Trigger Points in the Pectorals

"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 pectoral group. This group is responsible for our shoulder flexion, internal rotation, and abduction. The pec minor runs here. It runs from the coracoid process, which is the front part of the scapulae, into the ribs. Now, when this is irritated, as you can see, it can cause pain all the way in this top breast area and then down into the arm. I'm going to show you how to find the trigger points here and here. Now I'm also going to show you the pec major and where that's located. Now, we're going to be taking a look at pec major. It comes from the clavicle into the humerus, and from the sternum into the humerus. When you have problems in this muscle group, as you can see with the orange, the pain can spread down to this area. I'm going to show how to find these two trigger points. Now, let me show you how to find these on the patient. The first is pec minor. What you want to do is follow the outline of the clavicle until it bends just like so. See how it curves? And there you want to press, and then, when she no longer feels the pain, press a little bit harder. The second one is located right next to it, but just a little further down into this area. Now, for pec major, let me show you how to find the trigger points. So, again, we're using our clavicle and then the sternum as our guidelines, and you want to kind of come in between and bisect the two, and you'll find multiple trigger points through this area in here. Now let's move on to the next muscle."