How to get rid of muscle knots - CNN

What are they, and how can you get rid of them when they happen?

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What are muscle knots?

The knots you detect in your muscle, which may feel as small as a marble or even as large as a golf ball, are called myofascial trigger points.

Muscle knots don't show up on medical imaging scans, and researchers are still trying to figure out the exact physiological mechanisms within the muscle that cause this reaction.

Myofascial trigger points tend to develop when a muscle is irritated by a new or more-strenuous-than-usual repetitive motion.

Enter muscle knots.

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How do you get rid of muscle knots?

One of the simplest solutions to the problem of muscle knots is to just wait.

For example, after sitting for a while, some simple shoulder rolls and neck rotations can alleviate some of the tension in those muscles, helping to avoid or reduce the accumulation of muscle knots.

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Another method you can try at home is called self-myofascial release.

The idea behind it is the same as massaging, except this method can be done in the comfort of your own home using a foam roller, rolling device, a hard ball like a lacrosse ball or softball, or even a small piece of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipe.

For example, if you have knots in the quadriceps muscle group on the front of your thigh, you can lie on a foam roller and gently roll your leg back and forth on it.

If you do notice muscle knots popping up, simply stretching at the end of the day or going through some self-myofascial release techniques are simple, effective ways to help alleviate this issue and avoid future problems.

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