A Thera Cane is a great tool for working on trigger points and muscle adhesions. It's pretty easy to reach pretty much anywhere on your body with it and you get a lot of pressure because of the leverage. It doesn't take much arm strength to get in there deep and break up those tight muscles. It's about 40 bucks on Amazon. http://www.theracane.com/

I've been using a Thera Cane on my trigger points for a couple of weeks now and I noticed sometimes I feel nauseous afterwards. I was wondering if that was normal, so I Googled it, and yes, apparently that's pretty common. I guess it's because it makes your muscles release waste and toxins.

I was also told to drink plenty of water after any type of deep tissue massage to help rid the toxins. So make sure you are drinking lost of water to flush the toxins from your body after do this.

I agree, often this is not mentioned.
Lots of clear fluids after PT & massages is a good thing.

Sharon Butler often recommends plenty of fluids for all of us, to keep the fascia lubricated and slippery as well as helping to flush out toxins at all times.
She often mentions sticky tissues as a major factor for RSI's as well as TOS.
Fascia

I've been doing trigger point work with the Thera Cane for about four months now and I'm starting to realize that trigger points are a very important piece of the puzzle. I've had TOS for more than 30 years now, and I've done a little bit of trigger point work in the past, but really didn't think it was that helpful. I've even had trigger point injections, acupuncture, and hands on therapy, that didn't help that much. I think the main reason for that is, it just wasn't enough to make a difference. It takes more than a few therapy visits to correct many years of pain and dysfunction.

The reason I'm making progress now is, I'm consistent, I do trigger point work daily with the Thera Cane. I've also been doing joint mobility exercises daily for almost three years now. Those, along with trigger point work, have been a good combination for me. Muscles that are full of trigger points can't be stretched or strengthened without pain. Improvements come slowly so you have to think long-term. Consistency is very important.

Trigger points keep me going. The epidural I leave for lumbar. I have really nasty stuff in lumbar, sacroiliac and osteophyte on the left spine from curve.

Di

How did you guys learn do to the self trigger pt therapy? Did you learn it all from books, or did you have a specialist show you?

I learned mostly from youtube videos, plus, a lot of trial and error. The Thera Cane comes with a little instruction booklet that was helpful. I also get a lot of good ideas from Functionalpatterns.com.

http://www.functionalpatterns.com/me...ic-stretching/

I've been using these Chinese vacuum cups for about three months now and I like them a lot. They seem to really help loosen up the trigger points and muscle adhesions. My movement has improved quite a bit.

What works well for me is, putting the cup, or cups on, and then moving around. It's kind of an active release type of thing. It's working well for me. I've also seen cupping referred to as, "Myofascial decompression."

The only downside I see to these is, the purple marks they leave on your skin, but they go away in a few days so it's no big deal.

This is the set I bought. So far, it's holding up well. Oops. I meant to put this in the trigger point sticky.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-C...g+therapy+sets

Another good thing that I found to work on trigger points is a spikey ball. The set I have came with a larger, and softer ball, that actually looks more like a peanut. That one's okay, but the one I really like is a smaller 2 inch ball that is really hard. Those little spikes on the ball really dig into your muscles. It's almost like a meat tenderizer.

Not only do the little spikes dig into the muscles well, but they also help hold the ball in place. That's one problem I've had with with other kinds of balls. If you get on a tight spot, the ball squirts out of there. This one doesn't do that. It makes it much easier to use.

Here's what they look like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957tflebvxM