TRIGGER POINTS AND DRY NEEDLE
“I have a contracture here, if I touch it it hurts and it’s hard! I feel like something is jumping, like a rope, and if I squeeze right here, I feel a point of very intense pain, I even feel like it is going down…” Here is a classic symptom of myofascial pain!
This skipping rope or taut band is formed in the muscle and involves only a certain number of muscle fibers. In the area of maximum tension is where this point of intense pain is formed, the myofascial trigger point (PMG).
At Somsalut we come across these “nice” points every day, today we will tell you a little more about them:
MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER POINT (PMG)
The PGM is a painful nodule that if we stimulate it (with palpation, compression, contraction, or stretching) gives us pain on a local scale, in the same area, and referred to a different and/or distant region.
It can also cause significant motor disturbances :
- Muscle weakness
- Alteration of the function of the muscle and that it fatigues more quickly and its recovery is slower.
- Muscle cramps and can limit movement.
PGs can be activated by :
- Muscle overload
- Stress
- Immobilizations or sustained compressions of the muscle
- Falls or trauma
- Repetitive movements, following surgical interventions, etc.
MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER POINT (PMG)
Dry puncture , one of the techniques we use in this center to treat PGM:
In physiotherapy, there are several manual and instrumental techniques to neutralize these PGM, and thus recover the strength and elasticity of the muscle, so that all the affected fibers return to their normal state and recover the efficiency of their function. One is dry needling.
Dry needling is an invasive technique, as a needle is inserted into the muscle. Its target is the PGM. It is entered and exited dynamically. Without removing the needle, the aim is to provoke a local spasm response, a sudden and momentary contraction of the muscle fibers that belong to the tight band we are working on.
Immediately after pricking we will notice that the taut band will have decreased the tension, the rope will be looser, the intensity of the pain point will have decreased.
Then, the treatment continues by performing manual therapy and re-educating the muscle in the motor area , in order to integrate all the work done.
You already know one more technique to treat these points that cause you pain and alter the function of your musculoskeletal system. Punch for health!