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Best Trigger Point Book

What book have you guys found is the best for trigger points? Explaining techniques and specific trigger points and pictures of where they refer pain.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff Sims on July 8, 2011 at 1:19am

Is this a trick question? Travell & Simons, of course, volumes one & two.

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on July 8, 2011 at 1:39am

Lots of new massage therapists have never heard of those books. I find that interesting... lol Weird actually?

Permalink Reply by Trina Throckmorton on July 8, 2011 at 2:24am

Yup. I vaguely remember being told about a certain trigger point book while I was in school, but can't remember the author. I thought this was a place for massage therapists to learn and bounce ideas off of eachother, my bad...

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on July 8, 2011 at 3:37am

It should be.. Im just surprised that those books are not part of the standard curriculum in all these massage schools..Should be. Thats why Jeff thought it was a trick question....Its like...if you want to know trigger points, you gotta read those books.

Trina Joy Pelletier said:

Yup. I vaguely remember being told about a certain trigger point book while I was in school, but can't remember the author. I thought this was a place for massage therapists to learn and bounce ideas off of eachother, my bad...

Permalink Reply by Davede Varner on July 8, 2011 at 7:00am

I agree with Jeff Sims - By far the best book is the Travell & Simons manual. I use it almost every time when I get a new client to give an explanation. Also, when they can actually point to the referred pain areas that is bother them personally, it gives them a sense of "Oh! ok!" when they can see what I'm doing before the treatment.

There's also an app on my iPod touch that will break down the muscle groups showing where they are & also another one that shows the pain referrals. That's pretty handy when I have a client on the table & they ask a question, etc. At that point, it's easier to give them the ipod than to let them hold a book. :)

Permalink Reply by Larry Warnock on July 8, 2011 at 7:37am

Trigger Point Therapy for Muofascial Pain" ..the practice of informed touch...by Donna and Steven Finando

"Trigger Point Thrapy for Low Back Pain" Saucer and Biancalana

"Trigger Point Therapy for Foot, ankle, Knee and leg pain" Valerie DelLaune

and, of course, the two volume trigger point bible by Dr. janet Travell,and Dr. Simon

You can also go to my website at www.baystatemassage.com and click on Trigger Points...there is an interactive trigger point mapping area.

Good luck...I find Trigger Point Therapy to be an amazing treatment modality for most any soft tissue issue.

Permalink Reply by Jeanne Medina on July 8, 2011 at 3:35pm

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, Clair Davies. This book was recommende for my Sports Massage Class. I have completed 500 hours of a 1000 hour program so far, and have not been required to purchase the Travell & Simmons books. They are very expensive, and I will be required to purchase them for Advanced Massage next quarter. I heard they are very boring reading from my instructor though. I like the charts, they might be useful if you don't want to spend a lot of money on the books.

Permalink Reply by Trina Throckmorton on July 9, 2011 at 11:22pm

Ok, thanks for all the info and book suggestions guys!. I'll look into those for sure.

Permalink Reply by Valerie DeLaune, LAc on July 13, 2011 at 12:22am

Thank you Larry! I have another book coming out on the entire body in October 2011, but I've had a CD ROM version out since 2004. See triggerpointrelief.com for more info.

Valerie DeLaune, LAc

Larry Warnock said:

Trigger Point Therapy for Muofascial Pain" ..the practice of informed touch...by Donna and Steven Finando

"Trigger Point Thrapy for Low Back Pain" Saucer and Biancalana

"Trigger Point Therapy for Foot, ankle, Knee and leg pain" Valerie DelLaune

and, of course, the two volume trigger point bible by Dr. janet Travell,and Dr. Simon

You can also go to my website at www.baystatemassage.com and click on Trigger Points...there is an interactive trigger point mapping area.

Good luck...I find Trigger Point Therapy to be an amazing treatment modality for most any soft tissue issue.

Permalink Reply by Brenda Rowell on October 12, 2011 at 10:20pm

Well, nothing in this world beats Travell and Simons books on Myofascial Pain and Dysfunciton. But, written from a Dr. prospective with dry needling. I had a class on it in school and know the basics of it all. So taking what I learned in class it can be applied instead of dry needling to everything in the book. Actually I've seen some of my schools text books on sale maybe on amazon or something like that. If you could find one of those that would be a simple basic book and they were rather cheap. I went to Denver School of Massage Therapy, under the UCMT, Steiner Education Group family of schools. I looked and it said there was none available now on Amazon. But, I know I've seen them on sale before somewhere for like $10-15 so you might be able to google it or go to different used book internet sites and find one.

BTW, I've heard the new edition of Travell and Simons is coming out soon, so some might be getting rid of the old to buy the updated version, so the price might be going down.