Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain: The Practice of Informed Touch

"What a great book. Know first of all that it's written more for clinicians, such as massage therapists. If you have no medical background, you may get confused with some of the medical terms such as abduction.

Having said that, for practitioners who treat musculoskeletal pain, this book is the best trigger point therapy book I've come across. After spending a few chapters covering some of the basics on topics such as the nature of trigger points, Qi, informed touch, etc, the book gets right to the reason why you probably bought the book- the trigger points.

The book does an excellent job of covering all the muscles of the body and their associated trigger points. But that's not where it ends. Besides having some of the best muscle pictures you could ask for, each section on a particular muscle ALSO covers pain patterns a specific trigger point could produce, as well as stretching and strengthening exercises- nice!! While the stretches are clearly depicted, the strengthening exercises are only described- but they are certainly clear enough to follow.

A couple of appendices on meridian pathways, cutaneous zones, and acupoints are also included.

Lastly, the book ends with two indexes. The first is a pain pattern index, which is really a picture reference guide on trigger point referral patterns for the various muscles. The second is a symptoms index. Using this index is as easy as looking up a particular area of the body (such as the shoulder) where you'll then find various symptoms and their potential cause (trouble with reaching up....problem with latissimus dorsi).

All-in-all, it's a great resource for anyone who deals with clients that might have muscular pain and the book could also double as a patient education tool with its great pictures of all the muscles and their trigger points. Also recommend "Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff" for practitioners who deal with a lot of shoulder patients.
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~ Written on 2008-02-04