Myotherapists are quick to point out that their work is not massage. Fully clothed patients sit or lie upon a portable table as the therapist applies pressure to the knots, or trigger points, of specific muscle groups. For approximately 7 seconds, pressure is applied while the therapist stretches the muscle, stretching the muscle more fully as more trigger points are treated. For delicate muscles, such as in the neck or head, a therapist applies pressure with a thumb or finger. On larger muscle groups, such as in the back and legs, a therapist may apply pressure with an elbow.
Patients feel temporary pain throughout the length of a muscle.
But upon release of the pressure, the muscle becomes more flexible and softer. Trigger points are tears in the muscle fibers where muscle tissue has jammed together, Finn said. It causes a muscle to tighten, or shorten, and gradually leads to pain in other parts of the body, which often causes misleading symptoms. In an auto whiplash injury, for instance, the trigger points caused by injury to the neck muscles may refer pain to the shoulders, forearms and eventually the fingertips. The pain is relieved when pressure is applied to the knot in the muscle, and the muscle gently stretched, said Tasso Spanos, who started the pain center and brought Finn to Pittsburgh from a myotherapy practice in Colorado.