What are Muscle Knots? From Rocks to Fairy Dust


Sometimes muscles are so knotted up they feel like rocks. And this is the term that my massage clients often use to describe their tight muscles.

 

My job then is to turn those rocks into gravel. Gravel into sand. And sand into fairy dust.

Contents

What are “muscle knots”?

Many clients ask me what “knots” are and in reality the body does not “produce” knots. In fact, there is no scientific explanation of muscle knots. I did find in a blog the explanation “myofascial trigger points” ie a build up of waste products in the muscle fibres that can be released using specific pressure points.

 

The best way I found to describe the process of muscle tightening is to compare muscle fibres to clay: if you leave clay out in the sun it will dry up and lose moisture. If you keep the same posture through the day, say by sitting at a computer for long hours without taking any breaks, your muscles will lose flexibility and “dry up”. You call them knots, I call them dried up clay. Massage and stretching can help “hydrate” those hardened muscles by bringing a fresh supply of oxygenated blood to the muscle tissues. In a way, massage can act like a rejuvenation process for the muscles.

Recommended Reading: Confessions from the Massage Couch

 

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required



Please select

Email Format


 

 

Blogging challenge

 

This blog was written as an entry to a blogging challenge started by Dawn Barclay and Kelly Wise.

 

Picture credits: Anthony Mayatt

3 Replies to “What are Muscle Knots? From Rocks to Fairy Dust”

  1. A lovely article Paola – knots to fairy dust such a sweet simple way to describe the process.

Comments are closed.