Trigger points demystified

So my very first blogsday Tuesday is actually a Wednesday.

But blogsday was made for the Elizabeth and not Elizabeth for the blogsday.

Henry woke me at 4 with an ear infection so after 45 minutes of me throwing all the woo* I knew at him we went to bed.

*woo- witchcraft or some such- which in my case means natural healing arts that don't involve big Pharm.

Yesterday in particular it was garlic ear oil- I just sautéed sliced garlic in olive oil and let it cool then poured it into his ear(after I took the garlic out).

I also put some paper towel soaked in a few drops of oregano oil at the exit of his ear(after emptying it of garlic ear oil)

And then I massaged his sternocleidomastoids with deep blue and rock rub.  Trigger points in the SCMs have been known to cause headaches similar to sinus trouble and ear aches.  They come from playing on your phone too much.  Don't ask me how I know.

So this brings me to today's post.  I want to share all about my trigger point journey!

My sister Christina is a fabulous person.  And since she went to school for Physical Therapy she has had these magic hands.  She could feel these little spots within aggravated muscles and release them to begin healing.  She called them "trigger points".  I at first thought they were like pressure points- like Kung fu or whatever.  And I also thought her fingers were smarter than mine.

Well, my fingers' road to wisdom all started back over a year ago.  During Our Great ADVENTure back east to visit family during Advent 2014.  Chris did a lot of the driving since I was still nursing Alice.  The camper doesn't have the ability to recline the driver's seat that our van has since the dinette is right behind it and immovable.  So he drove most of the way across the country both ways in a cramped position.  It wreaked havoc on his back, hips, and legs.

Christina hooked me up with deep blue muscle cream and rock rub(from the same guys who make rock tape).

Most every night I would give Chris's hamstrings and calves a rub down*.  He started losing hair on his legs and getting weird aching feelings.  It was kind of scary.  His hamstrings were ridged- like a washboard.  Bump bump bump all the way from butt to knee crevice.  Slowly we worked them loose.  I kept gently telling him that it was likely his psoas giving him all this trouble.  After about 7 months he finally allowed me to access his psoas.  It greatly helped!  I learned about psoas trouble from Katysays.com

*since he was a captive audience I would listen to my FAVORITE podcast EVER! "Catholic stuff you should know".   You may want to listen to the episode entitled "pantheon"- they gave Max a shoutout per my request!

Suffice it to say- all these bed massages were leaving my shoulders a wreck.  So for Christmas I gave us a massage table.  I also bought a book about trigger points.  I knew I could demystify the magic if only I could get some knowledge put into layman's terms.  The book is geared towards self treatment so it is very full of suggestions to use a lacrosse ball and a wall- or a theracane or foam roller.  But I took these suggestions and apply them to others as well as myself.  The book is extremely user friendly.  I just look at the pain map and find the trigger point that is referring pain to the spot of complaint.  I check on the direction of the muscle fibers, then I massage inline with them short strokes that elicit a 5 out of 10 pain response and in short term cases it's easy as that- done and healed.  In more chronic cases like Chris's- it takes longer.  

For Christmas samantha got a ukulele. 

She played it for four days straight then started to complain of wrist pain.  I was still early on in the book- it goes from head to toe and I believe I was still on shoulders, but I decided to just jump to the arm section.  I asked her to point to the pain.  She pointed just below her wrist/hand crease and right smack in the middle of her wrist.  I checked the book and the pain map for that area showed the trigger point to be a place farther along her forearm.  I used the rock rub and massaged for maybe 2 minutes.  After I finished I asked her to move it around.  Her eyes lit up.  

"It feels great!"

And a rush of "this is AWESOME!" hit me.  And I was hooked.

Samantha also became a believer that day.  She returned to me a few weeks later with pain in her lower back.  We discussed what new things she had been doing.  Sit-ups and push-ups are part of her daily routine so that's not new.  Running is new as she is training for the upcoming lacrosse season- she is also cross training a bit and doing some HIIT.  Regardless of what caused it, she was in serious debilitating pain.  She laid on the couch and was afraid to move after the rosary.  So I got her back to my room and face down on the massage table.  I started feeling around and reading the book I had propped on her legs.

I thought it could be the quadratus lumborum so I felt around there.  No response.  I asked her to point at her pain spot again- it was at the top ridge of her sacrum and located to the right of the spine about 3 inches.  

So I checked the book again and the trigger point throwing the pain to that area was located in the gluteus medius.  I checked on the fiber direction and I went to it.  Immediately she was reacting so I had to go gentler- but that told me I was on the right path.  I worked on it for about 5-10 minutes with rock rub and deep blue and she got up and was amazed at the results.  

I also worked on her psoas muscles- releasing them and teaching her how to locate and release them herself.  People who sit need to learn that skill.  And chances are, you are sitting and reading this soooooo....