What Are Trigger Points & Why Are They Responsible For My Back Pain?

Have you ever suffered with low backpain? If you have you’re not alone. At some point in our lives, everyone of us will experience back pain. It will interfere with work, recreation, daily activities and more. Americans spend approximately $50 billion each year to relieve back pain. It is themost common cause of work-related disability and a leading cause of missed work. After headache, back pain is the second most common pain complaint in the UnitedStates. For many, back pain resolves within a few days. For others, pain is persistent, lastingfor years. Chronic back pain is defined as pain persisting for more than 3 months. At this stage,if the source is not identified and properly treated, degenerative processes begin to develop including arthritis, bulging or herniated disks and depression. Clearly, the longer pain persists, the worse it becomes. Acute back pain often becomes chronic when we hold the belief, “It’ll just go away on its own.” We mask the problem with over-the-counter pain remedies or prescription medication while waiting for the pain to just “disappear.” By the time we realizethe pain hasn’t resolved, it has exceeded three months duration, transitioning to the chronic stage.

Sound familiar? Another cause of transitioning acute back pain to chronic is ineffective treatments targeting symptoms, usually just the pain site,while failing to properly identify the root cause. Such is often the case with pain produced by Myofascial Trigger Points.

Trigger Points are hypersensitive, self sustained contraction knots that develop in muscle. They cause a shortening in the length of the muscle called a taut band which in turn restricts range of motion.When these knots (or taut bands that harbor them) are stimulated by contracting or stretching, pain is produced and referred in predictable patterns away from the Trigger Point. More than 85% of the time, Trigger Points are not found at the site of the pain! And,they don’t show up on x-rays or an MRI. Ineffective treatments usually result from treating the site of the pain when the source is actually elsewhere.

Take a moment to look at the illustration; the ‘X’ identifies the location of the TriggerPoint while the red area defines the resulting referred pain. Note the vertical back pain shown. The pain is being referred from a Trigger Point at the front ofthe spine found in the psoas muscle (pronounced“so-as”). The horizontal pain across the mid and low back is referred from a Trigger Point in the abdomen! also at the front of the body. In both cases, patients with pain patterns such as these are typically treated at the back where the pain is and not at the source, the Trigger Point at the front of the body. While treating the back for back pain makes sense for temporary relief, treating the source of pain always provides permanent pain relief.

If you have chronic back pain, and are looking for a permanent holistic solution to balance the bones and muscles in your body, give me a call for a complimentary assessment. I can test your alignments easily and safely AND without causing you further pain. From these assessments, I can tell you whether trigger point myofascial therapy is a good option for your pain. We work on all areas of the body including the shoulder and knee so give us a call today!

Jessica Williams B.S. NASM CES PES CPT

Carolina Personal Trainer

336 554 3640

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