Myofascial pain is chronic pain in the body. Myo means muscle, and fascial means fascia – the connective tissue wrapped around every muscle in your body. Myofascial pain is caused by pressure on the trigger points of your muscles. You can get myofascial pain anywhere in your body, but it’s most common to experience myofascial pain in your shoulders, neck and back.
You might experience pain in different ways, but the most common are:
- Pain – described as aching, throbbing or tightness.
- A knot or lump in the area
- Tenderness
- Soreness
- Decreased range of movement – like when you’ve slept funny and struggle to turn your head.
These symptoms of pain often lead to other problems like headaches, stress, and lack of sleep/fatigue – because the pain is keeping you awake, or you can’t get comfortable.
What are the causes of myofascial pain?
There are lots of different reasons you might be experiencing a level of pain, but the more common ones are:
- Injury
- Repetitive movements
- Poor posture
- Diet and nutrition
- Lack of sleep
- Obesity
- Stress and anxiety
Almost all of these can be treated holistically with lifestyle changes. These changes can potentially relieve the pain or at least lessen the likeliness of the pain.
How to treat myofascial pain
Pain knows no discrimination. It doesn’t care what job you do, what you’ve got going on, or how old you are. And it can come along at any time. For some, it will go away after a short while for a multitude of reasons. For others, the pain can be unbearable and longer lasting.
But there is good news, there are a few different ways in which you can treat myofascial pain:
- Medication – painkillers, sedatives, anti-inflammatories, hot and cold compresses
- Massage therapy
- Dry needling
- Physical therapy
- Acupuncture
Visit an urgent care clinic or consult an expert in Orthopädie if the pain becomes unbearable. Different treatments like Non-Spinal Pain Injections and massage therapy will work for different people and at different speeds. Massage therapy can help with the immediate relief of pain, and it can also help with the root cause of the pain, therefore, reducing the risk of it coming back.
Massage to treat Myofascial Pain
Many people are familiar with massage therapy, its benefits for relaxation, and how it can calm our minds and body. But there are different types of massage therapy. One of those is remedial massage.
A regular massage can help reduce stress and low levels of pain. If stress is causing you to walk around all tense and create pain, then regular massages are a great way to treat this. If your pain is more severe and caused by something more serious, remedial massage might be the more suitable treatment for you.
Remedial Massage for
Remedial massage is a targeted massage therapy that will address those trigger points causing you issues and creating pain. A typical remedial massage session for a new patient will start with a detailed assessment of the underlying musculoskeletal dysfunction. Treatment is then based on the results of that assessment.
The therapist will also recommend the most appropriate treatment plan going forward to relieve your pain and address the root cause. For instance, if it was posture that was the cause of your pain then not only can it relieve the pain but eliminate it altogether.
If you want to know more about how remedial massage can help treat your specific pain points we have lots of information on our website.
- Remedial massage for back pain
- Remedial massage for lower back pain
- Remedial massage for neck pain
- Remedial massage for posture
- Remedial massage for stress
If you’re ready to try remedial massage to get rid of your pain you can get in contact to book in at one of our three clinics (Melbourne CBD, Brunswick, Southbank). We’ve got a team of experts ready and waiting.
