Simply put "YES". A lot of people out there suffer pains and strains in and around the knee, hip and lower back area, usually from training on the road for running and from training on the TT bike for those effort sets, myself included. Once the tear in my quad had healed, I was still experiencing pain and tightness in and around my knee. The first thing you think is "Great my ITB is going the dogs now, if its not one thing it's another". This is where Trigger Points come in. In sciency talk they are called myofascial trigger points and are tiny contraction knots that develop in a muscle when it is injured or overworked.
Each muscle contains muscle fibres and in that muscle fibre the parts that actually do the contracting is a microscopic unit called a sarcomere. Contraction occurs in a sarcomere when its two parts come together and interlock like fingers. Millions of sarcomeres have to contract in your muscles to make even the smallest movement. A trigger point exists when over stimulated sarcomeres are chemically prevented from releasing from their interlocked state.
These trigger points usually send their pain to some other site. This is an extremely misleading phenomenon and is the reason conventional treatments for pain so often fail. It’s a mistake to assume that the problem is at the place that hurts!
Massage of the trigger point flushes the tissue and helps the trigger point’s contracted sarcomeres begin to release. In dealing directly with the trigger point, massage is the safest, most natural, and most effective form of pain therapy. With trigger point massage, myofascial pain can usually be eliminated within three to ten days. Even long-standing chronic conditions can be significantly improved in as little as six weeks.
There are a lot of Trigger Point information on the Internet, with some really use full charts, that will show where the Trigger Point is usually located and the referral pain pattern goes. There is also a very good application for those who have an iPhone called "Trigger Point" and costs $3.99. This is the one I use, it shows the referral pain and the Trigger Point to attack and i have had a lot of success with my ITB.
Good luck, train hard race hard
