How can i tell if it's just muscle spasms or something serious?

Spine nerve irritate: You can be having muscle spasms due to spinal nerve root irritation. If you have superficial muscle spasms, you can be helped usually by massage or hot packs. Massage that is helpful is usually enjoyable. If the massage causes you pain and is unpleasant, the massage is teasing the deep muscle spasms to go more into spasm instead of releasing it. In that situation, you usually have tight muscle.