Breaking Down Muscle Knots

How can it even be possible to think that a muscle can literally knot or get twisted up? It's not just unlikely but then the idea of 'breaking them down' is also quite daft too. So what are the lumps we feel in massage and body work? You'll need to watch the video to find out!

Fascia and stretch not fuzz speech Gil Hedley different types of fascia anatomy. Movement fascia massage with stretch on iliotibial band or tract and myofibroblasts muscle behaviour or even behavior but tensegrity a question.

[catherinemall]

How refreshing to listen to someone with an intelligent, enquiring, independent mind! Thanks for this post Julian. I'm an Essentrics therapeutic fitness instructor. Understanding what's really going on in the body when things aren't right is hugely helpful to me.

[UTubeSporaticUser]

I have been a massage therapist for just under a year and I think you are close to correct but I don't think it is just fat. It's difficult for me to describe it in writing. I know that it's not the muscle that is tight. I used to do deep tissue massages with a lot of pressure. I figured out that in fact it's the facsia. It's the fascia that is tight. I do really deep tissue now with light pressure. The knots have legs and so instead of breaking down the knot, if you start from where it starts and then follow it to the knot, The knot will release. It's reallly hard for me to explain but I have been doing really deep tissue and hardly using pressure and the clients tell me it is not even painful and I am able to completely break down the muscle and relax it. I dont' know why massage is being taught the way it is either. I always start from the feet up because the muscles are all connected and the problem usually starts at the feet. If you start at the back you only band-aid the problem because it only loosens it a little. It will just become tight again from what is pulling it. I came here looking for answers. I was looking to see if anyone else had discovered how to get knots out easily and painlessly using light pressure but doing deep tissue and actually relaxing the muscle and fascia completely.

[lizmeyer]

Thanks for this. I have always struggled to understand exactly what these bumps and tender areas we, and clients call 'knots' are, knowing that logically the muscle can't actually be in a knot but not knowing what's actually happening. Just knowing that touch helps, and is really totally dependent on the individual client as to whether they need and respond to a deep or very light touch which can have the same outcome. Interesting to see what's actually happening under the skin.

[annesinclair]

I will never think of massage the same way! (Your comment below about how the lighter or deeper touch having to do with the nervous system makes perfect sense. How fast the sensory travels and what it effects is really interesting!)

[laurabarrydc]

Just found your channel and loving it. I remember looking at actin and myosin under a microscope when I was in Chiropractic College decades ago. They were either twisted up or laying straight. The theory was that those fibers got knotted up when there wasn't enough blood flow, O2 and ATP to keep it functioning with ease. I've been telling this story to my patients forever. Now what am I going to say? "Sorry, Dude, it's a bunch of fat cells? :))) I still work out those lumpy things either manually or with light, heat, BEMER, SCENAR or plain old massage....usually with lots of ironing pressure. At least it's getting the blood and lymph flowing again. I've once felt someone's huge 'fatty lump" in the shoulder that was hard as a rock. We thought it was a tumor and had it x-rayed was just "knotted" muscle

[ryeckley]

We all get the knot thingy translation obstacle you’re having but im gonna continue to say ‘my muscle is knotting up right here’

[kellimoore]

Great content !!!! super interesting. Thank you !!!

[saraht]

Can't wait for the next mind blowing video "turns out you never actually had bones"

[DebbieHollandNZ]

I would love to know more about your theory of using less pressure. Do you believe the lighter pressure communicates with the nerves in the superficial fascia and that we are actually working on the Nervous System rather than the Myofascia? Probably stated too simplistically but everything I am studying at the moment suggests light pressure communicating through the Nervous system is more beneficial.

[jenniemcmahon]

Hallelujah, I get very frustrated at massage clients explaining that their problem is with 'knots' Not sure I want to explain that they have fatty lumps though. At least I was intuitively right. I also get fed up of clients thinking that deep tissue massage has to hurt to be effective

[francescaphilip]

Thank you Julian for a clear explanation!

[glenmurphy]

Great chat as usual, nice length too!!

[Staceyoz]

I dry needle myself I suffer from extreme lower back pain, neck and shoulder pain. In my lower back the fascia I’m guessing it is well it feels like fibreglass. If you put a dry needle on fibreglass and push on it and it slides along it doesn’t penetrate it that’s the sensation I feel.

[tinamachell]

Calcium deposits can also cause lumps and bumps creating ‘ blockages in fascia ; it’s not just fat surely ?

[amandaturner]

Very interesting and makes sense! Thank oh and love the shirt! 🙂

[yonyonyopn]

What about trigger points? Twitch respond?

[marievorrei]

Thank you for interesting videos. So the bumps I feel when I treat a body is fat? A lot of us have this lumpy knots between our shoulder blades, sometimes I can follow the lumpiness through a part o trapezius, it is like a hard string. This is fat? Does the lumpiness come from for example static movements, or why this lumpiness

[nickgrove]

If I am understanding your theory correctly, this does not explain why MFR is able to increase ROM and allow for smoother movements and muscle contractions. I still think MFR techniques do what the name implies: create motion between layers of tissue which are stuck together. Maybe I misunderstood this video?

[cornerjon]

I have an internal scar tissue injury in my wrists, forearms, elbows, and shoulders from repetitive injury and overuse and lifting heavy and playing very athletic sports like football. The pain started in my wrist in about mid way through April and has gotten worse slowly it is now in all the spots I listed and now it is almost October. The osteopath I’m going to is saying they have to break it all up been there 3 times see no difference the pain is not bad for a week then gets super bad for 3 days then when I wake up it feels good again it’s so weird, I get lots of pain in my tricep area and the tendons that connect to my elbow and in the spot you get tennis elbow and golfers elbow I am 15 and don’t know what to do I had to stop working and it is even hard to go to school have any tips or anything I just want anything advice. It’s in both Arms

[LauraZeller-oyye]

I have fatty lumps everywhere. Literally everywhere.