You were enjoying your massage until "that spot" was touched. Remember last week you exercised and it hurt in that area afterwards? It also felt a little swollen, but that may have been because you kept poking it when describing it to people. A little ice and an analgesic seemed to do the trick.

You had forgotten all about it since that area just felt a little tight and did not really hurt today. But it definitely hurts now. You almost jumped off the table when your massage therapist started working that area. Whew! On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, that was a definite 8.5. What was that? You call it a knot and your massage therapist calls it a trigger point. 

What happens is that some type of stress - physical, chemical, or emotional - causes the muscle fibers to stay contracted instead of contracting and releasing in its usual fashion. Those contracted and shortened muscle fibers start squeezing out blood from your tissues. Simultaneously blood is prevented from entering your muscles, so blood flow is compromised. The result is that your muscles receive less oxygen and nutrients. Muscle fatigue occurs. Nerve endings function improperly. Your tissues become more sensitive. Pain occurs. Unfortunately, your muscles are now unable to relax until they are physically released.

After some careful work, your massage therapist is able to release that painful trigger point. At one point you may have felt pain in a different part of your body. For example, the trigger point may have been in your back and you may have felt pain in your head. That is called referred pain. Several other trigger points were treated at the same time. All you felt were some knots, but luckily they were not painful. That painful spot, however, feels much better. Fortunately, that trigger point released and the muscle relaxed with just one massage. Some people have chronic trigger points resulting from poor posture, an injury, or just over-exerting themselves and may need more than one massage session.

By the way, that knot is called a trigger point because it initiates some sort of response. While the treatment for it may be a bit uncomfortable, you need it. When the tension is relieved, when blood flow returns to that area, and when pain is reduced, your body will thank you.