Suffering from muscles that can no longer relax? Experts tell you what you can do against muscle knots | Healthy

“A muscle knot often feels a bit harder. It is a kind of bump or knot, hence the name muscle knot,” explains sports care masseur and exercise specialist Harnie Mertosemito. “A muscle can contract, give strength and relax. A muscle knot occurs when a muscle can no longer relax properly.”

A muscle knot can be caused by a direct trauma, for example by hitting you very hard, or by overloading during exercise. Mertosemito also often sees a wrong attitude as the cause in practice. “By sitting in one position for a long time, for example for days at the computer, the body can become unbalanced and a button is lost, as it were.”

For many people, muscle knots cause annoying complaints such as pain and stiffness. “Massaging can be a good way to remedy that,” says Mertosemito. “That can stimulate the muscle to relax.” Because that is not so easy with some muscles, it may be wise to go to a physiotherapist or specialist masseur.

Susanne Barendregt, physiotherapist at FysioNovo suggests using a tennis ball. By rolling the tennis ball back and forth over your sensitive muscles, you can apply gentle pressure. “You can easily do that yourself and in some cases it can also cause the muscle to relax.”

Dry needling is also a commonly used method for clearing muscle knots. “You have to see a physiotherapist for that.” With dry needling, an acupuncture needle is inserted into the muscle or directly into the muscle knot to bring about relaxation. “That should provide immediate relief, but we do not give this treatment more than four times. If it has not helped by then, we are mopping with the tap open and the cause must first be looked at.”

If you have chronic pain complaints, you can end up at the pain clinic as a patient. Secondly, after a long period of pain, complaints can arise in your tendons, bones, joints and nerves – the so-called musculoskeletal system. “This can happen because someone adjusts their posture and movements out of fear of pain,” explains Marieke Hellinga, anesthesiologist and pain specialist at the Leiden University Medical Center.

“Primary complaints, so the actual complaint of the muscle knot, we treat less here, most people can be treated well by a physiotherapist, manual therapist, sports doctor or pain specialist in the hospital.”

The small percentage of patients referred to the pain clinic are treated using trigger point injections or TENS. “With trigger point injections, we inject a drug directly into the muscle node. With TENS we try to reset the muscle by means of electric shocks. Both methods try to break the vicious circle of pain, after which further treatment by a manual or physiotherapist is necessary to prevent pain in the future.”

What all experts agree on is that it is important to address the cause. According to Mertosemito, it is important to look at the whole. “It is not just about loosening the muscle and then sending the patient home. The entire muscle chain must be brought into balance.”