# What are the knots in your muscles, and what are the real benefits of massage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256 "2010-12-15T17:33:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/1 "2010-12-15T17:33:30Z")
Went for a massage yesterday and as usual got a little spiel about toxins, which I happily ignored and enjoyed my massage. So, you know, whatever. Now, I know a massage helps me feel better - not as tight, not as tense. And surely some of that is simple enjoyment of touch and increased blood flow to various muscle groups. But it does help to loosen knotted muscles. So what exactly is your muscle doing to make it get all screwed up like that? And why does mashing on it fix it? And does a massage do anything else for you? ---
**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/2 "2010-12-15T19:34:15Z")
[This](http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/34968/365286.html?d=dmtContent#evidence) is a pretty comprehensive list of research. > [@](#): > > There is little high-quality research of massage. Scientifically based conclusions about the effectiveness of massage cannot be drawn at this time for any health condition. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/3 "2010-12-15T20:17:56Z")
I am not qualified to pretend I know anything about this or anything, but it seems to me that, at the very least, massage increases your circulation. This could promote healing by feeding blood to all the muscles (which may have suffered little tears from exertion or exercise). The stimulation may also cause endorphin release which is what makes you feel good (aside from all that rubbing). I think all the woo woo about toxins or whatever is pure crap. [Dr. Ruth Westheimer voice] If it feels good, do it! [/Dr. Ruth] ---
**Author:** ![Add99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Add99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Add99)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/4 "2010-12-16T01:10:36Z")
I always assumed it was muscle tissue that contracted and failed to completely relax later, for physical or emotional reasons. Kneading it makes the muscle fibers relax. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/5 "2010-12-16T01:21:49Z")
> [@Add99](#): > > I always assumed it was muscle tissue that contracted and failed to completely relax later, for physical or emotional reasons. Kneading it makes the muscle fibers relax. There’s some evidence that it’s cross-linking of muscle fibers which should remain parallel to each other. Imagine long strands of muscle fibers, like long hair. They lengthen, they shorten, to relax and contract the muscle and do work. Now imagine the fibers grabbing onto the fiber next to it, not the next fiber above or below it, as it ought to. Suddenly the contractions cause ‘tangles’ just like in long, matted hair. And the relaxations don’t manage to untangle it either. Muscle relaxers don’t do the job either, frankly. Neither will other pharmaceuticals or local injections, though they may decrease the pain. Local massage is thought to loosen up these knots a bit, for at least a while. The above analogy is almost, but not entirely completely untrue, but does serve as a fair parable for just what may be happening on a molecular level in these muscle knots. ---
**Author:** ![MobiusStripes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@MobiusStripes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MobiusStripes)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/6 "2010-12-16T04:31:01Z")
> [@Add99](#): > > I always assumed it was muscle tissue that contracted and failed to completely relax later, for physical or emotional reasons. Kneading it makes the muscle fibers relax. Active Release Therapy (ART) and Trigger Point therapy both seem to utilize this concept. I gather they are different than a general relaxation massage. I get occasional “knots” in muscles after a particularly long or hard run. Sometimes it seems to just be cumulative miles. Though there is general soreness there is almost always a very specific point that is very painful to massage. Most of the time massaging that results in positive results – sometimes rapidly, sometimes by the next day. I self-massage. Legs are easy to reach. A knot in a glute or in my lower back I can get at by sitting/laying on a tennis ball. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/7 "2010-12-16T19:47:20Z")
Injury can also cause muscles to tighten up and not relax properly. I have a back injury causing my sciatic nerve to be a little wonky in my right leg. Shortly after the injury, this would cause a muscle in my hip (the piriformis) to cramp in a ridiculously painful manner since the nerves weren’t sending the correct signals. My physical therapist would do a massage she called “stripping” which was about 4000 times more painful than the cramped muscle, but once done would relax the muscle significantly. After a couple of weeks, that problem went away as my back healed (thankfully!) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/8 "2010-12-16T20:05:42Z")
> [@MobiusStripes](#): > > Active Release Therapy Is that what they’re calling it now? ---
**Author:** ![spenczar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@spenczar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spenczar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/9 "2010-12-16T21:29:22Z")
Massage is notoriously hard to study effectively under the current medical science paradigm of controlled experiments with comparisons of placebo v. treatment. After all, what’s the placebo for massage? Doesn’t really work too well. People can usually feel it when they are being massaged, so it’s real hard to get a good control group. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/10 "2010-12-16T21:51:31Z")
Ditto Qadgop, more or less, on the basis of what my seemingly well schooled physical therapist told me. Tangled muscle fibers. Massage supposedly breaks the tangles apart (separates the adhesions?) so the muscle can return to the shape it’s supposed to be in when relaxed. Massage certainly feels good and leaves me feeling better than before - not that that is objective or very quantitative. ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/11 "2010-12-16T22:05:09Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Injury can also cause muscles to tighten up and not relax properly. I have a back injury causing my sciatic nerve to be a little wonky in my right leg. Shortly after the injury, this would cause a muscle in my hip (the piriformis) to cramp in a ridiculously painful manner since the nerves weren’t sending the correct signals. My physical therapist would do a massage she called “stripping” which was about 4000 times more painful than the cramped muscle, but once done would relax the muscle significantly. After a couple of weeks, that problem went away as my back healed (thankfully!) I’ve got the same problem, except on the left side. My massage therapist is a terrific alternative to the surgery, in my opinion. Before I met her, I could point out exactly where the sciatic nerve ended between my toes because it was inflamed all the way down. Last summer, it acted up while I was on vacation. I had a therapist at the resort work on it and she used her elbow on the end of the piriformis muscle. It was extermely painful, but it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/12 "2010-12-17T02:59:24Z")
