3 tips to prevent trigger points

Headaches, back pain, neck and shoulder pain that mysteriously appear in a repetitive pattern are often caused by trigger points. Once activated, they can be difficult to resolve, which is why, as they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Learn three ways to protect your body from these annoying sore spots.

Trigger points are tight bands or knots in a muscle that become activated and create a specific pattern of pain. The pain may be distant to the muscle that originated it and can then cause a trigger point in that muscle with a cascading effect of pain. For example, a headache that travels up the back and top of the head and focuses on one eye is commonly caused by a trigger point at the top of the shoulder blade. Many things can activate or perpetuate the points, including poor body mechanics, overuse, and cold, so it’s best to learn how to get around them.

Tip #1: Good body mechanics

When your body is misaligned, your muscles aren’t in the best position to do their jobs. This handicap makes a muscle strain and trigger point more likely. Keep the following in mind to avoid the most common posture problems.

1) As you sit, keep both feet on the floor with your pelvis level. That means you don’t flop onto your hamstrings or lean forward. When you are sitting in good alignment and pressing your feet into the ground, you will feel yourself subtly getting taller.

2) If you’ve ever been sent to back classes, you’ve been taught to use your legs to lift. Here’s a bonus tip to prevent trigger points in your neck and shoulders, anchor your shoulder blades down, then lift them up with the rest of your body: legs, core, spine, and arms. Whenever you are going to lift something heavy, shopping bags, children, furniture, spend a fraction of a second anchoring your shoulders down.

3) Standing on one leg creates weakness, not strength, unless you have your weight centered on your entire foot. It is typical to tilt the hips to one side and rest with the weight of the body supported by the knee and hip joints. Over time this leads to weakness of the hip stabilizers and trigger points which can mimic sciatica and lower back pain. The solution is to stand with your weight on both feet, centering your weight through your arches.

Tip #2: Not too much, not too little, just the right move

Once the body has developed trigger points (car accidents or chronic overuse are common causes), those muscles remain vulnerable to pain for many years. Excessive or insufficient exercise can cause muscle tension and reactivate the old pattern of pain. Therefore, it is important to be consistent with moderate exercise, not too much and not too little.

Lifting too much for a muscle’s strength can start the chain of trigger points. However, “too much” also shows up in more common activities. In the gym, just five more pounds, an extra incline on the treadmill, or an extra rep or two is enough to push you to the limit of healthy movement.

Too little movement, such as not exercising for a week or sitting at a desk for eight hours a day, is also a factor. When the body is still, the muscles, connective tissue, cartilage, and discs between the vertebrae lose their healthy consistency and increase exposure to trigger points when used.

When a muscle is stressed in any way, you’ll need to take a break from exercising for a while to let it heal. If that happens, stay active with gentle movements like undulations. Do your best to stay in the middle ground and do what is right for you.

Tip #3: stay warm

Cold is a common trigger point activator. Even a minute is enough time to spark a bad mood that will be easily triggered by some other activity. Dress in layers, so you can control your temperature. A scarf wrapped around the neck is important to prevent trigger points of the neck and shoulders. A long jacket is important if you have sore spots on your hips.

Many mysterious trigger points are caused by cold sleeping conditions. Make sure you have enough blankets and that they cover your shoulders.

Taking the time to prevent a trigger point has multiple benefits. First, you don’t have to endure the pain. Second, preventing one trigger point can prevent half a dozen, because it will prevent the cascading effect. Finally, the relief gives your muscles more time to heal, so they are less susceptible to future incidents. Improve your body mechanics, keep your activity moderate, and stay warm to keep those pesky trigger points at bay.