The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment for Pain Relief (Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief)

"I buy lots of stuff on the Internet, I'm an IT guy so I enjoy buying gadgets, math books, computer books etc., but I don't like writing reviews because I never know how to do it well. Actually this is my third review so far, the first one I wrote couple of months ago on books.google.com and it was about... The Trigger Point Therapy. Couple of minutes ago I finished reviewing Thera Cane on amazon. In case of a Trigger Point Therapy by Clair Davies I had no choice - I know I have to review it because if it is going to help just one person in making decision about reading the book, and if the book helps him in 10% as much as it helped me than it is worth to spend time writing it. I'm 37 year old male and I was always very active person. I trained judo for 2 years when I was 15, then karate and Tae Kwon Do for 4 years (I was very into it, training 3-4 hours a day). I did weight training for many years and quite recently intensive yoga for 3 years. About 10 years ago small health problems developed and after a while they became really serious. Basically I had three kind of problems: knees pain, upper back pain and stiffness and palm pain (I think it could be called RSI - working with computer keyboard too much). When I worked all day behind a computer desk then my neck and upper back hurt so much that I couldn't sleep in the night. I'm pretty sure it was because of my previous weight training - for most of the time I felt like holding one ton of metal on my neck and arms. They were so stiff and stressed. Yoga helped me a lot but I couldn't get rid off the pain for good. But still the worst problem was with my knees. I had to be very careful about jogging and quite often I was having very intensive burning sensation in them, sometimes so big that it was impossible to sleep without painkillers. To make a story short I was diagnosed with chondromalacia of the patella and the doctor said I'm going to have steroid injections directly into my knees on a permanent basis. Also he told me I could end up having knee surgery. I didn't do injections because I believed there has to be some other way to solve my problems.
The problem with the chronic pain is, if it is not unbearable, that we can get used to it, adapt to it and alter our lives somehow, so after a while we stop realizing how hard it is and how limited life we have. It affects everything we do, everything we plan, everything we feel and think. We cannot live our life to full potential because everything is tied to the pain, but the worst thing is that we begin thinking that this is normal, this is how it is suppose to be and we forget how it is to enjoy pain-free life.
I stumbled upon this book half a year ago and I thought to myself - why not to try, I'm risking only couple of pounds. Now I see how badly I needed a help. I read all reviews (I mean all of them, on amazon.com as well) and I begun self-massaging my back and neck with a tennis ball before even the book arrived. I was massaging prior going to bed and for the first couple of days I was shocked how relaxed my body can be, as the matter of fact my muscles could relax so much that I had problems walking down just a few steps to reach my bed. But I could sleep like a baby. I could sleep like never really slept well. I don't remember sleeping like that for a very long time. When I got the book I started studying it, learning more about trigger points and referral pain and looking for trigger points in my body. I found lots of them - I started massaging my thighs and my knee problems were gone in one week. I just couldn't believe it, it was like taking your life back, it felt great and it still feels wonderful.
Now, after six months my upper back, neck and arms are completely pain free, if I feel the stiffness then I message my back for a couple of minutes and the stiffness is gone. Today I was jogging for 10 km, as I do every Sunday, and I don't feel any knee pain at all. My whole life has changed and I think I'm in best physical shape for years. Even my RSI problems are almost completely gone and I work at least 8 hours a day on a computer (I can touch type quite fast so it's a really great stress for palms and fingers). Now I know what does it mean to have pain-free life and I can tell you this is great. I massage with lacrosse ball (they are much better than tennis balls indeed, although not that easy to buy in the UK) every day for a couple of minutes and I use Thera Cane regularly as well, and I feel like new.
Obviously trigger point therapy is not remedy for everything and there are many problems that are not trigger point related, that's for sure. However I believe that many people suffer for years because of the relatively uncomplicated muscle problems. Thing about this - how your skin, nails or hair would look like if you have not been taking care of them for last 5 or 10 years? How much you cared about your muscles in last years? Search for 'muscle' on google and take a look at the human body picture and see how many muscles we have and how important they are. We're abusing them almost every day, stretching them, lifting too much weights, injuring them all the time. Do you think that it has no affect for the rest of your body?
Anyway, I wish I discovered the book 10 years ago. But I'm still very happy I found it 6 months ago. If I knew how The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is going to transform my life then I could pay for it not 11 pounds but much, much more than that, believe me. What's more important than health?
If you have neck or back chronic pain, if you have stiff arms, RSI or knee problems, even if it was diagnosed as being a joint problem, if your thigh or calf hurts then do yourself a favour and read this book. Even if it won't change your life as much as mine then I'm pretty sure your well-being will improve and your body, not only your muscles, will thank you. And I wish that to all of you from the bottom of my heart."
~ Written on 2008-07-20

"Do yourself a favour and buy this book.

Over the last 15 years, I have been to just about every kind of medical consultant and complementary therapist there is and found, at best, only temporary relief from chronic neck and low back pain. I must have spent thousands.

This book advocates that knots in specific places in specific muscles can cause the muscle to partially and permanently contract, pulling associated muscles and joints out of alignment. This causes "referred pain" in the associated muscles and joints and a lack of blood flow through the muscle. Massaging the Trigger Points to release the knots allows the muscle to fully relax and whilst I found it very painful, it is definitely worth persevering with.

After only a week of massaging the trigger points detailed in this book my low back pain has subsided completely. I need to work more on my neck pain and I have ordered some massage tools to help with that, but even with the limitations of a tennis ball and my thumb there is already some improvement in mobility.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's so good I bought another copy for my massage therapist."
~ Written on 2008-07-07

"This book is fantastic. It is very easy to use - lots of diagrams & well written. It has "pain maps" which help you identify problematic trigger points and then goes on to tell you how to treat them. This makes easy for non-professionals to use.

As a sports massage student, I liked the fact that Davies' also gives good advice on how to save your fingers from being overworked - eg by use of tennis balls & backnobbers. His techniques make it possible for you to safely & easily treat yourself.

So far I have had success in relieving pain from an old whiplash injury, in treating golfer's elbow & relieving the pain from Grade IV OA of the patella.

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~ Written on 2007-12-04

"I consider this book to be a useful self-help tool for treating trigger points, or irritable spots in the muscle. It has many, many pictures which help guide the reader to common places in the muscles where these things are at. From there, you can use a ball, massage them with your fingers, or even use this tool called a Thera-Cane to get to those hard to reach places.

All in all a handy book for treating trigger points, another good lesson here is that sometimes muscle trigger points can mimick more serious ailments, when the problem is really just in the muscle. Also recommend "Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff" too if you suffer from a torn cuff or shoulder pain.
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~ Written on 2007-11-03

"I bought this book years ago!! It was recommended by Stuart McRobert of HardGainer fame and my God I'm so happy I bought it! So many issues, aches and pains have been eliminated from my life thru application of the principles outlined in this very valuable and knowledge dense book. GO FOR IT NOW!!!"
~ Written on 2007-11-01