Do you know that when you work out extensively and/or strain your muscles you are actually tearing your muscles? This is good for one reason: Whatever gets torn gets rebuilt stronger. So when you get all torn up your body fixes itself using the nutrients you take in to reform muscle tissue stronger then it was before. Now if you incur a muscle related injury that disallows the muscles to repair themselves in the correct alignment your muscles still repair themselves, but the injury prevents these muscles from healing in their natural alignment. Therefore, the healed muscles become what are referred to as knots or twisted up muscle tissue. Many people have stress related knots, injury related knots, and other twisted muscles in their body, but are unsure of how to deal with them so they remain knotted. This is rather unhealthy because knotted muscles disallow the free flow of nutrients, oxygen, and blood through the parts of the body that are knotted as well the muscles begin to swell taking up invaluable space for joints and ligaments to move efficiently. These swollen muscles cause discomfort in the body and also are a harbor for toxins that are supposed to be washed through the body. At this point the muscles need to be realigned, and that is where massage comes in. The general idea of massage is to assist blood flow, break bad muscle bonds, and to alleviate knotted muscles by realigning them to the natural positions. Massage unwinds the twisted muscles, and not much unlike a dirty drain, once the muscles unwind all the toxins and bad bond tissue that were comfortably rotting for so long become released into the body.
I have learned this over the past week as I have been doing physical therapy for my legs and shoulders , which apparently have been heavily knotted for almost 2 years. My therapist, Jason, is a big burly man who digs his elbows into my highly sensitive quads, hams, calves, buttocks, and shoulders twice a week. It hurts like a bitch, it is expensive, but I really feel like in the end this is a wise decision as I do want to be able to walk when I am 50.
It is just so interesting to learn about the things that happen in my body that I have control over but in the end I don't. The better I eat the more nutrition rich my blood is, and the more I exercise the more oxygen rich my blood is, but when it comes down to it I can only help my body I don't control it. My muscles knot, I can try to stretch, drink water, and exercise moderately, but ultimately I never know if I will cramp up or run like a champion. So I guess all I can do is my best. I think that rule applied over ones life is a good standard of practice.
I want to do my best in every situation, and when I get knotted up I want to make sure there are people I can call to help me unwind.
