What exactly are these knots and why do they occur? Why do they occur in the shoulders and not other areas of the body? Does everyone get them?
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A common cause of “knots” is being stationary in one posture for a certain amount of time. After that, your body forms what is called collagen to help relieve the stress on your muscles. This collagen doesn’t go away and is a reason for knots. Dehydration can also cause them. Your muscles are covered jn a layer of “fascia”. Think of snot – slippery so the muscle can move around without damage. When you are dehydrated, the snot isn’t as slippery.
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If you hold a muscle tight throughout the day(repetitive movements, bad posture, injury/pain, muscle imbalance) you can cause the muscle to become overworked and inflamed(irritated/swollen). An irritated and tight muscle will cause pain, which can cause someone to hold that muscle even tighter which is called muscle guarding. These areas of tight swollen muscles are called trigger points or “knots.” The longer you have a trigger point, the longer the inflammation is present, which just like when you cut yourself or break a bone, you body will deposit collagen/scar tissue to stabilize and support the area. This can cause the muscle to become harder and stiffer, but it would take months/years to significantly form. Most muscle knots will go away on their own with rest or with trigger point therapy(sustained pressure to break apart muscle adhesions/reset the inflammatory process) and massage. If the root cause is not addressed by improving posture/muscle imbalance, etc, they can keep coming back despite treating the symptoms.
The correct answer is that it is not well understood. Trigger points, collagen build up, and other alternative explanations given on this thread are working hypotheses at best and pseudoscience at worst. There is no scientific consensus to what causes and what relieves these kinds of focal myositis.
Decent reference: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myofascial_trigger_point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myofascial_trigger_point) Check out the controversy section
I did not even realise I got knots before my partner started relieving them. I got knots maybe cuz of the weight of my boobs. I think strain in muscles and stress can cause knots. Atleast that’s what most ppl say.
I was wondering about this myself a while ago, since my partner gets “muscle knots” very frequently.
I found this video to be extremely informative:
They really dig deep into what is actually happening in the muscles on a physiological and chemical level!
Physio here. We don’t know what they are. Classicical theories of “triggerpoints” have little evidence.
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/6/348
my therapist always says “oh did you feel that? there’s a knot” and it feels exactly the same as the other side, so yeah super subjective and not well researched topic.
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