Bloating/Nausea/Abdominal cramps: which trigger points cause it and how to treat them

Persistent abdominal pain without GI pathology can refer from rectus abdominis, obliques and iliopsoas. Identifying which muscle reproduces the patient's familiar pain on palpation guides treatment and often produces meaningful change alongside standard care.

Rectus Abdominis — Mid-back and lower-back pain, urinary urgency-like sensations, abdominal cramps.

Abdominal Obliques — Groin, lower abdomen, and pubic region.

Multifidi — Local segmental pain, often felt as a 'spot' the patient can point to.

Quadratus Lumborum — Iliac crest, sacroiliac joint area, greater trochanter, sometimes lower abdominal pain. Often described as a deep, dull lumbar ache.

Iliocostalis Lumborum — Lower back pain along the iliac crest, sometimes wrapping to the lower abdomen.

Iliocostalis Thoracis — Upward referral toward the upper back and shoulder blade, downward referral toward the lumbar region, and wrap-around pain over the lateral chest wall.

Longissimus Thoracis — Buttock and lateral lower back pain, mimicking 'sciatica' but staying above the knee.

Work the muscles in the order above. Treat one muscle fully — locate the taut band, hold sustained pressure until the ache eases, then take the muscle through its full range once — before moving to the next. Re-test the painful movement after each muscle so you can tell which one is actually driving the pattern: the muscles most often responsible here are Rectus Abdominis, Abdominal Obliques and Multifidi.

If two or three muscles each give partial relief, that is the normal picture in a long-standing pattern; expect to revisit them over several sessions rather than resolving everything in one.

Myofascial referral is a pattern of muscular origin, and it behaves like one: pressure on a specific spot reproduces the familiar pain, the pain moves with load and position, and it eases after release and movement. Findings that do not behave that way belong to a different problem.

Seek assessment rather than self-treating when pain is constant and unchanged by position, wakes you at night without a mechanical trigger, follows a clear dermatome with numbness or weakness, or comes with fever, unexplained weight loss, or a recent significant injury. The same applies when four to six weeks of consistent self-care produces no change at all.