One of the most common questions I get during massages (other than the ever popular inquiries about whether I actually like massage music or if I head to my car and crank up Metallica on the way home) is
”What is that lump in my back? Is it a knot?“
“How did it get there?”
And finally, “Do they ever go away?”.
Unfortunately, there are still so many things we don’t know about the body including what a “knot“ actually is. A ”trigger point” is the name given to these usually sensitive, hard nodules found within taut muscle bands. They can be active or latent and satellite trigger points (smaller knots) often times form around the larger, original knot. When pressure is applied to these trigger points you may feel a referral pattern, or pain experienced elsewhere in the body. That’s how we are able to determine if it is a trigger point and what muscle is affected. But still, we What we do know is that massage, specifically Trigger Point Therapy, (one of my personal favorite modalities to perform and receive) seems to help relieve the pain associated with these areas if applied consistenly and by someone with good technique. You will see improvement over time, but no, they usually do not go away completely. This is likely due to the patterns of movement and postures we subconsciously perform. The trigger points form in response to repetitive motion and stress to these muscle groups or from an injury to the area.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25533832/