The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, 2nd Edition

I originally purchased this book along with Body Back Buddy Classic Trigger Point Massager - Pain Relief Self Massage Tool - The Best Self Massage Tool - with a 12 page instruction booklet for my husband to use for his back pain. A few months later when I started experiencing pain in the back of my thighs, calves, and buttocks, I had to use this book too. I'd been having pain off and on in those areas for a few months and didn't think much about it because it never lasted very long and the pain would go away for months at a time then come back. Then came the day that the pain didn't go away & a deep, throbbing ache would wake me up every night. Sometimes I'd feel nauseous from the pain. I started using the Body Back Massager on my painful areas...but it didn't help. Using a heating pad & taking 2 naproxen at a time barely helped. I thought it was time for me to pull out this book and begin reading. I learned that massaging my painful areas wasn't going to relieve me of my pain...I had to massage the myofascial trigger points. In a nutshell, myofascial trigger points are tender or painful areas on muscles (when pressed firmly) that refer pain to other areas. Pressing on the trigger point will usually send pain to the very areas you're experiencing it. Once I applied the proper deep stroke massage to the trigger points (I used the Body Back Buddy Classic Trigger Point Massager - Pain Relief Self Massage Tool - The Best Self Massage Tool - with a 12 page instruction booklet ), the referred pain went away. It took about 1 1/2 days of using the proper technique for me to sleep through the night without waking up at 3 AM in pain. I still have some discomfort & will continue massaging the trigger points (I had several) at least 6 times a day. Be sure to read Chapter Three to learn the proper way to massage myofascial trigger points. Actually, I recommend reading the first 3 chapters to learn all about myofascial trigger points and some of the surprising causes: allergies, anxiety & tension, vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies, sitting too long, surgery, slings, casts, injection in the gluteal muscle, & calcium channel blockers, to name a few. Surprising myofascial trigger point symptoms range from wetting the bed, dizziness, tinnitus, carpal tunnel, swollen ankles, feet, hands or wrists, excessive eye tearing, sinus problems; for women: painful intercourse, menstrual pain, again naming a few. Even arthritis & herniated discs have trigger points, so deep stroke massage on those trigger points can diminish pain for these & other conditions. Chronic pain is also covered & is harder to treat. I highly recommend this book. It is easy to use; the myofascial trigger points are represented by black circles, the areas the trigger points refer pain to are shaded in. The book is broken down into sections such as head and neck; shoulder, upper back & upper arm; elbow forearm & hand; midback, low back, & buttock pain; to name a few, with clear illustrations throughout the book. Myofascia trigger points in the entire body are covered. Many chapters include a true life experience of someone who has experienced pain, what caused it and how they dealt with it. Also, this book shows how to use your hands, elbows, tennis balls, etc. to massage the trigger points; it also has illustrations using the Thera Cane and references the Knobble & Backnobber. In my experience the Body Back Buddy Massager worked fine. UPDATE: After finally ridding myself of the deep, aching pain that was waking me regularly, I developed off and on pain (not as bad) in another close-by area. I've had a hard time finding any trigger points, continued using the Body Back massager, and decided to add calcium supplements (recommended in this book) to my diet. I don't drink milk because I'm lactose intolerant. It seems that the calcium supplements are helping; the off & on pain is lessening. update...after using calcium citrate supplements for about a month...the off & on pain is completely gone! I never would've guessed that in each case of pain I experienced...that the solutions would've been so simple.

