How do we get them, and how do therapist massage them out?
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I have been summoned. I’m an LMT
So the smallest unit of a muscle cell is a sarcomere. Its made up of actin and myocin. A muscle contracts by sucking calcium into the sarcomere which makes the actin and myocin slide past each other. If they over-contract, and stay that way, due to developing a high level of tonus, or resting tension in the muscle, they basically get stuck together and jumbled up. Kinda like a knot of sarcomeres. Tho the similarities probably aren’t as literal as that.
This limits the blood delivered to the area, and as a result, potassium can’t get in to take the place of calcium and tell the muscle to relax. This causes a trigger point.
The way we get rid of them is basically rubbing and irritating it enough to create inflammation. It swells with blood and washes the area out and hopefully solves the issue. We can use cupping to physically suck blood to the area, we can stretch the Fascia (connective tissue) to make room for the muscle to relax.
The only other problem is the Fascia will go back to its original constricting shape in about 4 hours. So you need to stretch alot after a massage and drink lots of water. But most spa therapists who don’t train deeper into trigger point therapy wouldn’t necessarily know to tell you that.
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