Whys and What Knots

Knots have the element of surprise. Massage clients are often very perturbed that they have a knot, and then the inevitable question…why is that knot there?

         

I try to offer some explanations – to much time using a mouse, too many repeat micro-movements of muscles in a static hold, etc. Working under too much deadline pressure is a very common circumstance.

         

But why do knots occur and stick around for so long?

         

Massage therapists see thousands of knots over the years, and yes, I think they each have their own unique origins.

         

For reasons I cannot easily explain, I can feel when knots are old – from a long-gone by car accident for example – these older knots are more established and habituated to the body’s daily existence. They need some extra attention and therapeutic touch to loosen and return their host tissues to normal.

That said these older knots seem to be more than simply forgotten dysfunctional areas of muscle. Something has happened along with the formation of the knot to make it last. Perhaps, if knots form like memories, they become more robust when a person is excited or energized.

Having read and seen many interviews of people who remember what they were doing 50 years ago when they heard President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I suspect the major knots also had a sudden, sharp focus of attention.


Perhaps the chemicals of surprise or fear also help muscles retain knots, as people retain memories of the JFK assassination in more vivid detail than any other days in 1964 or beyond.

Could some knots have a date-and-time stamp?

Sometimes I wonder. I know my massage clients do.