May 2010

How you can Treat Trigger Points to Relieve Wrist Pain

by Jonathan

trigger points forearm radiating to fingers 0

trigger points to relieve wrist pain 6

Wrist pain is often caused by trigger points located in your forearm . These forearm muscles work hard during the day to control your wrist, often with both finely tuned and powerful movements.

And while wrist pain is common, most people look only at the wrist itself when they’re trying to find the cause. But this isn’t always the place to be looking.

The most common muscles to get triggers are your forearm extensors. These are located in the top of your forearm, and they pull the hand and fingers upwards.

The reason they are more likely to get triggers is that they’re not as powerful as the strong forearm flexors, but they’re used more often.

Especially now, with so many people working long hours at intensive wrist work like typing, the forearm extensors get a major workout.

Also, the modern touch keyboard and particularly the mouse require tiny wrist movements. So you can spend many hours with your arm and hand held in a position of tension making tiny concentrated movements. And this can set off trigger points which then cause pain in your wrist.

Trigger points in your forearm can also cause pain radiating to your fingers. They’re not the only muscles that can do this though. When you’re holding tension in your arm, there are other muscles that have to work hard.

Tension in your forearm can get transferred up into your neck, chest and shoulders. So, certain muscles in your neck like the scalene, muscles in your chest wall like the pectoralis minor can also get triggers. Trigger points in these muscles can and do cause pain that runs all the way down your arm and into your hand.

To relieve pain in your wrist, you first need to figure out where to find the trigger points. Or you could have a look at triggerpointmaps.com

As you’ll see, some muscles far up in your arm can refer pain right down to your wrist, and sometimes even radiating into your fingers.

Then to treat them, try using the principles of ischemic pressure.

How to Prevent Wrist Pain Trigger Points

The first step is to watch what movement bring on your wrist pain – it’s likely the same movement that’s causing your triggers.

Musicians – check your technique for unnecessary tension. For typists – make sure your chair’s at the right height for your desk and you have a good sized mouse.

Lastly, remember to take micropauses during tasks and take proper breaks from your work, stretch, and relax.

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Which Trigger Points can Cause Jaw Popping and Pain

by Jonathan

Jaw pain and jaw popping are common symptoms of what’s called TMJ, or Temporomandibular joint disorder. Now, TMJ can be very closely linked to trigger points in your jaw muscles, and the reason why is clear when you look at how the jaw joint works.

The jaw joint is one of the most complex in the body and certainly gets a lot of use in talking, eating, drinking and breathing.

There is something unique in the jaw joint. It has small piece of cartilage that flips back and forwards to take up the extra room in the joint that’s created when you open and close your mouth.

There is just one muscle – the lateral pterygoid – which attaches to cartilage within the joint. It is vital for the proper functioning of this joint. So when you have problems they often occur when this muscle is not moving the cartilage correctly.

The cartilage can get stuck and this will cause the joint to lock. It may not move smoothly and become caught in its path, which causes the popping sensation or noise as you open your jaw.

So there’s a piece of cartilage that needs to move smoothly for your jaw to function. That’s one issue. But there’s more to it than that.

The jaw moves in 3 dimensions – up, down, forward and back. We use it a lot, and each movement on the one side of the jaw needs to be perfectly mirrored on the other side.

So with all this complexity of movement, you need a number of muscles to control the joint and they all need to dance together with a fluid complex rhythm.

The main jaw muscles are: (You can find these muscles – using the Trigger Point Finder.)

masseter
temporalis
sternocleidomastoid
lateral pterygoid
medial pterygoid

All these muscles need to work together in harmony for your jaw to work properly.

When you do find you have jaw pain, it could very well be referred pain from trigger points in the jaw muscles. It can manifest as jaw pain, ear pain, cheek pain. Problems in your jaw joint can also cause you difficulty when you chew, or open and close your mouth.

Another strong link between TMJ and jaw muscle triggers is bruxism – constant chewing or grinding your teeth .This occurs often in your sleep. It puts a lot of strain both on your jaw joint and on the muscles that control it.

What you can do to Help Prevent Jaw Pain

It’s important here to work on finding natural movement. When you have a popping jaw, the temptation is to play with it – keep popping it.

Find the path of movement where it doesn’t pop, and stick to that. Our muscles are very good at adjusting for smooth movement, provided we give them the right commands.

Work on relaxing your jaw whenever possible. Become aware of your movements – especially the ones that used to be unconscious.

Treat triggers where you can find them, and do gentle stretches. Putting soft heat (like a towel wrapped hot water bottle or wheat bag ) on your jaw before you go to bed can also be helpful – relaxing your muscles before sleep.

If you wish to learn more about how to diagnose and treat these trigger points – you might want to check out my Trigger Point Course.

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Why you can get a Headache from Myofascial Pain

headache from myofascial pain 0 There are a number of myofascial triggers that may cause headaches. Some are found in your head, but the most common ones are found in your neck and shoulders. So, in order of probability, the most likely myofascial trigger muscles that can cause headaches are: 1. The Trapezius 2. Suboccipitals 3. [...]

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