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What are Myofascial Trigger Points?
Myofascial Trigger Points, also known simply as Trigger Points, are sore spots in the muscle tissue that feel a bit like pebbles under the skin.
Trigger points are areas of taunt, hypercontracted bands or nodules within a muscle. They’re tender to touch and have a predicted pain referral pattern. These hypercontracted nodules within the muscle are palpable and will often feel like little peas or semi-cooked spaghetti.
Latent Trigger Points
A latent trigger point means that it only sends its pain referral pattern when you touch it. For example, if you take a tennis ball and place it between your scapula and your spine, you may push into a trigger point in the rhomboids, which will give you this radiating or dull ache all over the upper back area. If you didn’t push into that area with the trigger point, you wouldn’t know it was there. This is a latent trigger point. It only refers when you press into it. As you can see, there are a few small contracted nodules within the fibers that are at normal resting length. The trigger points can be either active or latent. See our Trigger Point Map and our Trigger Point Referral Charts for a visual.
Active Trigger Points
You can find help in locating trigger points with the Trigger Point Symptom Checker. An active trigger point is one that is currently referring its myofasical pain response. A good example of this is if you’ve ever had a headache and pinched your upper traps. In doing so, you were able to produce your symptoms (i.e. the headache or that ache through the top of your head and behind your eyes). Congratulations! You found an active trigger point!
Trigger points usually can be found in clusters. So if you deactivate one you have to search out and try to deactivate the others within that muscle. This may take some time and may be very intense, so you might want to do it over a few sessions.
Another thing to consider is that trigger points aren’t just located within the belly of the muscle. They can also be located in the tendonous attachment of the muscle, and some trigger point referral patterns have even been documented in the ligaments. A good example of this is the pain referral pattern for the sacrotuberous ligament, which refers a pain pattern down the back of the leg and into the calf (similar to what people may call sciatica). Another one is the pain referral pattern for the iliolumbar ligament, which can be felt in the groin or pain on the outside of the hip (what some may diagnose as or refer to as trochanteric bursitis).
For more information about Trigger Points, go our our Trigger Point FAQ