This book may be the best purchase I have ever made. I know that sounds extreme, but for less than the cost of a doctor visit co-payment, this book showed me how to relieve chronic pain in several areas -- pain that I had been dealing with for years. My family doctor, 3 different physical therapists, an orthopedic surgeon, and a really good chiropractor had all failed to properly diagnose and treat the problem that was causing the pain. This book showed me how to find and fix the problem myself. I was able to treat myself and completely relieve pain that I thought would never go away. I bought this book after reading reviews of some books on shoulder pain. Several people mentioned this book as a better solution. If you're one of them, THANK YOU. This book was a last-ditch effort to avoid surgery. I read the first few chapters (which provide a really thorough, easy to understand explanation of what trigger points are, what they do, and how to treat them), and then I went directly to the section that dealt with the part of the shoulder I had been having a problem with. I went down the list of muscles given for pain in that specific part of the shoulder, looked-up each of those muscles in their respective sections, feeling for trigger points where the illustrations showed that they might be; and within about 20 minutes, I was able to find and release the trigger point that had been causing me pain for many years. I then proceeded to read the whole book cover-to-cover. As I read, I felt for each of the muscles described (most of them, anyway), and checked them all for trigger points. I really wasn't expecting anything, but actually found and released several trigger points that had been causing pain that I had been sure was caused by other issues. I was able to relieve pain in my knee, foot, hip, back, neck; and now, I even know how to prevent and/or alleviate my headaches that I had previously attributed to allergies and stress -- AND I avoided shoulder surgery! I used to have to keep going back to the chiropractor to re-align my neck; but I haven't been there once since finding and fixing the trigger point that had been constantly pulling my spine out of alignment. It's been two years since I bought this book, and my shoulder still feels great. It has acted up a couple of times, but I've been able to fix it right away by simply massaging the same spot where I originally found the problematic trigger point. I have also found that by periodically massaging each of the areas where I initially found trigger points, I have been able to avoid and/or alleviate most of the common every-day aches and pains that I had become accustomed to over the years. This book is a very well-written, easy-to-follow guide that will show you how to find and treat trigger points that you (and your doctor) never knew were there. It will help you get rid of chronic pain. It will help you to understand what types of activities caused the trigger points (and how to prevent them from reoccurring). And, it will enable you to live a healthier, happier, more pain-free life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Words cannot possibly do it justice. If you have ANY chronic or recurring pain, please read this book. It could help you as much as it has helped me -- and if it doesn't, it will have cost you less than a visit to the doctor. Dr. Davies (Yes, I realize you're not an M.D.; but no "real" doctor has ever done as much for me as your book has), thank you for all of the time, effort, thought, and concern you put into your book. It was a pleasure to read, and has had a major impact on the quality of my life. I cannot thank you enough for making this information available.

I have been battling facial and TMJ pain for over eight years, and have sought the help of every kind of health care professional that I thought could possibly help relieve my nearly constant pain, all to no avail (GP, several dentists, orthodontists, a rheumatologist, a physiotherapist, and a maxillofacial surgeon). Finally, with the aid of this book, I am making steady progress in alleviating my suffering. It offers a simple, proven method for self-therapy by addressing a misunderstood and often-overlooked source of the great majority of chronic pain - trigger points that can develop in every muscle of the body. Beginning with the history of how the author came to write this book (and how he became a massage therapist because of his own chronic pain) & an explanation of the underlying theory of trigger points, the book presents a vast amount of information in a logical, clear & easily-understood manner with excellent illustrations that clarify the text. The author makes it clear that performing deep pressure massage of trigger points properly will hurt (and it does, sometimes a lot), but I have found that brief periods of medium to moderate pain are preferable to the torture of constant low-level chronic pain. A nasty old low back problem happened to return with a vengeance while I was early into the book, and I used its techniques to tackle it within a few days, killing the pain that even my chiropractor could not quell. (As explained in the book, a Theracane is necessary or at least recommended for massaging some areas, so I bought one for forty bucks - a good investment). In summary - the book is well worth the price, which is half of the cost of a single visit to my chiropractor. If my review can lead to even one other person using this book to find relief, I will consider the time spent writing it worthwhile.

