This pain started in a Ti Chi exercise class about 6 years ago. Just a nagging mid back pain that came and went. Chiropractic treatment helped but I could not do aerobics because it would come back. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook showed me where and how to treat it. I got relief from the first self treatment and was cured within one week. Since then I have helped my son with his knee pain. I highly recommend this book, much pain and suffering can be avoided!

I have dealt with golfers elbow for years getting by with ice and rest but it would never go away. This book suggested a trigger point in the upper arm that I eventually found-a little hard ball that is not present on my good arm. I was amazed at how a little massage on that gives the elbow immediate relief. It was literally instantaneous. The elbow isn`t cured but 75% better with no more instances of extreme pain. After a little more research with the book I found trigger points in my back that give relief to lower back pain. A fanastic book, easy to read and use.

I bought this book after years of suffering shoulder and neck pain that could not be attributed to anything specific. Chiropractic care and Acupuncture helped some, but the treatments are expensive and not always available on a weekend. So I tried the book and found that by manipulating the trigger points, the pain would eventually dissipate. Its rather amazing that this simple therapy is not better known.

The rating is 4 stars instead of 5 because it seems hard to find the specific parts of the body and how to treat them. I solved my problem by buying brightly colored tabs and affixing them to the different chapters - problem solved.

This book is a great self-help resource for many types of pain, and also provides an interesting and fairly easy understanding of anatomy.

The first day I had the book, I visited my father who was suffering from a very painful inflammation of the big toe, which his doctor had diagnosed as gout, although his urine tests did not indicate the acid which is a sign of gout. (He has had gout several times.) The book stated that a certain trigger point condition is often misdiagnosed as "gout" or can exist simultaneously with actual gout. I used the illustration in the book dealing with "symptoms of gout" and other foot/toe pain, found the trigger point in his shin and pressed on it - my dad was MAD at this point! It hurt! But within a few minutes he admitted his toe felt a little better. The next morning he was astonished, saying "I don't know what to think - the pain and swelling is completely gone." Throughout the week he massaged that sore trigger point a few times a day while doing yoga stretches, his toe remained pain-free, and within a couple of weeks the trigger point stopped hurting too.

I've been using the book's suggestion for back, neck and hip pain. Although my results haven't been as dramatic and permanent as my dad's (since he was more consistent in self-treatment that I have been) I can relieve the tension pretty easily following the directions in the book. I will also get a Theracane, a recommended self-massage tool, because many of the trigger points are hard to reach or massage by hand.

This book makes me appreciate a good, professional masseuse who can do the trigger point work for me. But it's great to be able to take care of myself as much as possible. This is a resource I will use for the rest of my life.

This is a great resource for massage therapists and laypeople alike. Practical suggestions for self-help in pain relief, but the information can be easily adapted to use to help others. It translates trigger point therapy it into simple, concise, and readable text. The illustrations are helpful as well. Highly recommended.

This book is truly worth it, I gave it a try and and I'm still amazed that something so simple works so good. I have suffered from pain in my arms for over a year and a half due to excess computer work. Out of desperation I looked for a solution and bumped in to The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. I did the self massages indicated for my pains and My arms regained strength and the pain is 95% gone. My wife started to do the massage with the tennis ball for her back and her back pain is also gone. i continue to massage frequently now for my knees and feet and old aches are soon forgotten.

I've spent more money than I want to think about on doctors & physical therapy for recurring pain in my hip, back, shoulder and neck. This book has given me the power to provide myself with more relief than I've ever gotten from these traditional sources - and without wasting time on office visits and insurance paperwork .... not to mention keeping my money!

This book changed my life...I've suffered from chronic neck pain (~10 yrs.) and less chronic hip pain (~1 yr) and have found little in the way of permanent relief. I found this book to be very informative and helpful - I've worked on the Trigger Points associated with my pain along with the TheraCane for a little over a month and I've seen great improvement. As for the assertion that the book is difficult to understand, I would argue that it just takes a bit of time and patience to digest. I am not in the medical field and I was able to work through the portions of the book that were most applicable to me with relative ease. The pictures and the descriptions are very explicit. I highly recommend this book.

OMG What an excellent book. I am a student in a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) cirriculum. LMT's need massages too. We get aches and this book is great for our needs as well. May i suggest "Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" by Sharon Butler in addition to this book, they work well together.

After a failed back surgery 5 years ago that left me with more pain than prior to surgery, I've been to 3 pain management doctors, 4 physical therapists, two chiropractors and several massage therapists. I finally found a pain management doctor (Dr. John Tyler)in Colorado Springs who uses the Travell & Simons Trigger Point methods that have provided the most relief for the chronic sciatica, lumbar and leg pain following surgery. Although I have to return for follow up visits from time to time, I'm able to relieve some of the pain myself using the techniques demonstrated in this book. Since I know of no other doctor who uses these techniques, I recommend this book to those who suffer from pain. I hope you, too, will find relief from your pain.

