Headaches & Trigger Points

One trigger point that I suffer from quite often (probably from my terminal phone use and every day computer use) is in the upper trapezius. You can read more about this muscle by following the link (click on the title of the post) to TriggerPointProducts.com's Symptom Checker above.

I find that when these trigger points are activated, I can have headaches that seem to radiate over my head from my upper neck. Sometimes I can feel the trigger point burning with pain, which is my final signal to start some self-treatment.

Jeff Lutz turned me on to the backknobber by Pressure Positive. We offer this tool on our site as well: http://www.triggerpointproducts.com/self-treatment-tools/the-original-backnobber-ii.html

The simple design makes it easy to locate and compress trigger points located and its disassembly feature makes it convenient to use on the go.

Once you locate the trigger point with the backknobber, apply pressure so that you don't take the pain above a 4 or 5 on your pain scale.

Compress the trigger point and hold until the pain begins to subside – as little as 10-15 seconds and up to a few minutes. When the pain begins to subside, more pressure may be applied to take the pain back up to a 4/5 and held until it subsides again. Do this release 2 or 3 times over each trigger point and then gently stretch the muscle and then apply moist heat for 10 to 20 minutes.

The best moist heating pack we have found is the Thermophore made by Battle Creek Equipment Company. You can find that on our website at http://www.triggerpointproducts.com/heating-pads/medium-automatic-moist-heat-pack.html

Please let me know if you have any questions....I will make sure they get answered by one of our professionals!