What is a muscle knot?
When you push or challenge your body way beyond what it can normally tolerate, then your muscle(s) will subconsciously have to adapt and compensate for the situation you’ve caused, otherwise your muscles may get damaged.
As a result of muscles getting seriously overloaded they can do one of two things:
The muscle can either go into spasm causing a reduction in blood flow into the muscle along with constant localised pain and tightness. This is a fairly short-term response and treatment can help reduce this well.
Otherwise if physical muscle damage occurs, then after a period of localised spasm the body starts producing scarring internally and over time to ‘plug the gap’ and repair any tear. This will eventually give you the feeling of a solid lump or ‘knot’ within muscle tissue.
So, what can cause a muscle knot?
- Stress
- Poor strength
- Dehydration / poor circulation
- Lack of sleep
- Repetitive strain injury
- Trauma – a muscle tear
What can help treat a muscle knot?
A Sports Massage
Nothing beats a really good Sports Massage to ease tired, tight and sore muscles. This is probably the most common treatment modality we use for tight muscle ‘knots’ here at Elevate. If you’d like to try a Sports Massage session you can call 01257 452224 or book online.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of those treatments that really works for a number of our patients when it comes to treating deep / tight muscle knots. This can really help when ‘hands-on’ treatment can’t get in deep enough to reach a very tight muscle (e.g. like deep in the glutes). This is where a very fine acupuncture needle can work very well.
Are you suffering with muscle knots? Maybe in your back or shoulders?
If so, we can help you 🙂