Book description from the back cover:
Trigger point therapy is one of the most intriguing and fastest-growing bodywork styles in the world. Medical doctors, chiropractors, and alternative health practitioners are all beginning to use this technique to relieve joint and muscle pain—conditions that studies have shown to be the cause of nearly 25 percent of all doctor visits.
Doctors who specialize in pain treatment suggest that myofascial trigger points, or small contraction knots in muscles, are the primary cause for about 75 percent of chronic pain cases. They further report finding trigger points in virtually every patient they treat.
Because trigger points nearly always refer pain to parts of the body other than where they’re located, diagnosing and treating them is difficult—if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
This workbook teaches you exactly what to look for when assessing trigger points. Its clear illustrations show you where on the body trigger points form and the corresponding areas to which they refer pain. Then, in step-by-step detail, it explains how you can treat these sources of chronic pain with unusually effective techniques of self-applied massage.
The first edition of The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook has made a huge impact in the use of this dynamic technique. This is the first major revision of the overnight classic—a complete update that includes a new chapter specifically for massage professionals who want to include trigger point therapy in their practices. A second new chapter presents the author’s innovative system of muscle relaxation that can reinforce the therapeutic power of trigger point work.
If you’ve struggled with chronic pain without finding relief, you owe it to yourself to learn and practice the techniques in this workbook—easy, reliable skills that offer real, lasting relief without drugs, doctor visits, and costly medical bills.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A word from author Clair Davies... If you’re a long-time chronic pain sufferer, you’re probably beginning to wonder whether anyone really knows anything about pain. You may have spent thousands of dollars on pain treatments. You may have tried everything the healthcare establishment has to offer. And you still hurt! Don’t give up quite yet. You need to find out about trigger points and referred pain. You may not have heard of trigger points. If not, you’ll be surprised to learn that trigger points are actually the cause of pain roughly 75 percent of the time and are part of nearly every pain problem. This is based on decades of research by Doctors Janet Travell and David Simons, authors of the medical textbook, Myofascial Pain & Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. My book is founded on Travell and Simons' research, but it's Travell and Simons made easy. I’ve reduced 1600 pages of difficult medical text to a concise, easy-to-read 323 pages, while retaining the essentials of trigger point science. As I present the simplified technical material (with the aid of 376 illustrations), I show how to use it to find and self-treat the trigger points that are making your life miserable. You can truly do it yourself. Nine medical doctors have approved and endorsed my book, and Dr. David Simons himself wrote the Foreword.