Are trigger points the same as muscle knots?

'Knots' is the everyday word for the taut bands and tender spots people feel. A trigger point is the more precise clinical concept, defined by referred pain on compression in addition to local tenderness.

What are trigger points?

A short, plain-language introduction to myofascial trigger points and why they matter.

A trigger point is a hyperirritable spot within a taut band of skeletal muscle that is painful on compression and can refer pain to a distant area in a predictable pattern. When the referred pain reproduces the patient's familiar symptom, the trigger point is called 'active'; when only local pain is produced, it is 'latent'.

Trigger points matter because they explain a large portion of common pain presentations — tension headaches, neck and shoulder pain, low back pain — that often have no clear structural cause on imaging.

FAQ

Are trigger points the same as muscle knots?: 'Knots' is the everyday word for the taut bands and tender spots people feel. A trigger point is the more precise clinical concept, defined by referred pain on compression in addition to local tenderness.