How do we get them, and how do therapist massage them out?
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EDIT: First version was too ELI5, my bad.
I’m an osteopathic medical student and we actually went over this recently:
Your brain tells your muscles to contract or relax through your nerves. A “knot” happens when your muscles don’t fully relax after contracting. This can happen if you damage your nerves or muscles, but most of the time it happens because of stress, dehydration or electrolyte imbalance.
Your body has a “fight or flight” response that happens when you’re in a dangerous situation. Among other things, this contracts muscles all over your body all at once. Chronic stress acts as a weaker version of this response and can make your muscles contract without you thinking about it. This can lead to partial contraction.
In order to contract and relax your muscles need sodium, potassium and calcium, these are called electrolytes. If your electrolytes are out of balance, then your muscles won’t contract or relax properly. This can also lead to partial contraction.
Your muscles have something called a Golgi tendon organ that protects them from stretching too far and tearing themselves. If you stretch your muscles, it forces the Golgi tendon organ to relax your muscles. This is one way you would relieve a a partially contracted muscle.
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