Here's how to get rid of muscle knots in the neck and shoulders. If you could just get rid of these knots in my shoulder blade... This is a common complaint heard in chiropractic and massage therapy offices. Many back rubs are designed to relieve muscle knots yet, they seem to always return. Maybe there is more to the idea of muscle knots than you understand. To understand why your muscle knot up, you need to understand why they continually return. Do muscle knots even exist or is this our way of describing how we feel without knowing why? To understand this, we need to understand normal. Do we have a normal and if so, what are we describing? For most of us, normal is what we are used to and abnormal is a symptom that fails to self-resolve. Many people suffering from knots in the shoulder blades, for example, may describe them as their normal knots and link the tightness to stress or working long hours. Those knots are relieved by a massage but then they reappear. Over the years I have shown patients that their chronic knots are linked to shoulder joint dysfunctional firing patterns which can be felt by placing their hand on the involved blade and feeling how the area of symptoms tightens when moving the shoulder as compared to the other side. I discussed this in my book Cheating Mother Nature, what you need to know to beat chronic pain which is available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle formats. A chiropractic holistic evaluation and history may reveal that the knots in your shoulders are a symptom of something else. A chiropractor may work on parts of the body other than where you hurt to get to the source of your pain. They may use manipulation of the spine, massage or myofascial release and may even offer exercises to help you resolve your problem. When problems do not easily resolve, its time to think differently. Common reasons for tight, knotted, and stiff shoulders causing neck stiffness include Tight legs Poor core function A rotator cuff problem Poor posture An old accident that was not properly treated. Tight pectoral muscles. Stress (although this usually is more of an aggravating factor than a causative one. Muscular imbalances in the shoulders or lower back I recently found an article featured on the site pocket worthy in which an exercise physiologist explains muscle knots. While I do not agree with his conclusions fully, he does offer good points. Check it out below What Are Muscle Knots? An Exercise Physiologist Explains What Those Tight Little Lumps Are and How to Get Rid of Them Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly what happens within muscles to create knots, also known as myofascial trigger points. But they do know some ways you can avoid or alleviate them. Zachary Gillen Imagine you’ve just completed a tough upper-body workout. Your muscles feel a bit tired, but all in all you’re able to go about the rest of your day just fine. The next morning, you wake up and realize the back of your shoulder blade feels stiff. When you rub your shoulder muscles, it feels like you’re prodding a little gumball under your skin. Every time you try to move it around, the area feels tight, with slight pangs of pain. Over the course of the next few days, your back slowly loosens up and eventually your shoulder returns to feeling normal. It’s probably something you’d like to avoid or minimize in the future if possible, though. So what was going on with that muscle knot? Read more Do you need another opinion on muscle knots? See a chiropractor first using this link to book online.