What is a muscle knot, why does it happen and what you can do to relieve it

Knots, or adhesions, in muscles happen for various reasons. They can be caused by physical activity, injury, poor posture or stress. Whatever the cause they physical effect on the muscle tissue is the same. If you think of muscle tissue as a bundle of separate elastic fibres, the fibres within the muscle are bound together by an outer sheath called fascia. Think of it like a plastic coated cable made of many wires, there the plastic coating is the fascia, the wires are the separate fibres and the cable is the muscle tissue.

Whatever the reason for the knot to form, some of these elastic fibres stay contracted when the rest of the muscle, or other muscles in the area, relax. In the contracted area the muscle fibres remain shorter, fatter and clump together tightly. This tightness limits the effectiveness of the circulation in the area, and as a result the supply of vital fuel (nutrients and oxygen), and the removal of toxins and waste products is reduced. This lack of fuel and waste exchange leads to muscle exhaustion and can mean the muscle becomes irritated, painful and sometimes inflamed. With time these areas can become stuck together, this sticking of muscle fibres is called fibrosis, and its these hard, painful, crunchy bits that are the muscle ‘knots’.

Sometimes there can be an additional level of pain created, this happens then muscle knots effect the nervous system. When this happens ‘Trigger Points’ are created and these Trigger Points result in pain being felt in other, seemingly unrelated, areas of the body. This is called referred pain.

The pain of muscular knots, trigger points and the related referred pain is the reason that massage has been developed over hundreds of years. Massage therapy and the different techniques applied, relevant to the location and type of muscle adhesion, relieve and, in most cases, cure the problems.

How long will this take? It depends how long the knot has been there, think of it like a knotted ball of string, if its just happened it should be untangled relatively quickly, however if its been knotted for months there will be more layers of knots to unravel so it will take a little longer.

Do not wait until you are in pain, regular massages are not only wonderfully relaxing but will relieve areas of tension before knots get chance to fully form, maintaining health movement and circulation.

For more information go to our website at www.bodyworktherapies.co.uk or phone Jo on 07811 208403