We’ve all felt them – those annoying, tender little lumps in our muscles that form after a workout, or when we’ve been hunched over our computer screens all day. But what are muscle knots, and how can we get rid of them?
The technical term for a muscle knot is a myofascial trigger point. Muscle damage, even if it’s only slight, inflames the tissue and the fascia above it – that’s the thin connective tissue layer around the muscle.
According to Zachary Gillen, Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology at Mississippi State University, myofascial trigger points often develop when your muscles get irritated by new repetitive motions, or repetitive motions that are more strenuous than usual.
“For example, you may develop knots in the muscles you stressed the most during a particularly intense day of exercise. They can also crop up if you introduce a new movement pattern to your daily workout,” he wrote in The Conversation.
“Imagine adding a couple of days of running to your typical weekly routine of just lifting weights. Since running is a new movement, you may notice some knots in your calves, which you asked to do a lot of new work.”
You don’t need to work out a lot to develop knots, however: as Zachary points out, holding one position for hours at a time – such as your neck and back muscles hunching over a desk all day – can also stress your muscles.
How to unknot your muscles
The best cure for muscle knots, says Zachary, is time: given a week or two, your muscles will adapt to the new motion or recover from stress, and the knot will go away by itself.
To speed the process along, there are various options including massage, self-myofascial release – which involves rolling the knotted muscles along something like a foam roller or a hard ball – or stretching.
“Stretching may be particularly valuable if you typically sit in an awkward position all day long. Muscles held that way under consistent stress for several hours benefit from being put through different ranges of motion.
“For example, after sitting for a while, some simple shoulder rolls and neck rotations can alleviate some of the tension in those muscles, helping to avoid or reduce the accumulation of muscle knots,” says Zachary.
Ultimately, muscle knots are harmless (if painful) – and if you’re consistent with your exercise habits, and make sure to move throughout the day, you may start to see them popping up a lot less in the first place.
