Guide
Short, practical guides to trigger points, primary vs secondary, and how to read referred pain maps.
A trigger point is a hyperirritable spot inside a taut band of skeletal muscle. Pressing it reproduces a recognisable, often distant pain pattern — the referred pain — which is why a shoulder complaint can come from the neck and a headache from the jaw.
Primary symptoms are the pain patterns a muscle produces most consistently; secondary and tertiary symptoms appear less often, or only when the muscle is one of several contributors. Reading a referred pain map means starting from where it hurts, then checking the muscles known to project pain into that area.
The guides below expand on each step: how to locate and palpate a trigger point, how perpetuating factors keep it active, and when symptoms need clinical assessment instead of self-care.
What are trigger points?
A short, plain-language introduction to myofascial trigger points and why they matter.
Primary vs secondary trigger points
Why some trigger points come back unless you treat the upstream driver.
How to read referred pain maps
A practical method to go from a symptom on a body chart to the likely muscles that produced it.