What is a Motor Point?

Motor points are the most electrically charged area of the muscle that tells the muscle to do it's job.

It's where the nerve innervates the muscle.  When these points are activated by electric stim, they can help to contract or relax the muscle, in turn helping body's movements and muscles to work in synchronicity with one another. Often, after an injury, accident, surgery or trauma, certain muscles become inhibited, meaning they are not functioning properly. Often their counterpart muscles, over compensate and adapt, but this causes a lot of strain on those antagonistic muscles. An example is the upper rib cage muscles; serratus anterior to the upper trapezius muscles. Most people who are sitting passively at a desk all day will have very tight upper traps and shoulder muscles, because their core strength to the upper trap (serratus anterior and latissimus dorsi) are not active.  This combined with gravity and compression on the neck and back discs can cause a host of problems. 

At Kara Acupuncture & Wellness, we do a full postural assessment, gait analysis, and correct the body as a whole so that it can move fluidly again. This global correction, is long lasting and doesn't take a lot of sessions.  Make sure you are seeing a Licensed Acupuncturist who is trained in Motor Point and electric stimulation.

This photo is a great example of an agonist/antagonistic pair of muscles, from an old ankle sprain years ago, causing her gait to be off balance. By correcting this with acupuncture motor points and electric stim, her gait improved immediately.