Trigger Point Therapy Course | Clinical Palpation & Muscle Function
Trigger Point Therapy Course
Trigger Point Therapy Course: Clinical Palpation and Movement Assessment
RSM’s Trigger Point Therapy (TPT) Course in Chiang Mai develops clinical palpation and muscle-function assessment for learners with relevant massage, healthcare, sport or movement experience. Massage beginners may apply if they have a related background, such as sports training, yoga or Pilates. Applicants without relevant experience are not accepted. TPT is the first step in the core TPT → DTM → DMR pathway.
Students practise clinical palpation within a kinetic-chain assessment. They consider how movement and mechanical stress relate to active or latent trigger points, muscle function, joint movement and myofascial mobility, including nearby tissues. They choose a focused technique, control contact, direction, depth and duration, and reassess the same task. Trigger Point Therapy is more than pressing a tender spot; pressure is adapted to tolerance and practice aims to avoid bruising.
Hironori Ikeda, M.Sc. Sports Medicine (RSM International Academy), directly corrects finger placement, contact direction and body support during supervised practice. Students learn to explain the assessed findings, repeat the same task after intervention and adapt their next choice. Read the instructor profile and published student reviews for teaching context. Check dates and confirm entry requirements before booking; lessons and questions are in English.
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Trigger Point Therapy Course Timetable & Fee
Course fee: THB 12,000 | 5 weekdays | 20 hours
Monday–Friday: 10:00–12:00 and 13:00–15:00. Lunch: 12:00–13:00. The final Friday session, 13:00–15:00, is Practical Application (2 hours), included in the 20-hour total. Students apply assessment, palpation, technique selection, pressure/load adjustment and reassessment as one supervised process.
On the first day, arrive at RSM International Academy inside SpaMantra by 09:30 with your ID and remaining course fee. Registration and balance payment take place from 09:30 to 10:00; lessons begin at 10:00. See Payment Information for accepted currencies, payment methods and booking terms.
The optional Sports Massage Course runs during the same week, 15:10–16:10, for five days. Its separate fee is THB 6,000; the paired TPT and Sports Massage programme is THB 18,000. Check the current schedule and entry requirements before applying.
This foundation supports practitioners and students preparing for professional massage practice. Hironori Ikeda provides direct feedback on palpation, contact, pressure and therapist positioning. TPT establishes the assessment approach required before DTM and DMR. All lessons, materials, practical instruction and Q&A are in English; participants must be able to communicate in English throughout the course.
Trigger Point Therapy Course
Trigger point palpation
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Clinical palpation practice
Clinical Palpation for Trigger Points and Muscle Function
Master the skills to identify active and latent trigger points, muscle tightness, adhesions, and myofascial restrictions. This practical Trigger Point Therapy training focuses on precise clinical palpation techniques for assessing muscle tension and movement-related restrictions.
🔸 Limited to just 14 participants, the course allows you to learn directly from Hironori Ikeda with hands-on correction of palpation, pressure direction, and therapist positioning.
Dr Amrita practising manual therapy
Functional Assessment of Pain-Related Movement Patterns
By the end of the course, you will develop visual assessment and clinical palpation skills based on functional anatomy, helping you understand how muscle tension, movement patterns, and the kinetic chain can contribute to pain and restricted movement.
🔸 Learn to recognize movement imbalances and develop individualized massage strategies instead of applying the same treatment routine to every client.
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Neck and shoulder palpation
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Massage stroke practice
Advanced Massage Stroke Techniques: Functional Mobility and Neuromuscular Integration
This course component focuses on mastering massage strokes according to muscle structure and function, including fiber direction, mobility, and neuromuscular activity.
🔸 By understanding principles such as muscle spindle and Golgi tendon organ responses, along with myofascial and neural reflexes, you will develop practical massage techniques for improving mobility and applying more precise Trigger Point Therapy.
Posture and trigger points
Trigger Points, Pain-Avoidance Postures and Movement Patterns
Active and latent trigger points can contribute to muscle tension, altered movement, and limited range of motion. You will learn to observe pain-avoidance posture, kinetic-chain movement, and functional restrictions through palpation and movement assessment.
🔸 Based on sports medicine principles, this training develops practical skills for pain management, mobility, rehabilitation-oriented massage, and sports performance.
Hironori Ikeda teaching palpation
Trigger Point Therapy Techniques: Palpation, Mobility and Safety
Students identify active and latent myofascial trigger points through clinical palpation, muscle-function assessment and movement tasks. They consider kinetic-chain mechanics, nearby fascia and muscle mobility, joint movement and possible nerve-glide limitations as context for technique selection, not as a diagnosis. Technique choice, contact and load are adapted to the observed response and reassessed against the same task.