I find The Trigger Point Therapy Wookbook very detailed and comprehensive. You should only buy this wookbook if you are serious about finding a solution and prepared to study and work on it. I have serious sciatic pain and have tried everything to get relief. The book, with quite a bit of study, helped me located the muscles causing the problem. Using the 'ball' technique I massaged the appropriate 'tigger points'. After 3 weeks, persistence is also required, I have begun to get relief and the pain has diminished. The bottom line is this book is a great book provided your motivated. Its not for the faint hearted and its not a 'quick fix'.

This is a great way to practice self care. My massage therapist recommended this book to me! She has just lost a good client because I now know how to treat myself. Really needs to be sold with the theracane but there are illustrations showing how to use a tennis ball. Great book.

The author ties his narrative to medical research, along with the enthusiasm of convert. There is a good chance this is actually a revolutionary technique. I am no expert, but my apprentice blundering is easing the pain in my ears that is apparently a consequence of TMJ problems. My teeth are starting to meet right. My Dr. sent me to get a MRI and found nothing in my head and offered some anti inflamatory, meds which did help a little. The book helped more tho. I would reccommend it as a well made tool.

I have had this book now for a couple of years. After many years of neck, back and shoulder pain, and many diagnostic tests, I gave up on doctors and found this book. The massage procedures in this book have helped me with not only neck, back and shoulder pain from a car accident I was in over 13 years ago, but have also helped me with what I thought was a severely sprained ankle. The book is well organized so that you can go to the page in the book for the part of your body where the pain is occurring. There you can find all the names of the muscles that are the likely suspects in which trigger points would be to cause the pain and the corresponding page numbers for instructions on the massage techniques for these muscles.

The pain comes back in my neck because of the damage that was done to my neck, but it is not as severe and relief is just a massage away. I only have to take over the counter anti-inflammatories once in a while. It has been a miracle for me. I was so happy with the results I had, I bought three copies of the book and gave one to each of my three sisters who have all been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It works! It really works!!

This book was recommended to me because I have been dealing with chronic pain across my forehead, in my upper back, my lower back, and my calves. At first glance the book seemed overwhelming but once I started reading I thought it was very well laid out. The book is organized by areas of pain, the trigger points are well described, and instructions on how to find them and work on them are great.

The book also lists possible underlying causes for the pain. As it turns out my pain seems to be caused by a misaligned spine which seems to be caused by misaligned feet, limb length difference, and hammer toes. I am waiting on my custom orthotics which will hopefully alleviate this problem.

It is a rather technical book and you really cannot do the trigger points very easily yourself. Quite complicated to figure out just where they are. I was unable to use the book for my sciatica poblem as could not really find the trigger points. Maybe someone more advanced in the human body would be better able to use the techniques described in the book. Definitly not for a novice.

I have been suffering with heel pain for several years. I was about to go in for my third cortisone shot and my podiatrist was talking surgery. I also sit at a desk all day and have shoulder pain. This book has relieved me of the heel pain and I am working on back. I highly recommend buying a theracane and a knobble and I happened to have a cd rom called BodyWorks it shows in 3D detail all the muscles in the entire body it helped me locate alot of the muscles and understand their correlation to the areas she talks about in the book.

In short, this book provides an excellent reference for those looking to efficiently apply self massage techniques using trigger point therapy. The information presented is invaluable, especially for those of us who simply don't have the money or time to seek consistent massage therapy from an "expert". In fact, Claire Davies allows the simple layman to become an expert at learning about his or her own body and how to fix our own musculature.

For those few reviewers who indicated that this was too advanced as far as terminology (especially the author with an IQ over 160) - don't feel bad, maybe learning about your body isn't your cup of tea. But don't blame the book - the book is well written and well diagrammed that anyone can quickly learn and apply the techniques with little to moderate effort. You don't have to learn what the muscles are named, just refer to the diagrams and be willing to explore your own body to find them!

Bottom line, if you are expecting overnight success or pain elimination, then you may or may not be disappointed, everyone is different. However, if you are looking for a cheap and effective long term solution, this might be what you have been seeking.

