How to get rid of a
Back Knot
How to get rid of muscle knots in your neck, traps, shoulders, and back
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what's up guys hey Jared Beck strand
here doctor of physical therapy tone and
tighten calm today we're talking all
about muscle knots and specifically
muscle knots that you're going to get in
your neck and in your upper shoulders
we're gonna talk about what they are why
you get them and most importantly I
wanted to share with you guys ten simple
things that you can do right now at home
to help eliminate yours coming at you
right now
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all right so what exactly is a muscle
not in order to understand what that is
we need a little bit of an anatomy
lesson now your body is a series of
muscles that are kind of stacked on top
of each other in layers these muscles
pull on bones that move joints and
that's how we can move in in all the
different motions all the different
directions that we can go now when
muscles contract basically what they do
is in their lengthened state they're
kind of elongated and they're relaxed
when they're in their contracted state
what happens is those muscles have to
slide over each other kind of looks like
this so we're relaxed here when we're
contracted we're right here what a
muscle knot is is a muscle that kind of
gets into this contracted state and then
gets stuck there that's why and so when
it's when it's all kind of balled up
like this and again we're talking about
the neck and upper shoulders today you
can kind of push on those spots and you
can find those areas that are not there
basically a little bit at a tighter than
that normal muscle tissue feels and
that's what that is it's when those
muscle fibers contract and then just
don't let go so why do we get these
muscle knots now the three primary
causes that I see the most often are
going to be poor posture muscle weakness
and lack of activity so let's talk about
posture for just a second in normal
posture my ears should be right over my
shoulders unfortunately that's not where
most of us hang out all day maybe you
have a desk job where you're here and
you're typing you're looking down at a
computer screen
I mean gravity is always pulling us down
most of our activities are right here in
front of us
causes our shoulders to round forward
our head to come forward and put strain
on those muscles here we're depending on
muscles to hold our head up and to keep
our gaze up right here we're depending
on gravity to do that this is a very
passive activity this becomes a very
basically muscle strenuous activity
causes those muscles to remain in this
tightened contracted state for hours on
end they're not supposed to do that
they're not used to doing that that's
what causes those muscle knots in there
so posture is the first thing and muscle
weakness is another thing which is
directly related to our third cause
which is inactivity if you're just not
doing a whole lot especially if you're
not doing a lot of resisted exercise
a lot of pulling a lot of rowing a lot
of just activating those muscles in your
back and between your shoulder blades
chances are you're going to have some
muscle knots that creep up into there
and so most importantly I want to show
you now ten of my favorite things these
are so easy you guys you can do these at
home very little equipment required
these are some simple things that you
can do to help eliminate those muscle
knots all right so let's get into it the
most important part of this video the
part that you came for how do we get rid
of these muscle knots in our neck and in
our upper shoulders I brought my wife
not only is it easier to demonstrate
these on someone else but this is
something that she struggles with also
just just not who doesn't get knots who
doesn't carry tension in their neck
let's show you some easy ways to get rid
of that so she's gonna circle around to
the other side of the table here and the
first thing that I like to tell people
is just reach for a heating pad and so
I've got a couple of different options
you know these rice bags you know you
throw these throw these in the microwave
get them nice and hot and then you can
kind of drape that over wherever that
knot is if it's kind of up higher on
your neck a lot of times these electric
heating pads are really nice sometimes
that's a little harder to keep on there
so what we like to do and she'll just
hold that for a second is if you get a
towel and then you can kind of put it on
the right spot and then wrap it around
that's kind of an easier convenient way
to hold it heat is actually a
vasodilator meaning it's gonna open up
your capillaries brings blood flow into
an area and actually helps those muscles
those knots to relax and so it's not
only a vasodilator but it's a way that
we can promote oxygen and blood flow
into an area to promote relaxation so he
is the first thing that I like to reach
for and thing number two that we're
gonna do is just stretch it out so again
most often it's the upper trapezius
muscle right here and then you've got a
muscle that kind of comes down this way
it's called your levator scapulae comes
in and hooks right into the top part of
that shoulder blade so from the base of
her skull to her shoulder blade those
are the two muscles that we need to
stretch out to work some of those muscle
