Your complete guide to (myofascial) trigger points
Trigger points are those tender lumps in muscles that therapists find. This article covers what they are, what they do, and how they are... Read Article
Massage is widely recommended for the treatment of shoulder pain, but does it work? Yes it does, but only if you use specific trigger point therapy rather than general massage. According to the large number of clinical trials
If you have shoulder pain we want it to get better, so in this article we will show you the following.
We will show you why why massages just give short term relief, and how to do the more effective trigger point therapy.
We will show you the other causes of shoulder pain, including the two most important causes of shoulder pain that doctors commonly miss.
In this section we show you the commonly prescribed shoulder pain remedies that are of little use and can actually cause harm
As this conclusion from a scientific review of the 12 available clinical trials of massage for shoulder pain found, massage usually only gives short term relief and no improvement in function (1).
While the clinical trial results for general massage were not very encouraging therapy directed at trigger points gave much better results (2–4). To help you with trigger points we share the following resources.
Trigger points are those deep tender lumps in your muscles that shoot pain when pressed upon. As we’ll discuss later in the section on overlooked caused of shoulder pain they cause pain by both:
For further information please see our resource article: What are trigger points
For an evaluation of the professional therapies please see our article: What is the best trigger point therapy
There are very effective self trigger point therapies. We we encourage you to look at these to save money and enable you to get he amount of care you need to get properly better. Because there is a lot of practical demonstration involved we put together this video and a quick reference summary.
Why we use vibration massage
We apply trigger point therapy with a vibration massager because it is:
• highly effective
• penetrates better
• safer, with no pain
• extremely easyThe basic technique
• find the trigger point
• apply vibration massage for 30-60 secondsThe individual shoulder muscles
Scientists have found that trigger points in any of 17 different muscles can cause shoulder pain. In the video we show how to do trigger point therapy on each.
How to stay safe and get the best results
Continue regular treatment
The initial trigger point therapy just relieves pain. Continue the therapy to eliminate the trigger points completely.
Do not use a massage gun (percussion massager)
percussion massagers are designed to pummel the muscle rather than deliver therapeutic vibrations, making them a lot less effective and potentially harmful.
How to find a suitable vibration massager
Unfortunately most massagers available are either massage guns, ineffective consumer massagers, or both. For how to choose a safe effective machine please see How to choose a massager. The machines we had purpose built got this therapy are:
Medical journals and medical education are heavily influenced by drug companies so doctors often don’t get told about anything that would reduce the sale of drugs. In the case of shoulder pain the two main scientifically proven causes of shoulder pain are omitted, and instead doctors are encouraged to prescribe useless drugs and therapies. To help you evaluate the resulting advice, we
For full details please see our article Why shoulder pain keeps coming back.
Many scientific trials have shown that having a head forward posture as pictured is a major cause of shoulder pain (5–11). This causes abnormal stress on the shoulder muscles and joint. Instead of being mentioned in medical journals doctors are trained to recognise the damage this causes (eg. impingement syndromes) and treat the symptoms.
As mentioned above trigger points can cause shoulder pain by
In a series of trials, highly credentialed scientists have found that they are are a major cause of shoulder pain, and that treating them gives excellent relief (2–4,12–15). However, this is usually not mentioned in medical journals (16–18)
Despite being confidently prescribed, this research summary taken from the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (19) sums up how useful and “scientific” most of the medically prescribed shoulder pain therapies are.
The prescription of exercises to “correct” shoulder function deserves a special mention. Put simply, issues such as having a head forward posture or trigger points cause shoulder joints to function abnormally, creating abnormal stress and pinching that can eventually become painful. Exercises are prescribed rather than remove these impediments to normal function. Of course with the impediments still there function cannot return to normal so the shoulder continues to move in the same damaging way. It is not surprising that one trial of 148 patients found that both a supervised rehabilitation program and a home exercise program actually made the shoulder pain worse (20).
DrGraeme massagers were originally built by Dr Graeme for use in his clinic, and to prescribe to his patients for additional self use at home. Now these are used by colleagues and other professionals for similar purposes. If you are a professional and wish to know more about this therapy, or possibly get a sample massager to trial please check out our practitioner page.
We are continually adding more information on research and uses. Subscribe below to have us email them to you "hot off the press".
Several years ago Dr Graeme, a Chiropractor practicing in Victoria, Australia was looking for a serious hand held massager his patients could use at home to get the extra quality massage they needed. The ones he found in the shops and on-line for home use looked nice but were not serious, and... read more
Trigger points are those tender lumps in muscles that therapists find. This article covers what they are, what they do, and how they are... Read Article
Massage for shoulder pain is widely recommended for the treatment of shoulder pain. However, the large number of clinical trials... Read Article
Most professional athletes and sports clubs make heavy use of massage type treatments. The ability to do self massage using a hand held... Read Article
In this summary we investigate the science behind the use of vibration massage. This helps us envisage uses and to develop protocols. ... Read Article
If you’ve got tennis elbow you’ve probably been told that it is inflamed due to overuse, and that it can take a lot of therapy and 6-12... Read Article
Massage for shoulder pain is widely recommended for the treatment of shoulder pain. However, the large number of clinical trials... Read Article
Cellulite is a very common problem which can be unsightly and have unpleasant symptoms. Common treatments include lasers, needles,... Read Article
There are many possible causes of muscle fatigue, but by far the most common cause of muscle fatigue, but the most common and probably... Read Article
In the one clinical trial that directly compared massage and anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) for back pain massage gave the far superior... Read Article
Massage guns are heavily marketed as a substitute for professional therapists, providing benefits such as sports recovery and pain... Read Article
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