I was very much amazed at finding anyone who had read, and tried finding relief for their pain by actually doing the trigger point massage, rating this wonderful book and gift from the Davies' with anything less than five stars! I am not a medical student, therapist, or paid agent for the Davies' --just a regular guy who had been told that the only certain thing in his life would be disability unless I opted for further surgery. With four foot operations, two knee operations and looking at a hip replacement (yes, I was in pretty bad shape) I finally decided to see what other options were available.
Investigating various sources, some which I paid dearly for (money and time wise) finally lead me to the Davies' book. Remember that I was in PRETTY BAD SHAPE! And all I wanted to know for sure was whether what my doctor's had told me, was absolutely true. So I ordered the book and looking through it, was impressed with the layman's format --simple drawings, simple guide lines, and not-so-simple medical terms. But then what do you call that big muscle in your leg, IF NOT BY ITS NAME? So I made up my mind that if I needed to learn what my body parts were called (and the Davies' did an EXCELLENT job by including how to pronounce the terms), just so I could relieve my pain, then I would commit to the task at hand.
Folks, it was the best day of my life when I made that decision. OK, maybe the second best day of my life, because discovering the day that the trigger point therapy ACTUALLY worked and allowed me to reclaim my health was the very best day of my life! I can truly say this because before trigger point I had no life!
You cannot imagine what emotional and spiritual pain accompanies physical pain, unless you've lived it. But then you don't have to imagine it, if you've LIVED it! And this is happening to MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of folks all around the world! People feel lost and scared when they are told there is no relief for their pain.
Does it take work to reclaim your health? Of course it does. But the alternative is to give up, and throwing in the towel just isn't REALLY anyone's cup of tea. Folks give up because they don't know that there is more, much more, than what they've been told. Give this book a try, I MEAN REALLY. Don't get hung up on the medical terms, or the black and white drawings, or that you will need to read the WHOLE book. Do yourself a favor, do the rest of humanity a favor (I found out when you are useless to yourself, you are also useless to all of those around you) and empower yourself with the knowledge that the Davies' have made available to us.
By the way, I need to express my sincerest thanks to the Davies' for gifting us this knowledge, not only at the lowest price (EVERYTHING else I tried, came out to over $57,000 --yes, that's thousands of dollars; not counting the surgeries) but also with the "no gimmicks attached" approach which I translate to "human decency". Not only has my health been restored (I have only missed two days of work in two years) but my faith in humanity has been restored as well. Having lived the fact: "although your health is not everything, without it you have nothing" ... I recommend this book without reservation, for its importance in helping to heal pain. I wish all of you the opportunity to reclaim your health, so you may live healthy, loving and purposeful lives.

I was suffering from lower back pain and sciatica for nearly a year before purchasing this book. Chiropractic care did not help. I was sent to have steroid injections done which were of no help either. Finally I went through a spinal decompression series which offered some relief. The most relief I got was from this book. After months of my muscles doing overtime I had developed several trigger points. I started seeing real relief just a few days after following the guidelines in this book. I would encourage anyone suffering from pain to refer to this book before undergoing surgery or paying for expensive physical therapy treatments.

I have only read about one third of this book but have already applied some of Mr. Davies techniques. They work so well that I am eager to continue reading and self-massaging. He has unlocked several mysteries to years of pain. So true what he has to say about the ignorance of physicians on the subject of myofascial problems. I also enjoyed reading about Mr. Davies history--why and how he came to this subject. I thank him for sharing this with us!

After having neck problems for years, I thought I'd give this a try. There really is something to this cause it took away the pain immediately! I usually have to wait to go to a massage therapist, but no more waiting I just use these trigger points and am relieved right away. It even worked on my husband, he couldn't believe it, as he is quite a skeptic himself. Very grateful for this book!

This book highlights a lot of things you just never consider. The only drawback is that the massaging is difficult to do yourself, but if you can get a massage therapist (or husband!)to get the right spots then it is worth it. I have not been able to keep up with the massages daily as suggested- but when I do them ,I have to admit I feel better. I have stiff fingers and the book points out this is radiating from my neck and forearms. To work on yourself is hard though-

The book was written with too many medical terms for a layman like me to be able to easily grasp many of the methods. I am sure if I were better educated I would be able to benefit more from the instructions.

Wonderful book! Great guide to those with pain, especially chronic pain. Davis and his daughter give easy to follow instructions. Excellent descriptions of referred pain and how to care for yourself. Highly recommnended. The book was in top shape...brand new!

Worth every penny. It takes a little practice to get some of the techniques just right but the payoff is great.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572243759/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

This book is well written, is easy to understand and gives ways for the non professional to locate the trigger points. Excellent book.

I think this book isnt so detailed and i miss better pictures. As for trigger points, i would like to have a good real body pictures, which could help much more. the information is only basic.
i expected more than i found in that book.

I had severe pain in my neck and shoulder blade for eight miserable months. I had been through two unsuccessful rounds of physical therapy, had been prescribed every painkiller under the sun, and had even had steriod injections. Doctors, specialists, and physical therapists could not get to the root of my problem. The concept of a "trigger point" was never even mentioned by them. I stumbled upon this book during a desperate search for ANYTHING else that might help me. Although I had doubts, I began doing the self-massage as Mr. Davies described. To my joyous surprise, I was noticably better by the end of the FIRST DAY. By the end of the first week, my pain was gone. Mr. Davies does a wonderful job of explaining what trigger points are and how to treat them. This book saved my sanity. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

It is an easy read and he gets to the point (so to speak) pretty quickly. Once past the intro, you will breeze through areas of the body starting with the most troublesome. I couldn't and wouldn't put it down until I got to the part about necks because I had such a bad headache and it helped before I went to sleep that night. If you are a chronic pain sufferer and nothing else has helped, look no further. Silly as it sounds, it has changed my life.