I don’t know any scientific data. But my anecdote is that I once dated someone who was something of an apprentice masseuse, and he was able to tell me how I sat in my computer chair at work just by the location and tightness of various “muscle knots” on my back, butt, and thighs. (I tend to lopside with my left shoulder down more than my right, and I tuck one leg under the other as I sit). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/13 "2010-12-17T03:12:58Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Ditto Qadgop, more or less, on the basis of what my seemingly well schooled physical therapist told me. Tangled muscle fibers. Massage supposedly breaks the tangles apart (separates the adhesions?) so the muscle can return to the shape it’s supposed to be in when relaxed. Not adhesions. Actin and myosin protein fibers cross-linking inappropriately. Even vigorous massage will not really fully separate them, but does provide temporary symptomatic relief. I love a good muscle knot massage. It hurts so wonderfully! ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/14 "2010-12-17T03:58:20Z")
> [@spenczar](#): > > Massage is notoriously hard to study effectively under the current medical science paradigm of controlled experiments with comparisons of placebo v. treatment. After all, what’s the placebo for massage? Doesn’t really work too well. People can usually feel it when they are being massaged, so it’s real hard to get a good control group. How about some general anesthetic? One group gets massage, the other nothing, while they’re unconscious. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/15 "2010-12-17T12:09:08Z")
Going under general anesthetic is fairly dangerous. It is not something you do to people unless they have a real medical need. I am pretty sure that knocking people out just so that they don’t know they haven’t been treated would be considered thoroughly unethical. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/16 "2010-12-17T12:25:00Z")
Personal andecdote: whilst I’ve had benefit from massage following a back issue, I am not sure the regular ‘relaxation’ massage has any real benefit, based on my awesome sample size of one. I joined a workplace where back and neck massages were offered and started having them - whilst they felt great at the time, I found that a few days later I felt really tense and uncomfortable. Which then felt better after the next week’s massage. Then I felt tense and uncomfortable again a few days later. Now that I work somewhere else and don’t have them, I don’t get the neck/shoulder pains that I used to when I was having them. Is it possible that the act of massage can actually damage the muscles, resulting in the tension I would feel a few days later? ---
**Author:** ![PainReliefCoach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PainReliefCoach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PainReliefCoach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/17 "2010-12-17T21:00:04Z")
Sandra\_nz: This could be what was happening. The seated massage relaxed the muscles on the back side of your body. That allowed the tighter, shorter, stronger muscles on the front of your body to pull even more on your back. Your back muscles, in turn, got even more overstretched and unhappy from the additional pull. That’s how bodies work. When the muscular pull is balanced from front to back, all is well. Seated massage didn’t damage your neck and back muscles but it was a ‘lop-sided’ massage that didn’t also address the muscles on the front of your body for balance. That is the nature of chair or seated massage. ---
**Author:** ![PainReliefCoach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PainReliefCoach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PainReliefCoach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/18 "2010-12-17T21:06:46Z")
Saying that massage releases toxins isn’t quite as accurate as saying that massage releases metabolic wastes from your tissues. These are body wastes and can include such things as drugs, chemicals from foods, etc. When your bladder fills during a massage hour, that is what is happening; the massage is literally squeezing fluids (and whatever is in the fluid) from your tissues to pass out through normal elimination channels. Knots can occur when muscles are overstretched. If, for instance, you get knots in your upper back when you work or run, those muscles may be complaining that they are being stretched too much. Correcting and balancing your posture and getting a strong back side can make a big difference. ---
**Author:** ![PainReliefCoach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PainReliefCoach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PainReliefCoach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/19 "2010-12-17T21:12:38Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Went for a massage yesterday and as usual got a little spiel about toxins, which I happily ignored and enjoyed my massage. So, you know, whatever. > > Now, I know a massage helps me feel better - not as tight, not as tense. And surely some of that is simple enjoyment of touch and increased blood flow to various muscle groups. But it does help to loosen knotted muscles. > > So what exactly is your muscle doing to make it get all screwed up like that? And why does mashing on it fix it? And does a massage do anything else for you? Massage boosts your immune system. This is documented by blood work taken before and after massage sessions. The immune system markers increase. Premature babies who receive massage (tiny, two fingered massage) (10 minutes, 3 times a day, as I recall) go home from the hospital 6 days earlier and gain almost 50% more weight on the same amount of formula than non-massaged babies. Muscles can get all knotted up from over-use, abuse or under-use. Just sitting around doing nothing is really hard on a body. We were built to move. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256/20 "2010-12-17T23:33:59Z")
> [@PainReliefCoach](#): > > Massage boosts your immune system. The term “boosts your immune system” sets off my alarm detector. A review of the mainstream medical literature shows a lot of contradictory results. Probably the most convincing evidence I’ve seen comes from studies on HIV positive patients, where the health of the immune system really is fairly well quantified and tracked. And a Cochrane meta-analysis of the effects of massage on the immune systems of HIV positive patients led to conclusions here: [Massage therapy for people with HIV/AIDS](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20091636). > [@](#): > > AUTHORS’ CONCLUSIONS: There is some evidence to support the use of massage therapy to improve quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), particularly in combination with other stress-management modalities, and that massage therapy may have a positive effect on immunological function. The trials are small, however, and at moderate risk of bias. So it’s not yet been objectively demonstrated that massage improves immune system function. Caveat Emptor! That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good trigger point massage when they’re acting up. But I don’t prescribe it for my chronic pain patients. Or my HIV positive patients. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-knots-in-your-muscles-and-what-are-the-real-benefits-of-massage/564256.md?page=2)