Knots What Are They

Can a massage actually get rid of knots (what are they anyway? do massage therapists call them that?)? what about the ones everyone has in their shoulders — does everyone have them, and can/should they be gotten rid of with enough massage?

Yes and no. So-called knots can be a variety of things. Sometimes they are an overtight muscle. Sometimes they are an adhesion within a muscle or fascia or other tissue layers. Often, however, they are what are called Trigger Points. An massage therapist is trained to treat trigger points by essentially ’squishing them out’, then applying a good stretch and heat to the muscle. Usually it takes multiple treatments to get rid of a trigger point, as they generally aren’t something you got overnight. Years of muscle strain, improper posture, overuse, and other factors cause the trigger points in the first place. Years of over-working a muscle usually take multiple treatments to get rid of.

So why did I say yes and no? Well, the thing is, once a person leaves the treatment room, they resume their normal daily life. We can educate them about proper posture, we can tell them exercises to do at home to help their body be healthier, we can mention things about proper sleeping and working habits, but we can’t force them to do anything. Posture is not something easy to correct; most people take months of work to make any really good progress. So someone with trigger points in their neck muscles, who has them fully treated by a massage therapist, may find they come back a few weeks later. It’s all how the muscles are being used.

An instructor from my school once said that he could find a trigger point on anyone pretty easily, and that he has never worked on a single person who was trigger point free. The upper body tends to have a lot of them, due to our jobs and our daily lives. Also, people tend to ‘carry their stress’ in the upper body, meaning your neck and upper back muscles will be prone to having trigger points.