Trigger Points: Supraspinatus

Video Transcript

DR. CHRIS MANGO: Hi. This is Dr. Chris Mango here in New York City. On behalf of Expert Village, we're going to be taking a look at trigger points today. Now we're going to take a look at the shoulder muscles. This is a common area that gets injured in people all the time because the shoulder is an unstable joint to begin with. What it is, it's a ball inside the joint meaning the shoulder, the arm is the ball joint that goes into the socket. So there's nothing to really hold it except for just the muscles. So we're going to take a look at some of the major players in this area and see how we can treat some of the muscles. The first muscle we're going to be taking a look at is the supraspinatus. This is the most commonly injured rotator cuff muscle that's responsible for abduction. The supraspinatus is a very tiny muscle that runs along the top of the scapula. Now, the two major trigger points are going to be here and here. And like I said, when you get the pain, you can almost have that referral pain going down the arm like this if you have a problem with this muscle. Okay, first we're going to find the muscle and then once we find it, I can show where the trigger points are to treat it. So we're going to deal with the scapula, which is located here. The first thing you do want to find is the ridge that separates the bottom from the top, as you can see right here. Here is the top. This is the supraspinatus fossa; this is where the muscle is. So what you want to do is find the trigger points here and here, and then you want to hold one at a time. Press and hold until the pain goes away and then press harder. Now let's move on to the next muscle in the shoulder.