I was lying face down on my stomach while my girl dug the point of her elbow into my shoulder blade. I had tried returning to the gym, only to be crippled by a high school football injury. “It’s just a pinched nerve,” some moronic coach told me when my entire right arm went numb during practice
The “pinched nerve” would resurface whenever I’d begin strength training. I was out of the gym for a year or two until learning something doctors didn’t – that there was a solution to a debilitating problem.
What doctors and other quacks call “pinched nerves,” “tendonitis,” and other nonsensical terms are more often compacted muscle tissue that can be unknotted. You just need a workbook, a tennis ball (you later graduate to a lacrosse ball), and a willingness to undergo extreme short-term pain in order to relieve chronic nagging pain.
When there’s trauma to the body, muscles stop firing. When muscles stop firing, painful knots begin the form. What’s worse is that these knots start pulling the rest of the body out of alignment.
The body is a unit. Everything is connected. A tight subscapularis leads to tennis elbow, which leads to carpal tunnel syndrome.
A piano maker turned physical therapist, Clair Davies wrote The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief (Second Edition) after observing and experiencing chronic pain. He learned that pain is caused by “trigger points” within muscles.
The workbook explains the cause of numerous ailments. Headaches are often caused by trigger points, although most of my injuries are from the gym and using a laptop.
Trigger point therapy – also called “self-myofascial release” – has changed my life. I recently had a shoulder impingement that kept me from doing overhead presses. After some painful sessions with a lacrosse ball, it was better.
There are specific tools the trigger point therapists recommend:
- Trigger Point Performance Self Myofascial Release Starter Set (here)
- Theracane (here)
- Triggerwheel (here)
- Trigger Point Performance The Grid Revolutionary Foam Roller (here)
I have all of those toys but actually prefer this lacrosse ball and good old fashioned foam rolling.
On my off day I’ll often go into the gym just to foam roll and do self-myofascial release. When I feel an injury come on, then I do short bouts of trigger point therapy several times a day. (Each “session” only takes 15-30 seconds.)
If your body is screwed up, look into trigger point therapy. You won’t regret it.
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That sounds like a good description of what Airrosti docs do. I have had very good results with them. Hurts like hell, but the long term results are well worth it.
I’ve had active release therapy done, too. Heard good things about rolfing. Many problems can be treated at home, though, using self-therapy.
This book literally changed my life. I was getting crippling headaches every time I worked out, and after weeks of fruitless doctor visits and scans, someone handed me this book and I got rid of them forever in a day.
Turns out the headaches were caused by a golf-ball sized knot in my right trap.
That’s crazy, huh? My ex had TMJ. Dentist said, “No cure, Wear a mouth guard, or maybe an expensive an invasive therapy.”
She had active release therapy done and was cured after 5 (horrible, painful, but effective) sessions.
Many “medical conditions” are due to knots/trigger points. Doctors are practically worthless.
Encouraging to see this show up on this side of the net and hear some success stories.
I’ve had mysterious chronic pelvic pain for about 1.5 years that came out of nowhere, which includes hypersensitivity and extreme pins-and-needles irritation of my dick. Any strength training whatsoever makes it worse, so I can’t really train either.
I’ve been using this book, a theracane, and another book along with some stretching exercises for a couple months with no improvement. I figure I’ll give it at least a couple months more before going to the next idea.
I saw a physical therapist that did similar work on me that I think did help a little (for a little while), but I don’t think the results warranted the $75 / hr fee versus just doing it myself with a theracane at home. In addition, at least with my condition, I’ve read that TP therapy really should be done every day, even multiple times a day if possible — which makes going to a physical therapist prohibitive.
Find a guy who does Active Release Technique. http://www.activerelease.com
He can get into the really deep stuff. Then you do self-therapy at home on your own.
Man, good timing on this article. I majorly fucked up a tendon in my hand and it’s kept me from lifting most upper body exercises for a month now. I have next to zero faith in the medical profession, so I’m going to check into this.
It’s hard to tell when it’s a tendon issue or a trigger point. I thought my elbow had some nasty tendonitis going on. The book showed a bunch of exercises. I did them and it’s mostly gone. Turns out there was a huge knot on the inside of my arm where my elbow bends. It wasn’t a tendon issue at all.
Hope that’s the case with you as well.
Remember that the original trigger point therapy is acupuncture. It’s often far more effective and with less pain than active release treatments, thought I swear by ART as well.
The stainless needles that acupuncturists use cause local cell depolarization and a whole host of other anti-inflammatory effects, they are the trigger point treatment gold standard.
Acupuncture is great for relaxing and detoxing but it doesn’t cut it for big boy injuries.
This is a bit offtopic, but do you have any experience with Atlas realignment?
I’ve had spine problems since childhood, and the stupid docs said that one of my legs is shorter and there’s nothing I can do about (except for surgery of course). That condition has caused my a lot of pain in my knees when I was working out or running and my balance was always off. Lately, lower back pain has started to appear when I walk a lot.
I’ve read some good things about Atlas realignment and it looks like my problems could be solved by doing it (it looks like my whole body is out of alignment due to disjoint atlas, including my pelvis and hence the shorter leg syndrome) but I’m looking for more information and/or firsthand experience.
Never heard of it. How much of a difference is there between legs? I have to wear a shoe lift in my right shoe as I have a 2 cm differential btw right and left legs.
I don’t remember exactly since I’ve had this from childhood, but I think my left leg is about 1 cm shorter. I also have something similar to flat feet or whatever they call it. I had to wear shoe lifts in both of my shoes because of all these problems; they helped but they aren’t going to solve the actual underlying issue. I stopped wearing shoe lifts a year ago to see how I would do without them – no change, for better or worse, so I just walk without them these days since I have trouble finding appropriate shoes for them.
Atlas realignment is popular now, but there is a lot of new-age hype about it so I dismissed it at first, but lately my interest has been rekindled. Some people swear it has changed their lives dramatically. I’ll try it one day for sure, but it seems like the recovery period after the adjustment can get rough, so I’m fishing for more info.
My father is 70 yrs old and gets rid of lots of pain doing exercises from that book. He had a sore throat the other week and went to the doctor. They gave him painkillers which didn’t work. He massaged a point on his throat for a few minutes and the pain was gone.
Sometimes that pain in the right shoulder blade trap is a sign of a compromised gall-bladder. My naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist told me about this. It can feel just like a knot, if not worse.
If we are using a high protein diet and possibly higher fat intake to build muscle this becomes an issue. The remedy is to occasionally do a gall bladder cleanse every other week. You will digest better and thus enhance your absorption anyway. If your gall bladder is especially bad, you might have to spend a few days or weeks to start clean.
Whenever i feel what was once called my knot, i do the cleanse and it goes away.
You do not want to loose your gallbladder as it is very important for digestion. If it is clogged you can get infections and that is where the problem is. You should also cleanse it if you have been sick or taken any medications.
Search around for a natural method, there are many.
Great advise. If you buy a roller get the firmest one you can. Mine is almost solid foam. Also look into “The Stick”. It is a massage stick. They work awesome. Buy the firmer models as well. I think they have one specific for lifters.
Here’s another tip for those knots in your back: put a golf ball between you and a wall. Roll the sore area on it. The golf ball is a lot more effective than a tennis ball.