What causes a muscle knot?

The number one cause is, as can be expected, muscular overload. Muscular overload is not just the physical strain the muscle is put under, but also the degree of strain placed on the neuromuscular control mechanism. The latter being the weak link in the normal function of the muscle. A malfunction in the neuromuscular system is the primary cause of the development of muscle knots.

How Thoughts and Feelings Affect Back Pain

Dr Sarno is an American Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine who has published several best selling books on the subject, such as: Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection and Mind Over Back Pain. He developed the theory of there being a psychological and emotional basis for back pain and symptoms, after studying the behaviour of his own patients. The theory, also called TMS (tension myoneural syndrome), is based on the belief that it is a psychosomatic illness which is causing chronic back, neck, and limb pain, which is not relieved by standard medical treatments. Although his theory has yet to be accepted by mainstream medicine, he has successfully treated and cured thousands of patients based on his theory.

Neck Pain: Causes, Treatments and Prevention

Neck pain is fairly common, but can appear for many different reasons. This article will take a brief look at the most common causes of neck pain and ways to treat and prevent this problem.

Neck pain is not usually something to be worried about, as it it rarely a sign of a serious illness. It can be caused by sleeping in a bad position, holding the neck still for a long period of time (this can happen when sitting in front of a computer) or putting excessive strain on the neck muscles due to bad posture. Stress and anxiety can also cause the muscles in the neck to tense up leading to neck pain.

How to treat a muscle knot

Firstly, start treating muscle pain and knots early, either by seeing a massage therapist or by treating it at home.

Heat:

Tight muscles usually have compromised circulation, which means that a little less blood, with it's nutrients and oxygen, reaches the area. It also means that the lymphatic system does not remove waste products from the area as well as it should do. By applying heat to the area, the circulation is improved, speeding up healing time

What is Dry Needling?

Dry needling is used to treat muscle knots or trigger points as they are also known. Although dry needling is similar to traditional acupuncture, it differs in that it treats the muscle pain directly and is not based on traditional Chinese medicine. Dry needling is also known as medical acupuncture, as the basis of this therapy is derived and explained by western neuroanatomy and modern scientific study of the musculo-skeletal and nervous systems.

Why trigger points cause you pain.

Trigger points can cause a whole host of symptoms such as headaches, neck and jaw pain, low back pain, numbness, tingling or weakness. However, the cause of these symptoms, the trigger point, is usually far removed from the symptom's location. Trigger points cause pain in a distant location, just as the trigger of a gun sends out a bullet to a distant location causing pain when it is pulled.