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Oh, contraire, you’ve just found a trigger point and touching it is how you release it.
Trigger points are those tight painful knots in your muscles that cause pain where they reside or in other parts of the body. For instance, a knot in a certain muscle in the calf can actually cause pain in the low back.
For example, if you have trigger points in your hamstrings, you probably can’t touch your toes. Not to mention that these trigger points are likely causing neighbouring muscles to overwork, leading to more trigger points, which compounds, causing even less range of motion and more painful knots.
It results in an escalating cycle of pain, fatigue, weakness, and stiffness that we often attribute to old age. You know, ‘I used to be able to do that when I was younger, but I can’t anymore.’
I say, forget that! Reclaim your youthful, pain-free, flexible movements by becoming aware of your trigger points and then working at releasing them.
The feet are the perfect place to begin, especially if you have plantar fasciitis or heel spurs. In other words, awful heel pain that drives you nuts every time you take a step. News flash to the pain weary: If a trigger point is involved, your heel pain is releasable. You don’t have to live with it anymore.
To release your feet, you’ll need a hi-bounce rubber ball. The small energetic kind the kids love to play with. You can pick a golf-ball sized one up for about a dollar or two.
Put the ball on a hard floor, no rugs. You’re going to step on the ball, paying attention to placement because contact with the trigger point is crucial to successful release. Don’t put the ball right against the heel, instead, move the ball slightly forward, so it’s almost but not on the junction of where your heel turns into your arch. Now step on the ball, slowly transferring more of your weight onto that foot. If you’re feeling trigger point pain, awesome, hold there for a minute, then move the ball slightly to either side of that spot and work again.
No pain? Well, that means no trigger point. And believe me, there’s no mistaking trigger point pain, it’ll bring tears to your eyes and shouts of disbelief to your lips.
You can also try working the ball in the arch of the foot because most people do have trigger points in this area. However, the pain referral patterns here are to the ball of the foot, not the heel.
For further heel-pain release, you’ll need to work the calf muscles, too. You might not know it, but many calf muscles move or control various parts of the feet. This means your toes are able to point and curl because of help from muscles in the calf. First, two cautions: don’t use excessive force on the calf and don’t apply pressure to varicose veins, ever!
A gentle method for calf-muscle release is to lie on your back, bend your knees, then place your right calf on your left knee. Gently go over the entire calf with your knee, working out those tender knots and tight places.
If you’re interested in a book on the topic, I recommend Clair Davies’ The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook.
The new therapy, Massage Cupping, a method that uses Chinese Medicine cups to release tight and knotty tissue, is an extremely effective and much less painful way for your massage therapist to release your trigger points. For more info check the article Massage Cupping to Release Trigger Points.
Happy releasing.
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Photo Credit: Steven Kapinos
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