How is a knot in your back formed, and why does massaging get rid of it?
In: Biology
The typical cause for a “knot” is a build up of lactic acid (muscle exhaust fumes) in the muscle. If the lactic acid does not leave the muscle through some sort of stretching, manipulation, hydration, etc. the muscles start to pretty much stick together. This causes the muscles to be sore and form what feels like a knot. Massaging the “knot” releases the crud from the muscle and allows it to go back to normal. The more formal name for it, by massage therapists at least, is an adhesion.
Bonus: the main reason it is so prevalent in the back muscles is due to the amount of activities in daily life that force us to work directly in front of us, which bring the shoulders forward and over stretch the back muscles (using computers, cell phones, and pretty much everything we do) which makes it more difficult for the muscle to flush the toxins.
Source: Massage therapist
When you say “knot” I assume you mean that tight feeling you can get in your back? The muscles don’t literally knot up, it’s just that the signals from the brain telling the muscles how much tension there should be are increased, causing a feeling of tightness- it’s called increased tone. Massage does not physically release this tightness, in fact there isn’t much research to support massage doing anything other than relaxing you, but this relaxation can, in fact, cause the signals from your brain to calm down and possibly reduce this tightness to make you feel better.
Look at [this picture of muscles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/1105_Anterior_and_Posterior_Views_of_Muscles.jpg). They’re like a whole bunch of rubber bands wrapped around us to form a complex system of pulleys that allow us to move if we contract them. Sometimes they get into literal knots. A skilled masseur/masseuse knows where they are and their direction and so they can knead through your skin to straighten them back out.
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