◆ Pressure is adapted to tolerance to avoid bruising. TPT practical HVLA instruction is limited to the fingers, toes and ankle. This does not constitute general training in thrust manipulation.
Lower back palpation practice
Therapist Body Mechanics: Posture and Pressure Control
RSM Massage Courses emphasize Dynamic Postural Stability for the therapist, teaching efficient techniques for both massage table and mat use. Learn body positioning, weight transfer, and core engagement to reduce unnecessary strain on the neck, shoulders, fingers, wrists, and elbows.
🔸 Hironori Ikeda teaches these principles according to each therapist’s body characteristics, helping you apply controlled pressure efficiently and build a sustainable professional career.
Trigger Point Therapy & Mobility
Trigger Point Therapy: Progression to Advanced Manual Skills
Master Trigger Point Therapy while developing practical skills for assessing myofascial restrictions, joint mobility, muscle glide, and nerve-glide limitations. These skills provide an essential foundation for therapists who want to progress beyond basic massage techniques.
🔸 Progress from Trigger Point Therapy to Deep Tissue Massage and Dynamic Myofascial Release to build a broader professional manual therapy skill set through the RSM Sports Medicine Massage Course Series.
Trigger Point Therapy trainees
Applying Trigger Point Therapy in your work
Trigger Point Therapy develops practical palpation, muscle-function assessment and pressure control for massage therapists, sports trainers, yoga and Pilates instructors, physiotherapists and other movement professionals. The skills help you explain what you found and decide what to do next within your own scope of practice.
RSM Trigger Point Therapy | Build clinical palpation skills that strengthen your professional practice
Improving the precision of your massage requires the ability to assess muscles, fascia and tissues around a joint, relate those findings to muscle function and movement, and decide what to address first. Clinical palpation provides a foundation for selecting the treatment area, contact surface, direction, depth and pressure for the individual in front of you.
Does increased muscle tension appear closely related to the pain or movement restriction? Are there responses associated with trigger points, reduced glide between muscle and fascial layers, or limitations around a joint, including the joint capsule? At RSM, you compare palpation and movement findings to consider these possibilities and decide which relationships need further assessment.
In Trigger Point Therapy, findings such as active and latent trigger points, muscle tension and tenderness are related to muscle location, attachments, fibre direction, muscle function and joint range of motion. A kinetic-chain perspective helps you examine loading and compensatory patterns during movement. You select a technique from the assessed findings, repeat the same task afterwards and use the response to guide your next decision.
You do not need to be able to explain all these terms or distinguish every finding before attending. The purpose of this training is to understand their relationships and develop the ability to use them in assessment and practical work on an actual person.
Hironori Ikeda, M.Sc. Sports Medicine (RSM International Academy), connects his clinical and teaching experience with three-dimensional anatomical understanding developed through cadaver anatomy study with Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Medicine. Extensive photographic references explain the spatial relationships of muscles, fascia, joints and nearby neural structures, linking what you see in an image with assessment and hands-on practice.
In small-group practice, he directly checks and corrects how you locate a muscle, place your fingers, angle your contact, direct pressure, support the body and coordinate your working posture and weight transfer. You study a structure in a photograph, compare it with your own hands, receive feedback and practise again. This repetition connects anatomical knowledge, tactile awareness and the reasoning behind a technique choice.
Being able to build and adjust a session around muscle and fascial findings, joint movement and the kinetic chain strengthens the value of the service you provide. RSM positions clinical palpation as the starting point for developing that assessment and practical skill, supporting your professional progress and providing the foundation for Deep Tissue Massage and Dynamic Myofascial Release.
TPT: who can join, practical training and your next steps
TPT is for people with practical massage or manual-therapy experience, or a relevant background in sport, coaching, yoga, Pilates, healthcare or movement instruction. Massage beginners may apply if they have related experience; applicants without relevant experience are not accepted. Tell RSM about your background and purpose when applying.
The practical course runs for five days and 20 teaching hours, with a maximum of 14 participants. Hironori Ikeda directly checks and corrects palpation location, contact surface, pressure direction and depth, working posture and weight transfer. You identify muscle attachments, fibre direction and function on the body, then practise selecting a technique from muscle-function and movement findings.
You compare the person's main concern and history with a movement task, joint range of motion, muscle function and palpation findings to select the target tissue, technique, pressure and load. The same task or range is reassessed afterwards to guide the next approach. The final two hours, Friday 13:00–15:00, bring this process together in practical exercise and are included in the 20-hour total.
TPT is the starting point of the core pathway. DTM normally follows TPT completion; DMR requires completion of both TPT and DTM and its other stated entry conditions. Applicants seeking exceptional entry into DTM must declare their professional education, qualifications and practical experience for individual review before booking.
Lessons, materials, practical instructions and questions and answers are in English. Check the current dates and entry requirements and contact RSM with your background and preferred course before arranging your training.
