How to treat your own Knots and Trigger Points.

A tool to help trigger points - click picture

A knot is simply where a very localised section (or portion) of muscle has gone into a heavy spasm.

Everyone gets them and they tend to occur in very common areas.

One of the most common places that people get trigger points is the area just between the shoulder blades - running up to the base of the neck.

This blog post is going to teach you a very quick and practical way in which you can treat your own trigger points and knots - all you will need to do this is a tennis ball.

Before you read the rest of this post have a read of a previous post I wrote called - What is a trigger point (or Knot).

Trigger points respond very well to having direct pressure applied to them - this is something that you can do at home yourself. This can be supplemented with Sports Massage sessions at a sport's injury's or massage clinic.

This principle is very simple: you use a tennis ball (or 'back nobber' - pictured above) to apply pressure to your trigger points, in a kneading fashion.

How do I do it? The easiest way to apply the pressure is by trapping a tennis ball between a wall and your back (the area between the shoulder blades). You will need to make sure you have the ball positioned over a trigger point, though bear in mind you may have more than one trigger point in this area.

Once you have you have positioned the ball in the right place you should gently move side to side over the trigger point. This movement will be very small. If you have more than one trigger point, repeat the exercise where necessary.

How do I know I'm on a trigger point? This is simple. The areas that are tender will be the trigger points. As you move over them you might feel the tennis ball bump over the knot. You may have to move around a little to find the epicentre, but generally your instincts will tell you where to work.

How much pressure should I use? On a scale of 1-10 (1 = no pain / 10 = excruciating pain) aim for the mid numbers - 4, 5 or 6 - on that scale. You may feel like you want to go higher but avoid outright pain. A 'good discomfort' or a 'releasing discomfort is what you should be aiming for.

How long should I do this for? In the region of 1-5mins per trigger point. The main aim is to reduce your discomfort levels at the trigger point by about 50% before you move on to the next one. Ideally you will want to do this daily.

Finally, if your discomfort levels with the trigger points go up, it's likely you've used too much pressure initially. Leave the area for a couple of days to let it settle and try again with lighter pressure. If you are still having problems at that point then send us an email.