Headache, dizziness or tennis elbow
Trigger points are defined as “centers of increased irritability in tissue that react sensitively to pressure and cause referred pain when hypersensitive.” Trigger point therapy is based precisely on this fact. Triggering and maintaining factors in the muscles include, for example:
Overuse injuries, strains, and tension resulting from poor posture (poor workplace ergonomics, repetitive movements under unfavorable conditions). Protective postures in connection with other pain. Tension due to stress or other external influences. Tension due to psychological factors.
For the reasons mentioned above, the muscles receive insufficient oxygen, which in turn leads to a reduced supply of the energy carrier ATP. As a result, the muscle contracts permanently at this undersupplied point.
Once such tension is permanently present, the muscle can no longer be supplied and the center of the pain, the trigger point that has now formed, perpetuates itself.
Trigger points can be stimulated by pressure, with each muscle transmitting a characteristic pain to an often distant area. An active trigger point is usually only a few millimeters in size and reacts painfully to pressure. While this pain is unpleasant, it soon leads to a kind of therapeutic, beneficial pain and often disappears completely. Specific stroking and stretching techniques complement trigger point therapy.
Possible applications of trigger point therapy:
headache
dizziness
shoulder-, neck- and backspin
chest pain (tightness)
golfers ellbow
tennis ellbow
lumbago
knee pain
Achilles tendon pain
Tendon insertion inflammation
pain caused by poor posture
for pain relief in osteoarthritis
jointpain