What Is Deep Tissue Pressure Point Therapy?
Deep tissue pressure point therapy is an effective technique for relief of muscular pain. This is a particular technique that a massage therapist may choose to use during a massage in order to help their client. Pressure point therapy is particularly helpful for a client who has trigger points. A trigger point is a tight area within a muscle that can cause pain. Trigger points are also often associated with decreased circulation, increased sensitivity of the nerve and muscle contraction or spasm. In addition, they can cause local tenderness as well as referred pain in other parts of the body.
The technique of using pressure point therapy is often very effective in treating trigger points. This technique involves skilled palpation to find the trigger point, and then application of a certain amount of pressure for a given amount of time until the trigger point “releases.” The client may feel discomfort initially when the trigger point is palpated and may even exhibit a twitch response or what may seem like an exaggerated pain response due to discomfort. Because referred pain is often common, the client may even notice an initial increase in pain in other parts of the body related to that particular trigger point. As deep tissue pressure point therapy technique is applied, the client will experience less pain and the therapist may notice that the trigger point feels less tight or smaller in size.
How Deep Tissue Pressure Point Therapy Helps
When left untreated, many trigger points can lead to myofascial pain syndrome, which is a chronic muscle pain condition. Muscular pain is a leading complaint of many people, and can feel like a variety of sensations, such as: sharp, dull, constant, intermittent, and radiating pain. This muscular pain can often affect people in daily life and can cause dysfunction with work, social life, sleep and can be quite intrusive.
When people are alleviated of their pain and discomfort due to trigger points by use of pressure point therapy, they are often able to return to an increased activity level in life and are elated to feel pain free again. People often experience improved range of motion in their body, less or no tenderness to palpation of the trigger points, and improved quality of life. Deep tissue pressure point therapy is non-invasive and does not produce negative side effects; therefore, it is quite safe for the client. Pressure point therapy is a great option over medication-use or surgical intervention, and has a high outcome of success in reducing pain associated with trigger points and muscle tightness.
During our massage therapy program, a student has 90 hours of online learning about the proper deep tissue massage techniques and 15 hours of hands-on deep tissue massage practice. Our Director of Education, Jason Kelly, is certified in Deep Tissue Massage and shares his passion with our students!
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