Trigger Point Injection Therapy: A Targeted Approach to Chronic Muscle Pain

What is a trigger point?

Your muscles are made up of thousands of individual fibers that are constantly working together – contracting when you need to move, relaxing when you need to rest. But sometimes, for many different reasons, a small cluster of fibers gets stuck in a contracted state. These are trigger points.

They can range in size from barely detectable to about the size of a pea, and they tend to develop where muscle has been overworked, strained, or repeatedly stressed. They can also occur in tendons and ligaments. What makes them particularly frustrating is that they don’t always cause pain exactly where they are — often the pain travels, showing up in a completely different area of the body. This is called referred pain, and it’s one reason muscle pain can be so difficult to trace and treat.

Anyone can develop trigger points — whether you’re very physically active or more sedentary, whether you’re managing a chronic condition or recovering from an injury. They are one of the most common sources of musculoskeletal pain, affecting the vast majority of people at some point in their lives.

What happens during a trigger point injection?

Trigger point injections (TPI) are quick, targeted procedures performed right here in the clinic. A small needle is guided precisely into the center of the trigger point — within the muscle layer of the body, beneath the skin — and a local numbing solution is injected.

This does several things at once: it interrupts the abnormal nerve signals allowing the muscle fiber locked in contraction to relax, reduces local inflammation, and stimulates the body’s own healing response in that exact area. The muscle is able to finally let go.

The procedure itself feels similar to getting a vaccine or a vitamin injection. The sites are cleaned beforehand, the injections take just seconds, and at most a small bandage covers the spots afterward. Most people are surprised by how quick and manageable it is.

1. Locate

Your provider carefully palpates the area to identify the exact trigger points — the taut bands or tender nodules within the muscle.

2. Clean & Prepare

The site is cleaned thoroughly. This step takes only a moment.

3. Inject

A small needle delivers a local anesthetic directly into the trigger point, releasing the contraction and calming nerve activity in that area.

4. Recover

You can go home and use the muscle normally. Strenuous activity is best avoided for a couple of days while the tissue settles.

How many appointments will I need?

This depends on what’s going on for you. For some people, one session is enough — especially when the trigger point is relatively new and there aren’t multiple sites involved. For more chronic or widespread pain patterns, a short series of appointments tends to get the best results.

It’s also worth noting that multiple trigger points often are treated in a single visit, even if they’re in different muscles or tissues. We’ll talk through what makes the most sense for your specific situation before we begin.

Many people begin to feel a difference within 12 to 72 hours after their injection. Relief can last days to months — and when combined with work on the underlying cause, some people find the improvement is lasting.

We treat more than just the pain

At Lilac, we’re not interested in just quieting a symptom and sending you on your way. Trigger point injections are a powerful tool — but they’re most effective as part of a larger conversation about what’s driving the pain in the first place.

That means taking time to think through questions like: Has posture or movement pattern played a role? Is there a history of injury, surgery, or an underlying condition affecting the muscles? Is sleep disruption or chronic stress making things harder to resolve? Are there signs of inflammation that deserve a closer look?

Understanding the full picture is how we get to results that last — not just a temporary break from pain.

Trigger point injections are offered alongside the manual therapies and whole-person care available at our clinic. If acupuncture or hands-on bodywork is a better fit for your situation, we’ll talk through what makes the most sense together.