Here is Part II of the Muscle Knots or Muscle “Poop”, Part II Blog.  We will discuss how to reduce if not eliminate these from your life.

Muscle Knots are such a common problem. We all have them from time to time, so how do we get them?  Muscle knots develop mostly because of three different categories:

1. Injury 2. Overuse 3. Sedentary Lifestyle

Many knots are caused because we use our bodies enough to injure ourselves or overuse the muscles we have. Unfortunately the most common source is a sedentary lifestyle. Professional experience has taught me that sitting at my computer right now typing away is building up knots.  Regardless of the cause, a persistent knot will remain until it is broken up… in more than one way.

The first way to break up a knot is to understand a very basic principle about knots: They need intervention. Something called the “Pain-Spasm-Pain” cycle causes a knot to stay a knot. One of the three categories from above causes the pain, and a spasm follows suit, which causes more pain and more spasm. This cycle continues unless you interrupt it. The following will help to intervene: 1. Massage is well known for “Getting the knots out, ” and really helps with persistent knots. 2. Stretching is one of the very best things to do to reduce and avoid knots. 3. If a knot is causing a movement pattern which in turn causes swelling, then using ice for no more than 10-15 minutes can help.

Reduce knots by doing the following: 1. Avoid sitting while hunched over. Stretch! 2. Get plenty of exercise, and consult your physician if you don’t know how much you should get. 3. After you exercise, Stretch! 4. Hydrate (Coffee and Beer don’t count) 5. Get your B Vitamins, and plenty of Potassium and Calcium.  You can also invest in a foam roller to help  eliminate and prevent muscle knots between your massage treatments. The foam roller is a firm foam log that is six inches in diameter. Use the roller against the muscle knots with your own body weight to generate the direct pressure. Imagine using a rolling pin to roll out lumps in bread dough.  The foam roller is an inexpensive, yet highly effective way to treat and prevent  most muscle knots. Foam rollers can be purchased at sporting goods stores or ordered online for less than $20. A few minutes a day can help decrease the amount of knots and adhesions in your muscles

Why does massage help? Besides breaking up the pain-spasm-pain cycle, massage brings new blood supply, and with it oxygen, so muscles can function properly. Some muscles become rock hard and the supply of blood is less fluid. Breaking up the physical knot and bringing oxygen in will gradually restore normal function. Massage will not always vanquish an unwavering knot in one session though. Often enough knots need frequent sessions to be completely terminated. Even once the pain from a knot is reduced to a memory the trigger point can become latent and come back later on.

Why do I get the same knots over and over again?
We tend to develop patterns in life. Our job, posture, activity, inactivity and so on. These patterns cause the same muscles to be used or ignored. When they are painful and persistent they are considered active trigger points. A latent trigger point won’t have as much feeling unless someone or something touches it, pinches it, or puts pressure on it. Knots can affect the way we move, stand, sit, our overall strength, and how we carry ourselves among other things. The most shocking part is that we may not even know we are being affected until it is has become a serious pattern modification in our lives.

Wishing you Peace, Harmony and Balance