How Manual Physical Therapy Techniques Can Help Relieve Your Areas of Tension
By targeting these problems areas, physical therapy can help you find widespread relief
Sometimes, the root cause of your pain may be a tiny point in your body–a trigger point. If you’re struggling with chronic pain, tension headaches, or musculoskeletal disorders such as myofascial pain syndrome, manual therapy at Miss-Lou Physical Therapy may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Trigger points occur when the thin connective tissue surrounding the muscles, called fascia, tightens into a hard knot. Depending on the type, trigger points may cause tenderness in the area where they’re located. When touched, that tenderness may erupt into sudden, intense pain, forcing you to jump or cry out involuntarily.
Trigger points are also defined by their referred pain. Referred pain is pain that occurs remotely from the point of origin. So, for example, if you have a trigger point in your shoulder, you may feel the pain as a headache!
As a holistic physical therapy clinic, Miss-Lou Physical Therapy understands that areas of tension can have wide-ranging effects. Fortunately, we’re here to help you manage them. Schedule an appointment with us today to learn more about how targeted manual therapy can help you.
What exactly are trigger points?
Trigger points are generally classified into two categories: active and passive.
Active trigger points will hurt even when you’re at rest. When touched, you’ll feel tenderness at the trigger point area as well as elsewhere in the body, at seemingly unrelated locations.
Latent trigger points are milder and typically will only hurt if touched directly–although that pain may be felt elsewhere on the body, making them tricky to catch. Latent trigger points aren’t as painful as active ones but can cause muscle restriction or weakness.
Regardless of where it occurs, trigger point pain will feel like a tiny muscle spasm–a sharp pain that only affects a small part of your muscle. However, those small points of pain will add up, leading to persistent or chronic pain and limited muscle mobility.
How physical therapy can help treat muscle tensions
No matter the type of muscle tension you’re experiencing, the experts at Miss-Lou Physical Therapy are here to help! We can try several treatment approaches to help your entire body feel better.
Depending on your specific needs, here are just a few of the options available to you:
- Massage: A regular program of massage will eventually loosen up those trigger points, leading to a reduction in pain. In addition to providing the massage at our clinic, we can also show you some techniques for self-massage at home.
- Stretching: Gentle, passive stretches can help lengthen the fascia fibers and reduce pain over time.
- Strengthening: As with stretching, slowly strengthening the affected muscles will reduce pain.
- Dry needling: Similar to acupuncture, dry needling uses very thin needles to stimulate the affected muscles. It’s been shown to be an incredibly effective method of releasing trigger points.
- Hot and cold therapy: Both of these modalities can help reduce muscle tension and pain.
At Miss-Lou Physical Therapy, we understand that the persistent pain associated with trigger points can be incredibly frustrating. However, our holistic approach to therapy means that we also understand how the body is interconnected, and we’ll use that knowledge to better identify and treat your specific areas of tension.
What to expect from treatment at Miss-Lou Physical Therapy
We’ll always start with a comprehensive physical exam to help us locate any areas of tension throughout your body. This exam may be an uncomfortable process, as it will involve palpitating suspected trigger points to elicit a jump sign or local twitch response–two of the most common ways of diagnosing trigger points. Fortunately, this process won’t take long!
Once we understand where your areas of tension are located and whether they are active or latent, we’ll work with you to develop a comprehensive treatment plan. Treatment usually involves several approaches. For example, we might blend regular massage sessions in the clinic with stretch exercises you can do at home.
Treatment will also take place over a period of time. Unfortunately, the effects of manual therapy can take time to have lasting effects, our experts will determine a treatment duration based on your particular needs. And know that throughout the entire treatment, we’ll be here to track your progress!
Schedule your appointment for manual therapy treatments today!
At Miss-Lou Physical Therapy, we want to see you living a happy, healthy, pain-free life. We’ll work to treat your whole body.
Schedule an appointment with us today, and we’ll help you find relief from pain as quickly as we can!