Blog article

Some of my clients will have experienced deep tissue massage, which can sometimes be painful if I hit a specific spot. This spot is called a Trigger Point. These trigger points can be perpetuated by mechanical stresses such as poor posture, prolonged immobility or muscle overuse. Examples are sitting at a computer for too long, or overuse such as weight lifting in the gym, garden or carrying something heavy in the home. Acute trauma such as a fall or accident will also set them off as will sudden changes in climate. We have plenty of that in Australia!

No wonder shoulder pain is one of the major reasons people present for treatment.

Apart from rotator cuff tears and shoulder dislocations, the most common cause of shoulder pain is subacromial impingement. Simply put if it is painful to raise the arm up to the side in a certain way subacromial impingement may be the issue. This can occur secondary to the incorrect activation of the surrounding muscles. An inflamed supraspinatus  tendon or a bursa can be the end result. It is thus very important to use trigger point therapy and other types of massage to relax off the tight muscles and then strengthen the weak ones to rectify the situation. For some of you computer sitters, theraband use will come to mind here for strenthening.

In this scenario, most of the trigger points are found in the infraspinatus muscle( a rotator cufff muscle) and the upper trapezius( on top of the shoulder). 

For competitive swimmers shoulder pain is very common because of the internal rotation of the shoulder in freestyle. It is best to mix up swimming styles, some back stroke to open up the shoulder, to avoid this problem. Dysfunction was slightly higher than in the general population, 42-72% higher. Swimmers with pain had significantly higher numbers of trigger points in the upper trapezius, levator scapulae and infraspinatus muscles than non swimmers. Also, the number of latent trigger points was higher than in those with pain. Which means that these latent trigger points need to be deactivated before they effect the way muscles move in the shoulder or become pain producing!

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