It can be confusing trying to figure out exactly how to trigger point yourself.

How often do you do it? How hard do you go? Do you repeat it? How do you know if you are on the right spot?
These are all legitimate questions.

I specialize in trigger points, and have been worked on by trigger point masters my entire life. The best way to explain how to know that you are on the right spot, is to find the most painful and irritated spot in the muscle that is connected to the injured joint, and press into it.

It will hurt. It can take your breath away.

I have heard it described as an exquisite pain, or a good pain. It is pain that gets to the point of where it
is coming from. You may feel the pain radiate to another area when you hit the trigger point just right. If you can reproduce the pain that you feel, then you know that you are on the right spot.

Once you find the trigger point, you want to treat it a few times.

You’ll want to be on it for about 5 to 10 seconds, No more than 10 seconds at once. Once you treat the
trigger point, go onto another trigger point, to allow the first trigger point to rest and respond. When you come back to the first trigger point, it will have loosened up should be a little less painful on the second and third passes through.

Each pass through still stick with treating each trigger point 5 to 10 seconds.

If you injure one area, make sure to treat all of the muscles in that area, and on the other side.
I explain which muscles to hit in other blogs.

If you have right sided shoulder pain, then make sure to trigger point all of the muscles in your neck,
shoulder, and into your upper and mid back. You even want to treat the muscles on the left side as well.
You will end up using the other left side more, just subconsciously compensating for the pain on the
right side.

Pain avoidance is a powerful motivator. Pain will cause you to use your body in very imbalanced ways.
That’s why you want to make sure to treat all of the affected muscles. The body is like a big pully system.

If one muscle group gets tight it will pull on other areas and throw the entire area out of alignment.
So make sure to treat all of the affected areas.

I hope that this helps you to have a pain free day.