Ideally, your body should only make crunching sounds when you’re munching on carrot sticks. If you hear a crunching sound while lifting weights, for instance, it’s probably going to be followed by a scream.
What, however, about crunching sounds coming from your muscles when they’re being massaged? Is this a sign that your workouts are starting to pay off, or a warning that you may be overdoing things?
What Are Muscle Knots, Anyway?
As you probably suspected, muscles don’t really form knots and tangles in the same way that rope does. Each muscle is made up of bundles of muscle fibers woven together in tight clumps, but they all run parallel to each other.
These muscle fibers (or “myocytes”, as a doctor might call them when talking to another doctor) do sometimes tear, but they grow back instead of snarling or intertwining as actual knots. Each is also far too tiny to be noticeable to the probing finger of a massage therapist: a typical myocyte can only lift about one-tenth of a gram (1/250th of an ounce).
It’s when the efforts of thousands upon thousands of muscle fibers are combined that things like 200 kg deadlifts happen. By and large, they do work in unison, tensing up to move our limbs and then relaxing again when the movement is complete. Under certain circumstances, however, some of them may continue pulling even after your brain has told them to stop.
The hard lumps we feel under the skin are therefore simply bundles of muscle fibers that have contracted but stubbornly refuse to relax again. In case you feel the need to sound clever on your next date, the technical name for these muscle knots is “myofascial trigger points”.
While the muscle fibers in a particular spot of the body have all decided to remain tensed up, blood has a harder time flowing through and around them. This restricts their access to oxygen and nutrients. Muscle knot release therefore speeds up healing and recovery, and also allows waste products to be disposed of elsewhere in the body.
Are Muscle Knots Something to Worry About?
Generally, stiff muscles and tight, sore spots are all part of the fun of going to the gym and don’t really have any medical significance at all. As anyone who’s been working out for longer than a week or so will tell you, allowing your muscles time to recover properly is just as important as putting them through their paces in the first place.
Until your muscles have had time to heal and any knots have worked themselves loose, you’re not going to be as strong or flexible as you’re used to. With some muscle fibers still locked in a contracted state, they can neither tense further to help with any new activity nor relax and restore your normal range of motion.
However, you may want to seek help if you’re experiencing:
- Severe pain
While a little soreness and burning the next morning are signs of a job well done at the gym, sharp, persistent aches are your body’s way of telling you that you’ve been an idiot and possibly broke something. - Struggling with everyday activities
If you can’t sit up straight or turn your car’s steering wheel, you should probably see a doctor. This is especially true if your condition doesn’t show signs of improving after a day or two. - Additional symptoms
Long-lasting numbness or pain in the affected or other area, swelling, joint pain, ongoing fatigue, and muscle spasms aren’t reasons to panic. When these occur in conjunction with one another and/or muscle knots, though, they can also be indications that something more serious than overtraining is going on.
How Are Muscle Knots that Crunch with Massage Different?
For the most part, crunchy muscle knots are just regular muscle knots with something added. One isn’t necessarily more or less alarming than the other, as long as you keep the above advice in mind.
In one sense, if you hear a crunch, massage is doing its job. This doesn’t have to be an audible noise; it’s also common to feel a kind of crackle or series of pops without hearing anything. What this sound is caused by depends on what produced the muscle’s crunchiness in the first place, and there are two main reasons your muscle knots might crunch during massage:
Adhesions
Time to learn another anatomy term: “fascia” are bags of connective tissue (like tendons, but sheets instead of cords in this case) that separate and protect different muscles. Fascia also surrounds bones, blood vessels, and organs.
As time goes by, muscle fibers can get stuck to these, with a thin layer of scar tissue forming between the fascia and muscles. This is especially likely when the fascia is too tight, which may be caused by a sedentary lifestyle, bad posture, repetitive stress, aging, or any of several other factors.
Injuries, whether created by applying too much force or doing the same movement too often, can also create scar tissue within the muscle itself. The result is much the same. When massaging muscle knots, releasing tension will also tend to tear these tiny adhesions, creating a crunchy sound.
Bits of your body sticking to other bits may seem unsettling but is actually completely natural and part of its self-repair process. It’s only when these adhesions become too widespread, perhaps due to exercising excessively without applying recovery tools like massage, that they become a medical concern.
Waste Buildup
As your muscles work, they consume chemicals like glucose and oxygen. As this fuel is “burned up” to produce the energy that powers your workout, it’s converted into waste products. Ideally, these are carried away by the bloodstream for recycling or disposal.
However, very intense or extended exercise can lead to them accumulating within the muscles themselves. Pockets of lactic acid and bubbles of carbon dioxide form. If these haven’t dissipated, massage can pop them like bubble wrap, releasing your muscles’ garbage and sending it where it needs to go.
Far less often, discarded calcium, shed by muscles as they contract, can also accumulate. Eventually, this can result in the formation of tiny bone-like fragments called calcifications (your fourth medical term for today!). As massage breaks these up, you may be able to sense a slight crackling sound.
Ways of Finding Muscle Knot Release
Aside from spa-type, relaxing massages (yum!) and those with a sports medicine focus (ouch!), you can get rid of both persistent and occasional muscle knots in the following ways:
Prevention Is Better than Cure
It’s logical when you think about it: the same things that lead to cramps can also cause clumps of muscle fibers to tense up. These include dehydration, poor diet, and magnesium deficiency in particular. Leafy green vegetables, oily fish, beans, seeds, and nuts are all good sources of magnesium.
If you don’t already, you should also warm up, cool down, and stretch. Light exercise before the real workout helps open up your blood vessels, providing your muscles with the oxygen and nutrients they need to function effectively, while winding things down with a few minutes on the treadmill helps clean them out and promote faster recovery. Stretching fulfills many of the same functions for muscles as a massage and can be done throughout the day.
Self-Massage
Treating yourself to the services of an actual, trained masseuse feels wonderful but isn’t exactly budget-friendly. If you don’t have a strong-fingered partner willing to help out, you can still get most of the effect by investing in some DIY muscle knot-releasing equipment.
You can apply gentle pressure to your muscles using a foam roller, which is great if you’re not a masochist. Massage guns, however, are more effective. Despite their fearsome appearance, they won’t hurt you as long as they’re used properly; they’re also a lot cheaper than they used to be. S-hook tools look weird and seem difficult to use, but some people also swear by them.
Non-Massage Treatments
Heat of any kind – half an hour in the sauna, a hot bath in the evening, or a strategically placed heating pad – stimulates blood flow and can help your muscles shed tension. Acupuncture, too, is highly effective if you don’t mind needles. Some people even cut out the middleman and perforate themselves after every workout…though the wisdom of doing so seems questionable.
Final Thoughts – Should Muscles Crunch During Massage
Clicking, crackling, or gritting noises or sensations coming from inside you do seem like signs of something being other than it should be. In more than 99% of cases, though, these sounds just mean that you’re being diligent about exercising. Keep an eye on them, sure, but don’t let them bother you unless pain and stiffness persist for a long time.
Muscle knots, of course, are just a part of gym life. Don’t, however, simply turn a blind eye and wait for them to go away on their own. If you’re always sore after a workout, reduce the intensity or see which of your habits you may need to adjust. And, if at all possible, reap the muscle recovery benefits of regular massage, either the professional variety or that which you can do at home.
