The Elusive Muscle Knot. What is it, and how does it happen?
We hear about muscle knots a lot. They happen anywhere in the body, but are often most noticeable in the thighs, calf, Achilles tendon, and most of all in the arch muscle of the foot.
A muscle knot has two theories. Number one, it’s inflammation that ends up causing pain and that pain causes the knot or the tightness.
The other theory is that it’s the nerve that’s irritated, and the nerve tells the brain that you’re feeling pain and that pain then causes the knot. So, the treatments have to include both of these theories since we don’t know where it comes from.
There are three treatments for muscle knots in general.
Number one: some level of breaking up that knot, which is foam rollers, tennis balls, ice, water bottles, and, stretching. One of the ways that you can stretch is actively or use a device like Archmaker. It stretches the top of the foot, and releases the bottom.
Number two: changing what’s in your shoe. A lot of people wear insoles. This changes the way they walk, and that releases the pain. However, using orthotics and Archmaker will also produce muscle memory. So whether that pain is coming from the nerve or from actual muscle tightness, it will solve both problems.
Number three: The third way of treating it is by doing some level of a stretching technique. You can do yoga or drop the foot off the back of a step. Doing these things regularly will teach the muscle to stop tightening up.
In conclusion, muscle knots are inflammation, and the inflammation either comes from the pain itself, causing the muscle knot, or it comes from the nerve that tells the brain you’re in pain which then causes the muscle knot.
The key to fighting muscle knots is to treat it with more than one method. The methods that work the best create muscle memory like orthotics or Archmaker.
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