Trigger Point Therapy Workbook; Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief

The #1 bestseller on pain relief

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Scroll down to see a sample treatment

Clair Davies (Jan 22, 1937 - Dec 29, 2006)

Referred Pain

Ankle pain caused by a trigger point in the peroneus longus muscle

It’s a mistake to assume
that the problem
is at the place that hurts.

The pain shown here feels like a sprained ankle. In the worst case, this pain can be from a torn ligament or broken bone. Much of the time, however, a “sprained” ankle is nothing more serious than referred pain from myofascial trigger points (small contraction knots) in the peroneus muscles on the outer side of the lower leg.

When you twist your ankle, the peroneus muscles are overloaded and overstretched, and trigger points quickly develop. Pain from trigger points can be just as intense and disabling as pain from any other cause, and they can occur in any muscle in the body.

Self-Treatment

Trigger points in the peroneus muscles can be treated with self-applied massage, stroking them as shown here with a 20 inch piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe.

You can also use a Tiger Tail, a Thera Cane, your fingers, your knuckles, or even the heel of your other foot.

Trigger point massage can get rid of your pain in two or three days with three treatments per day. If trigger points are the problem, you’ll get a discernible degree of immediate relief.

Aches and Pains

Just like in the above example, an amazing number of our common aches and pains—and a variety of other puzzling physical symptoms—have been found to be caused by myofascial trigger points. In fact, trigger points have been proven to be the primary cause of pain roughly 75 percent of the time and to be part of nearly every pain problem.

This is based on decades of medical research by Doctors Janet Travell and David Simons, authors of the highly-respected, two-volume medical textbook, Myofascial Pain & Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual.

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is founded on Travell and Simons’s research, but it’s Travell and Simons made easy. Sixteen-hundred pages of difficult medical language have been reduced to a concise, easy-to-read 323 pages, while retaining all the essentials of trigger point science.

With the aid of 376 illustrations, you’re shown in detail how to find and self-treat trigger points in 120 pairs of muscles throughout the body. Nine medical doctors have approved and endorsed The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, and Dr. David Simons himself wrote the Foreword.

Symptom Index

You may have the wrong idea about your pain
—and so may your doctor!

Doctors Travell and Simons believe that pain is widely misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misdiagnosed. Their clinical experience has shown that trigger points can often be the true cause of the pain and other symptoms associated with the following conditions:

Abdominal Pain   Achilles Tendinitis   Adhesive Capsulitis   Angina   Ankle Sprain
Arthritis   Back Pain   Buckling Knee   Burning Pain   Bursitis   Calf Cramps
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome   Costochondritis   Discoordination   Dizziness
Drooping Eyelid   Earache   Eyelid Twitching   Eye Pain   Fibromyalgia
Finger Pain   Foot Pain   Frozen Shoulder

Genital Pain   Golfer’s Elbow   Gout   Groin Pain   Growing Pains   Hammertoe   Headache
Heartburn   Heel Pain   Hip Pain   Irritable Bowel   Jaw Pain   Joint Pain and Stiffness
Joint Popping   Knee Pain   Knuckle Pain   Leg Pain   Locked Knee   Low Back Pain
Meralgia Paresthetica   Migraine   Neck Pain   Numbness in Hands or Feet

Osteoarthritis   Pelvic Pain   Penis Pain   Peripheral Neuropathy   Phantom Limb Pain
Piriformis Syndrome   Plantar Fasciitis   Prostate Pain   Rectal Pain
Repetitive Strain Injury   Restless Legs   Rotator Cuff Injury   Runner’s Knee   Sciatica
Sensitive Teeth   Shin Splints   Shoulder Pain   Side Stitch   Sinus Symptoms

Stiff Fingers   Stumbling   Tendinitis   Tennis Elbow   Testicle Pain
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome   Thumb Pain   Tingling in Hands or Feet   TMJ Disorder
Toe Pain   Tongue Pain   Toothache   Turf Toe   Vertigo   Vulvadynia   Whiplash Injury
Wrist Sprain   Writer’s Cramp

Hard to believe, isn't it?

You may think it’s a little nutty to believe that tiny little knots in your muscles could be responsible for so many kinds of trouble. But these are medically proven facts. Consider that your muscles make up as much as 50% of your body weight. You have muscles everywhere, covering nearly every other tissue or structure in the body.

Symptoms that appear to be generated by a joint, an internal or external organ, or an eye, ear, or tooth can in reality be an effect caused by trigger points in nearby muscles, or even a muscle some distance away. Here are a few examples:

The pain from a trigger point in a chest muscle can make you feel you're having a heart attack. Referral from a trigger point in a neck muscle can make an eyelid droop or twitch.

Nerve compression by a muscle that is being kept in a state of constant tension by trigger points can cause numbness in a hand or foot. Joint pain sent from trigger points in nearby muscles can feel like arthritis. A toothache can be nothing but referred pain from a jaw muscle.

Can the solution be something so commonplace as massage?

What do you do when a muscle hurts or feels tight? You rub it, of course! It’s nature’s cure. And rubbing is exactly what works with a trigger point—provided that you rub in the right place. Remember that pain and other symptoms from trigger points are usually displaced.

In treating the ankle pain in the example at the top of the page, it would do very little good to rub the ankle itself. You have to know that the real source of the pain is a knot in a muscle halfway up the side of the leg. Intuition or commonsense won’t help you find these knots. You need some guidance.

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook will help you find your trigger points and show you how to self-treat them in the most effective and efficient way. If conventional medical treatment or physical therapy aren’t giving you the relief you need, your salvation may lie in self-applied trigger point massage.

The price of the book is a bargain, considering the enormous amount of information it contains, and the risks of the therapy are almost nonexistent. If you’re ready to take your well-being into your own hands, you may be in for a very pleasant surprise.

To learn more, please explore some of these other pages:

Chapter One—about author Clair Davies and his own struggle with pain
Trigger Points—just exactly what are they?
Referred Pain—an explanation for this puzzling phenomenon
The Book Introduction—a three-page summary of the book
Foreword—by David G. Simons, MD
Reader Reviews—by people who have been helped by the book
Doctors’ Reviews—endorsements of the method by nine eminent physicians
Books and Massage Tools—helpful items recommended by Clair Davies
Foreign Language Editions—in Dutch, Hebrew, and Spanish
Site Map—an index of all the pages on this web site
The Frozen Shoulder Workbook—a new book on shoulder pain and stiffness

WORKSHOPS FOR THERAPISTS

(Appointments are also available for treatment
and for coaching in self-treatment.)