What on earth is a knot anyway?

Do your hands get sore?” and “Is that a knot” are the two most common questions  get asked by our massage clients. So I thought it best to clear it up for once and for all!

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a knotted muscle!! They don’t tie themselves in loops and if we did a scan we wouldn’t find a bunch of knots sitting under your skin!

So what on earth are those lumpy bits? There are various theories as to what makes a ‘knot’ (lumpy) region of a muscle.

A knot is what a massage therapist would call a trigger point.

An area of tight tissue in a muscle where the muscle fibres are in a contracted state (bunched together). By massaging, cupping or trigger pointing this area not only are you helping to stretch out these contracted areas of a muscle, you are breaking up adhesions that form in the fascia (connective tissue that holds muscles together) of a muscle.

What should a muscle feel like? 

Normal healthy muscle tissue feels supple and elastic, and should be uniform in consistency. On the other hand, a dysfunctional or ‘knotted’ muscle will have a thicker, ropey consistency.

What can you do?

Trigger points can be treated to relieve muscle tightness and discomfort – just know that in doing so it can cause a small amount of local, referred or radiating pain. When treating a Trigger Point you are also treating the connective tissue around all the muscle fibres called myofascia. (Think that filmy stuff on the outside of a raw chicken breast! That’s fascia and it every where on the inside and outside of your muscles!)

The myofascia, or muscle fascia, is a film of connective tissue that envelops all muscles, compartmentalising the soft tissues of the body and gives shape to the body. As such, if the fascia is damaged or dysfunctional it can restrict or inhibit the movement and contractile force of the muscle it envelops and cause reduced gliding with neighbouring tissues and structures.

How can you treat it? 

1. The first step is simply to move. These adhesions, restrictions and dysfunctions in the muscle cause decreased movement and dehydration in those areas, therefore, encouraging movement is key! Movement creates pump and bodily fluid flow (lymph & blood). This increase in fluid flow can make the muscle tissue and fascia supple and pliable again and decrease sensitivity in the area.
2. Stretch and use a foam roller or spikey ball to trigger and release. 
3. Get a regular deep tissue massage treatment (shameless plug #1). All of these treatments encourage fluid flow and movement of the soft tissues.

“Do massage therapists hands get sore?”

Well, sometimes! We learn early on how to use our body behind our techniques to take the pressure off our hands as much as possible. However if you have a really long day, back-to-back (treating particularly stubborn muscles) it is common to find the massage therapist hands feeling a little tender!