You’ve felt it before. That tight, tender spot in your shoulder or upper back that seems to have a mind of its own. You get it worked out, feel relief for a few days, and then it’s back, sometimes in the exact same spot. If this sounds familiar, you’re dealing with a trigger point, and understanding why it keeps returning is the first step to actually resolving it.
What Is a Trigger Point, Really?
A trigger point is a small area of muscle fiber that stays contracted even when the rest of the muscle is relaxed. Instead of releasing normally, that tight band of fibers gets stuck in a cycle of contraction, restricting blood flow to the area and creating the tenderness and referred pain you feel when it’s pressed.
This is different from general muscle tension. General tension affects a broad area and tends to respond well to relaxation techniques. A trigger point is localized, persistent, and often refers pain to a completely different part of the body. A trigger point in your shoulder, for example, might actually be the source of a headache you’ve been blaming on stress.
Why Trigger Points Keep Coming Back
This is the question we hear most often, and the answer usually comes down to one thing: the trigger point was treated, but the cause wasn’t.
Massage can release the contracted muscle fibers in the moment, and that relief is real. But if the underlying pattern that created the trigger point is still present, whether it’s poor posture, repetitive movement, an old injury, or chronic stress held in the body, the muscle will often return to the same protective pattern within days.
Common reasons trigger points recur include:
Postural strain that never gets addressed. If you spend eight hours a day hunched over a desk, releasing a trigger point in your upper trapezius won’t stop your posture from recreating it tomorrow.
Compensation patterns from old injuries. Your body often builds tension around an old injury to protect it, even after the injury itself has healed. That protective tension shows up as a recurring trigger point.
Incomplete treatment. A single session can ease the symptom, but chronic trigger points, especially ones you’ve had for months or years, often need a series of treatments to fully resolve the underlying pattern.
Ongoing repetitive movement. Athletes, manual laborers, and desk workers alike often reintroduce the same mechanical stress that created the trigger point in the first place.
How Trigger Point Therapy Works
Trigger point therapy uses sustained, targeted pressure directly on the affected muscle fibers. This isn’t the same as general massage. It’s a precise technique designed to interrupt the contraction cycle, restore blood flow to the area, and allow the muscle fibers to release fully rather than just temporarily.
At All Deep Massage & Wellness, our therapists combine trigger point work with an assessment of what’s driving the pattern in the first place. That might mean looking at your posture, your daily movement patterns, or related areas of the body that could be compensating for the original restriction. Addressing the trigger point without addressing its cause is why so many people find themselves back at square one within a week.
Trigger Points vs. General Muscle Tension
It’s worth understanding the distinction, because it changes how the issue should be treated.
General muscle tension tends to be diffuse, related to stress or overall fatigue, and often responds well to relaxation-focused massage. Trigger points are specific, mechanical, and require targeted pressure to resolve. If you’ve had a knot in the same spot for weeks or months despite regular massage, it’s likely a trigger point that needs a more focused approach rather than general relaxation work.
When to See a Massage Therapist About a Trigger Point
If a knot has been recurring in the same location for more than a few weeks, or if it’s referring pain to another area of your body, it’s worth having it properly assessed rather than continuing to self-treat. A trained RMT can identify whether you’re dealing with a true trigger point, what’s likely causing it, and how many sessions it may take to fully resolve the pattern rather than just managing the symptom.
At All Deep Massage & Wellness, all of our therapists are trained to the 2,200-hour certification standard, well above Alberta’s minimum requirement, giving them the depth of training needed to properly assess and treat chronic trigger point patterns.