knots out and so what she's gonna do is
she's gonna tilt one ear over to her
shoulder and then with that same here so
she's going right ear over to right
shoulder with her right hand
at the left side of her head and then
she's just applying a little bit of a
gentle pressure to get a stretch so
again so upper trapezius we're going
base of the skull out to the tip of the
shoulder you should fill this on the
outside part of your neck that's muscle
number one where we tend to get a lot of
muscle knots muscle number two is again
that levator scapulae so now rather than
straight ear to shoulder I call this one
the smell your armpit stretch so what
she's gonna do is she's gonna kind of
duck her head down towards her armpit so
it's kind of this oblique angle down
toward your armpit and then it's that
same overpressure again this time we're
kind of diving more forward than
straight lateral and this one we were
practicing this one earlier and she said
oh gosh that's pain and so this man
she's gonna feel again base of the skull
up to the top of that shoulder blade is
another common area where you're gonna
give those muscle knots that's another
great stretch that's gonna take care of
those okay and so then while she's
sitting right here another great way to
take care of those muscle knots is to
actually fatigue that area to promote
movement to promote muscle contraction
in that area again it's going to bring
blood flow and oxygen and just kind of
help the muscle to reset so in order to
activate as many of those muscles up
there as we can what we're gonna do is
some shrugs so she's gonna shrugged her
shoulders up towards her ears and then
retraction so when we say retraction
we're gonna squeeze our shoulder blades
together so she goes she goes up and
then she's gonna squeeze the shoulder
blades together hold for about a
three-second count and then relax if you
want to add even one more muscle
contraction whoo what she can do is
actually shrugged her shoulders up let's
say that knots over here on the left
side she's gonna tell her ear to the
left kicks on one more muscle right here
and now let's retract from there
hold two three and then come back down
you should feel that you should feel
that those muscles working those areas
where you're tight those areas where you
do have your muscle nuts that's what
we're trying to do again to just kind of
promote relaxation promote those muscles
to more or less reset as what we're
after okay cool let's go ahead and let's
see can you turn sideways so the next
thing that we're going to work on is
again we establish that a lot of this
problem is due to postural issues so one
thing that we
can do is help those postural issues
basically what we need to do is get the
head back from from too far forward we
need to get it back up over the shoulder
where it needs to be thus eliminating
the fatigue and the stress on that
muscle and helping that not to eliminate
and so what Camille's gonna do are some
chin tucks and so she's gonna tuck her
chin kind of straight into her throat
and pull her head backwards now do it
incorrectly so a lot of times people
will just do a chin tuck by ducking
their head down kind of tucking their
chin down into their chest
we're not nodding we're not going up and
down rather we're going straight back is
the motion that you should look for with
this we're gonna get a good stretch kind
of right here at the base of the skull
these muscles are called your
suboccipital muscles we get a good
stretch there we get a good elongation
here and it's a great way that we can
stretch those muscles and train your
posture train your head to kind of sit
back over your shoulders where we need
it to be that's another way to call it
what it is is the double chin exercise
okay next I'm gonna grab this foam roll
these foam rolls were on this oh these
are so great if you guys don't have one
of these I'm gonna leave a link in the
description to this video I like these
this is it's six inches in circumference
by 36 inches in length I like it the
bigger size just because they're a
little more versatile there's a little
bit more that you can do with them and
so I'm gonna lay this down and she's
actually gonna lay right on top of this
so we're gonna sit down on that and it
yep and then you can lay all the way
down just like that okay and then the
exercises that I'd like to run people
through on this is she's just gonna take
her hands she's gonna go up and over her
head kind of in a big why hang out right
there should feel a stretch through the
front of your chest the front of your
shoulders hang out for about 10 seconds
and then come back down arms come back
down to that starting position again the
goal here is to get out of this position
where there's going to be a ton of
stress in your neck and shoulders get
back and up into this tall position and
so that's an exercise that I love to do
for that very good it feels good - nice
yeah this one this one patience when I
put them on this they all say oh my gosh
that actually it kind of is
uncomfortable but after you kind of
stretch it out for a second that's one
of my favorite exercises very cool okay
so now we get her up off of there we're
done on the table for a second and so
now the next thing that I like to show
people is she's gonna come over the wall
and we're gonna do what we would call a
