Increasing Mobility with Trigger Point Dry Needling

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, approximately 20 percent of American adults experienced chronic pain in 2016. Being in pain can restrict your mobility and prevent you from carrying out daily activities. Even worse, chronic pain can lead to dependence on highly addictive opioids. If pain is keeping you on the sidelines, consider seeking trigger point therapy. With this type of physical therapy, restoring your mobility, routine, and happiness can be within your reach.

What is Trigger Point Therapy?

A trigger point is a tight band of skeletal muscle positioned within a large muscle group. Trigger points feel like knots or marbles under your skin. Besides potentially being sensitive to touch, trigger points can radiate pain to other areas of your body. Causes of them include poor posture, acute trauma, repetitive mechanical stress, and a mechanical imbalance. Trigger points work as a protective mechanism for your body. They’re a vital defense reflex that keeps your body safe. But, negative impacts occur when this reflex fails or refuses to switch off. When this happens, you might feel continuous pain and stiffness.

Trigger point therapy is a form of physical therapy that can alleviate your pain and help you get moving again. Fortunately, it can be performed on almost anyone. During trigger point therapy, your trusted, experienced physical therapist will press down on the trigger points in your muscles and hold the position. This process temporarily blocks circulation to the tissue. Cutting off circulation increases a chemical in your tissue known as nitric oxide. Nitric oxide alerts your body to release microcapillaries. This stimulates blood flow and breaks the dreaded pain-spasm-pain cycle.

What Does Trigger Point Therapy Treat?

When chronic pain patterns develop, they might be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse with most conservative treatment options. However, trigger point therapy can often be successful when other forms of traditional treatment have failed. This type of physical therapy is used to treat:

• Neck pain
• Shoulder pain
• Back pain
• Knee pain
• Headaches
• Sciatica
• Joint pain
• Muscle pain

How Can Trigger Point Therapy Improve Mobility?

Pain can make moving and performing daily tasks like brushing your teeth, typing, and climbing stairs a nightmare. If your muscles have active trigger points, they’re going to be weaker than normal muscles. These taut muscles won’t be able to achieve a full range of motion. Because they can’t perform normally, your body recruits other muscles to do the duties of the compromised ones. If your original muscles aren’t treated, the recruited ones might eventually develop trigger points themselves. Besides lessening pain, trigger point therapy enables your muscles to lengthen, soften, and become stronger. When this occurs, your mobility is improved.

If you’re battling pain, you may fret things won’t get better. Don’t despair. Trigger point therapy might be the answer you’ve been searching for. After undergoing this type of physical therapy, regaining a pain-free, active life isn’t an impossibility.

For further questions or to schedule an appointment, contact Kleinpeter Physical Therapy today!