簡単に言ってしまうと、マッサージのやり方が書いてある本です。 『誰でもできるトリカーホイントの探し方・治し方』という名前で翻訳もされていて、そちらは五千円を超える高価な本ですが、それでも非常に評価が高いです。 首痛、腰痛や五十肩などに代表される慢性的な筋肉の痛みのほとんどはトリガーポイントという筋肉が凝った部分が出来るために生じるのであり、そこをほぐしてやれば首痛、腰痛や五十肩などは改善する、という理屈にもとづいて、身体のある部分に痛みがある場合、身体のどの部分をどのようにマッサージすればいいか、誰にでも分かるように多くの図を使ってわかりやすく解説しています。 ちなみに拳銃の引き金のことも英語でトリガーといいますが、まさに痛みの引き金となっているのがトリガーポイントだということです。 やっていることの外形を見れば似たようなもんですが、日本で主流のツボや経絡を中心に刺激するあんま、指圧系のマッサージとは、原理的には全く違うものです。 トリガーポイントの理屈を前提に、痛みの緩和という場面だけに限って両者を比較すると、ツボを刺激し気の流れをよくすることによってトリガーポイントの凝りがほぐれることを期待するツボや経絡を刺激する従来型のマッサージより、痛みの原因のトリガーポイントをじかにほぐすトリガーポイントセラピーのほうが、より痛みにたいして直接的なセラピーだということになるのではないかと思います。 この本の特徴は、セルフケアに重点が置かれてるところです。 背中などの自分の手が届きにくい部分は道具を使ってマッサージをする方法が詳しく書かれています。 セラケーンという道具を使った方法が多いですが、テニスボールなどを使用する方法なども解説されています。 ツボ押しのための道具でも代用できるかと思い試してみましたが、ツボ刺激を目的とする器具は先端が尖っているものが多いので、トリガーポイントをほぐすのには向いていません。 セラケーンか、類似品でより多機能なボディーバックバディー（どちらもアマゾンで購入可能）のような、先端があまり尖っていない丸まっているものが適していると思います。 ちなみに私はボディーパックバディーを購入しました。 実際にこの本の指示通りにマッサージをしたところ、かなりの即効性があります。 数日やっただけで頑固な首の痛みがかなり軽減し、固まっていた肩の関節がかなり緩んできたような気がします。 数週間続ければ、日常生活ではほとんど気にならないレベルまで痛みが軽減するのではないかと思います。 英語が読める方であれば、原本で読まれた方がかなり安上がりで、日本語訳との差額にわずかにプラスするだけでセラケーンかボディーバックバディーのどちらかまで購入できます。 全身の筋肉の名前やいろいろな身体の症状など、一般書ではあまりお目にかからない単語も多く出てきますが、図を使った解説が多いので、そんなに難しくはありません。 医療系の勉強をされている方などは、図入りの解説で筋肉の名前が覚えられていいのではないでしょうか 医学の専門書ではなく、一般向けに書かれた本なので、語彙以外に難しいところはありません。 英語が読める方で、首痛、肩こり、腰痛などの症状に苦しんでるかたには是非おすすめしたい本です。 英語が読めない方も、五千円以上出して日本語訳を買っても損はしないと思います。 ちなみに本書の翻訳をした同じメンバーが、「誰でもできるトリガーポイントの探し方・治し方 【腰痛】」という紛らわしい名前の本も翻訳していますが、これは"Trigger Point Therapy for Low Back Pain: A Self-Treatment Workbook"という違う著者の本の翻訳（ちなみにこの本も評価が高い）。 この本の著者の"The Frozen Shoulder Workbook: Trigger Point Therapy for Overcoming Pain & Regaining Range of Motion"という肩の症状に特化した著作の日本語訳は、現在のところまだ出ていないようです。

Everybody needs to be aware of trigger points and their profound importance on pain and health.Clair Davies has written a very important book on this based on his experience as a therapist and inspired by Travell and Simons's original book on myofascial pain. I found this book recently as I was researching my hip problems. I had suddenly developed pain in my buttocks, hip and knee for no obvious reason. I rapidly became unable to climb stairs and walking just a few yards had my bum muscles screwed up so badly I could not walk further. My sciatic nerve was firing with any movement causing me a great deal of pain. My GP thought it was tendinitis and it would probably sort itself out... After six weeks of misery I found this book, diagnosed myself (piriformis syndrome) and started self treatment. The book is so easy to use: I found the offending trigger points in my gluteus muscles and worked on them all day. By evening I had cleared them well enough to walk and use the stairs. I was ecstatic. Over the last six weeks I have been getting better and better, but I am left with the inescapable thought: WHY THE HELL DON'T THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS KNOW ABOUT TRIGGER POINTS? (It appears that 80% of all muscular pain is related to trigger points.) Isn't it time they got on board? Excellent book: cannot recommend it enough!

J'ai commandé cet ouvrage en 2009 pour traiter une tendinite invalidante et récalcitrante au coude (partie médiale). Guérie en une seule journée et n'est plus jamais réapparue, un vrai miracle! Cet ouvrage est très complet et richement illustré, même si les illustrations ne sont pas particulièrement sexy et sont en noir et blanc. Le format large est bien adapté. Outre le traitement des trigger points, l'auteur donne également des conseils pour prévenir leur formation. Au final, un des ouvrages les plus utiles que j'ai lus.

Recommended by my massage therapist so I ordered it and am glad that I did. Understanding your trigger points is the point of departure for improving your health.