wall angel and so on this her feet can
come out from the wall a little bit but
I want your but your shoulders in the
back of your head up against the wall
and then she's gonna get her knuckles to
the wall also now in this position she's
gonna slide her arms up and over her
head
knuckles stay in contact with the wall
up at the top and then come right on
back down and that rate looks perfect
what I shoot for here is about ten reps
and then we repeat that for three sets
this is a great way to again work on
posture but then we're also promoting
fatigue and muscle activation in those
muscles I'm sure you feel that so you
shake that between your shoulder blades
and then as we come up and down we're
also gonna get it in those muscles where
there's where there's those tight muscle
knots so that upper trap the rhomboid
group that levator scapulae all those
muscles she's working out we're
promoting basically activation and
hopefully relaxation by doing this
exercise okay next we're gonna flip
around and to the other side and we're
gonna do what we call some wall slide so
I'm gonna give her this towel she's
gonna put her forearms against the towel
kind of helps to decrease friction and
then she's just gonna take both hands up
as high as you can over her head so
she's kind of leaning into the wall a
little bit up nice and slow and down
nice and slow I tell people you can kind
of spray a little cleaner on there like
if you need to wash the walls this is a
great way to do that and so again what
we're promoting here is just a lot of
extension through her spine we're
working on these muscles were again
promoting blood flow into that spot
hopefully we're Kenna she's she's
feeling a stretch through her shoulder
through the front of her chest through
her shoulders as we get up there to the
top and then coming right back down and
so wall slides is another great way that
we can eliminate that tension and those
knots in the in the upper shoulders okay
the last thing that we're going to talk
about and you can do
SiC well actually you know before you
sit down massage is a great way to do it
and so if you've got don't laugh you got
a spouse at home who happens to be a
physical therapist he's gonna work out
he's gonna we're going sometime
oh okay fair enough I deserve that but
if you have a significant other who can
kind of help to work on and rub those
knots out a little bit that's great if
you don't there's actually some ways
that you can self mobilize those knots
that you can take care of those by
yourself the simplest one is you just
get a tennis ball and then what you're
gonna do is put that on the wall you're
gonna turn around backwards there it is
and so to kind of creep that up to
wherever that knot is and then she's
gonna mobilize it just like that and
again what you're gonna what you're
gonna find is there are areas where that
tissue again we're talking about those
contractile layers that are come
together and they're tight like that and
so when you find them with miss ball
you're actually gonna feel it's gonna be
a little bit tender sometimes we refer
to muscle knots as trigger points yeah
so it can be a little bit tender it can
be a little bit painful but you find
those spots and then she's doing a
perfect job you can kind of massage your
way over there you go you can massage
your way over them another thing you can
do is find that spot and just leave it
right there and just apply what we call
an acupressure or a trigger point
release is the technique that we're
going for there the idea is that you
kind of starve that area of blood flow
for a second hold up for you know 10 20
30 seconds and then when you release it
what that does is promotes blood into
that spot and it's a good way that you
can promote relaxation and those knots
nice so I'll take that from her go ahead
and sit up here facing this way please
and then if you're really prone to these
there there's a couple of these actually
self massage tools that you can use this
one's my favorite this one's called a
theracane if you guys have never heard
of these or seen one again if you're
prone to these muscle knots you're gonna
want one immediately because this is
going to save your life I will also
leave a discreetly to one of these in
the description to this video again it's
called a theracane or a self massage
stick those are the types of things that
you're going to search for you can see
that it's kind of got these nodule
and these handles all around on us what
she's gonna do is just grab on to that
and then from here it's just the same
thing she's gonna find those areas and
those knots in her back and just kind of
work them over a little bit this is
another good way that you can apply that
acupressure technique you find one of
those knots you just kind of dig that
theracane into it hold it there for
again about you know ten to thirty
seconds and it's a great way that you
can promote it to release and relax like
that okay unless you want to keep it I
was gonna take it from her but I think
that she's pretty comfortable like that
all right so there you have them about
ten great techniques that you can do at
home to treat those muscle knots in your
neck and in your upper shoulders hey I
hope you guys found this beneficial I
hope that this helps you out if you
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