On muscle knots—whatever they are—it isn’t just a difference in the experience of those who have them, but also those massaging them. For me they’ve always been obvious. When giving a massage, there are relaxed muscles, tense muscles, and knots, and these are three very different feelings regardless of whatever I’m massaging with fingers, palms, knuckles, elbows, or otherwise. It’s very clear that a knot-feeling-recipient and I almost always agree on the locations of knots, or their absence (the exception seems to be knots that are “deeper” under an also-otherwise-tense area, in which case massage to remove the tension can make it possible for me to feel the knots). That, to me, is very strong evidence that something real that is being detected.
I only recently learned that this isn’t the case for everyone, and that a non-knot-feeling person may have no idea what the other party means when giving a massage to a knot-feeling person. FWIW I experience this as a kind of nodule (some larger or harder than others) that sort of...clicks?… as my hands move over it, typically causing my movements to be less smooth as I move over that spot.
On muscle knots—whatever they are—it isn’t just a difference in the experience of those who have them, but also those massaging them. For me they’ve always been obvious. When giving a massage, there are relaxed muscles, tense muscles, and knots, and these are three very different feelings regardless of whatever I’m massaging with fingers, palms, knuckles, elbows, or otherwise. It’s very clear that a knot-feeling-recipient and I almost always agree on the locations of knots, or their absence (the exception seems to be knots that are “deeper” under an also-otherwise-tense area, in which case massage to remove the tension can make it possible for me to feel the knots). That, to me, is very strong evidence that something real that is being detected.
I only recently learned that this isn’t the case for everyone, and that a non-knot-feeling person may have no idea what the other party means when giving a massage to a knot-feeling person. FWIW I experience this as a kind of nodule (some larger or harder than others) that sort of...clicks?… as my hands move over it, typically causing my movements to be less smooth as I move over that spot.