#fibrobug

MTPs cause more than pain. They make your muscles feel tight and restrict your range of motion. Latent versions of MTPs don’t hurt unless pressed, but active versions are more evolved. They hurt all the time without any prodding. As a fibromyalgia patient, you probably have a dozen active MTPs and another dozen latents.

Treatment Opportunities

You don’t want to stretch muscles containing MTPs without applying pressure to minimize your MTPs

Use your thumb, index finger, or a rubber ball to place pressure on your trigger points to work them out

Start with a moderate amount of pressure that produces mild discomfort. Hold that pressure for 10-12 seconds. (At first, try this in a hot tub or shower to relax your muscles and increase blood flow.)

If your pain increases, you are using too much pressure. Let the muscle relax for a minute and try it again with less pressure. The pain should lessen/release.

Next, increase the pressure by a very small amount and hold it for 10-12 seconds. You should get another release.

Repeat this procedure up to four times. The release may start to come more slowly.

After the fourth time, let go and work on another point. In a few minutes you can work on the same point again

Keep the muscle lengthened to its full comfortable stretch length while pressing on the MTP. This facilitates the effectiveness of your therapy.

MTPs contain chemicals that irritate nerve endings. They are released to the nearby tissues when the muscle fibers relax and need to be flushed away by the circulation. drink lots of water and regularly apply heat to the treated areas during the next 24 hours.

“Think of your muscles as a set of springs, with the area in the MTP being the tightest wound spring in the entire muscle,” says Headley. “If you stretch the muscle, all the other ‘springs’ will stretch before the tight spring where the taut band and the MTP are located. You will end up with an overstretched muscle, but the MTP will remain. For this reason, stretching alone should be done after the MTP has been released (i.e., worked out), or when it first starts to tighten up again.”

Perpetuating Factors

Factors that encourage the development and perpetuation of MTPs must be resolved for therapies to work. Simons’ Trigger Point Manual addresses these factors, and a summary is below. Perpetuating factors work by creating an “energy tax” . This leaves muscles more vulnerable to developing MTPs.

Mechanical Stress: Avoid working in a chair without lumbar support, performing repetitive actions, or leaning your head forward while reading.

Nutritional Inadequacies: When nutrients are low, but not necessarily deficient, these inadequacies can interfere with the resolution of the MTPs. Be sure to take a good multi-vitamin with minerals.

Metabolic Conditions: Hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, and allergies exacerbate MTPs. If you have any of these conditions, get treatment for them.

Other Factors: Chronic viral infections and impaired sleep may contribute to the perpetuation of MTPs.