This book gives an explanation for the trigger points and pain. It is carefully backed by medical resources and explanations that doctors and therapists will thorougly understand. My complaint, and thus 3 stars, is that when you are in deep pain, the last thing you want to, is read all the medical terms and trying to go from one page to a far out other, looking for which trigger point is causing pain. As the book says it is geared to giving ourselves the trigger point relief, it should at least have an Appendix-like summary with all trigger points related to, for example wrist pain, another for arm pain, neck pain, etc., and without the need to go several pages and read so much detail and medical mumbo-jumbo. Remember, we are in pain! But I congratulate the authors for the thorough explanations that one can read while not in such pain. I recommend you buy the Thera-cane, and read the instructions as an instant resource, backed by this book, which I do recommend.

This is a great book to ensure a successful session for future clients. I've really enjoyed the precise way the authors have described the point of trigger vs pain. I have used the methods and have had satisfied clientele. Advance workshop for trigger is also highly recommended, you will not put this book down.

as a long-time sufferer of soft and connective tissue injuries (computers no less), this book is amazing. I just got it this week, read over the introduction... quite wonderful, really. It breaks down the body into separate parts, and then goes into each section, and each muscle which may have trigger points -- and most importantly, it shows you where the referred pain from that trigger point may manifest, which as injured people know is often different from where the trigger point actually is.

very highly recommended! This book will allow you to start to heal yourself. You do have to heal yourself, because in 12 years I've only found one doctor, and one physical therapist, who actually knew what the heck was happening with me -- THEY DON'T KNOW.

you have to be your own doctor -- this book will help take you there.

I've had this book just a week, together with a thera-cane. I ordered both because of pain in my shoulder, and I was very pleased with the quick and easy relief I got by working the first two sets of trigger points suggested for the area where I had pain. I did a little more work on my neck and shoulders, and was amazed to have my chronic stiff neck ease up, and quite unexpectedly, to have my horrible tinnitus quiet down to an acceptable level. The bad news is that I kept pushing away aggressively, mashing muscles in search of permanent relief for my tinnitus and the pain associated with a brachial plexus injury from birth 50+ years ago. One week later, I have deep bruises on my shoulders and upper back, and my neck and jaw are sore. I look and feel like I've been in a bad wreck. Given that many of us who buy books like this are in serious pain and would do just about anything to get relief, more warnings about working gently and not overdoing it would be a good thing. If you are careful and gentle and focus on one area at a time, this can be a very helpful book. It's organized pretty well to help you find the area where you hurt and discover the corresponding trigger points. But be careful and don't get carried away. Stroke your muscles, don't crush them. Listen to your body's pain, and work with it, not against it.

I was unable to walk for any length of time due to Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot. In addition I had a shooting pain up the side of my left ankle on every step. None of the following helped: supportive shoes, orthotics (OTC or custom), stretching, icing, NSAIDs, cortisone shots, 2 podiatrists, 1 physical therapist.

I got this book and applied the techniques. Within a few weeks the classic PF pain was gone but I still had the shooting pain up the ankle. That pain was caused by trigger points in the Peroneus muscles. It took some time to locate them as they were very small and located under tendons, etc. I can now walk 18 holes of golf. I threw away all of my orthotics as they didn't help me for 2 years. I go barefoot whenever I want. I monitor these trigger points and apply massage as needed. If you are older and have a chronic problem you will find that there is no quick fix. You will have to apply these techniques indefinitely although less frequently to make sure they do not return. But what a tool to lead a more pain free life!

I also have a problem with irregular heartbeat that was helped by inactivating the cardiac arrhythmia point. Recently I started having episodes of belching which brought on the irregular heartbeat. I alleviated the belching by working on the upper abdominal trigger points.

In addition to the PF and irregular heartbeat, the technique enabled me to raise my arms above my head and pull of a tight jacket, reduced my chronic back pain, helped my golfer's elbow and relieved the tightness in my fingers which was caused by trigger points in my forearms.

As with anything, you will get as much out of it as you put into it. I tell anyone who will listen to buy this wonderful book.

I also recommend the Knobble II. I use this everyday. It really saves the hands. I also use the Body Back Buddy for my back. I have not had too much success with the ball against the wall.

You might get some bruises at first from overly enthusiastic application of the massage but it is a small price to pay for the pain relief and you will learn how much pressure to apply over time.