Muscle Pain

Myofascial and Trigger Point Muscle Pain Syndrome, Muscle stiffness, Muscle Ache, Muscle Pain

Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) is muscles and connective tissues (which make up the fascia) develop what's called a trigger point (TrP). (These are not the same as FMS tender points.) A trigger point is a small, hard knot that you can sometimes feel under your skin. The knot itself can be painful, especially when pressed, but it often causes pain in another area, which is called referred pain.

Trigger points typically form as a result of trauma to the tissue, either repetitive (micro) or blunt (macro). It is suggest that the muscle trauma causes a histo-neuro physiological dysfunction causing a hyperirritability to the muscle. In the simple way, the cells in the muscle are damaged causing muscle fiber contraction, which compresses the blood supply causing an “energy crisis”. The energy crisis causes a release of neurochemical causing pain.

Myofascial Trigger points: A hyperirritable spot in a skeletal muscle that is associated with a hypersensitivities palpable nodule in a taut band. The spit is painful on compression and can give rise to characteristic dysfunction referred pain and referred tenderness. Types of trigger points include: active, associated, central, primary and satellite.

Treatment: Treatment can vary from a pharmacological approach, which rarely works, to skilled trigger point and myofascial release therapy. Myofaascial release is different from “massage” and should not be confused as the same. Myofascial release is therapeutic and curative in nature.