How To Get Rid Of Muscle Knots
Comments: No Responses
What Is A Muscle Knot?
A muscle knot is a painful nodule within the muscle belly and is palpable under the skin. Medically these knots are referred to as Trigger Points and they can be a great source of pain.
Sometimes a muscle knot or trigger point causes pain in an area distant from the knot itself. This pain is known as referred pain. As an example, a common cause of headache is referred pain from trigger points at the base of the skull.
There are many different Trigger point maps available to view on-line. I found a terrific interactive site that takes you from the symptom you have to the possible location of your trigger point (muscle knot).
Knots In Low Back
When you are lying on your back you are going to be placing a tennis ball on either side of the spine in the low back area just down from the lower ribs. In particular, there is a sweet spot where you get on a muscle called your quadratus lumborum.
This is so effective, because you can travel with a tennis ball so you are never stuck in pain, not knowing what to do. A muscle knot is a build up of lactic acid where a muscle has been over working. Athletes get knots and people with back trouble get knots.
Pressure can either be applied with my thumb, as a chiropractor, or you can use a tennis ball on yourself. So you can apply pressure to your own trigger points and help melt them away. So take a look at the video above to see how I do it.
Trigger Point Therapy
The key with these tender points is that you need to stay on the point until the discomfort completely fades. If you come off the ball before they have faded you can actually switch the points on and cause aggravation. If you feel the tenderness travel down your leg, that’s normal for some. On average these knots will take from 20 seconds to two or three minutes before you no longer feel the pain (for some more painful than others).
When the pain has completely gone, slowly roll off the tennis ball and move the tennis ball to another tender point. Find two or three tender points each side and remember to stay on them until they fade completely.
To come off the ball, roll your knees away and come up onto all fours, don’t just sit straight up. This can be done every single day. This exercise is best to be done once you have been up a couple of hours. My preference is to do it after a hot bath or after a little exercise or at the end of the day when you will get a lot more out of it. You may be a little sore after the exercise.
Be careful not to push down too hard on the tennis ball as you can bruise your muscle. If you do bruise the muscle, arnica lotion is great and the bruising won’t last long anyway. It can be sore the next day.
