, but don't get over-enthusiastic. If you have a really bad pain problem, ask your physician about finding a physical therapist.

More about Self treatment with Trigger point release