What does “release” in massage even mean?

In the massage world there’s this term that gets used a lot: “release”. And I use it a lot too. Even though I use it, it’s kind of frustratingly vague – like, who even really knows what it can mean?

I think the thing is, it’s pretty non-specific when it comes to describing something – and because of that it’s hard for people to conceptualize the release. What do you look for? Or more appropriately, what do you feel for?

It’s something that I’ve tried to describe more and more over the years, because it’s a helpful thing to get familiar with when you’re learning to give massage. If you can reliably sense these “releases”, then you know when to finish with an area and move to the next spot – or even more nuanced, is you can follow the points as they “move” through the tissues, following them with greater success and the ability to do so with more people.

This is one of those things that’s not really defined well by any literature. And as you know, I usually stick to those types of things when I write, but I’m feeling like we can explore this more “undefined” space with a little bit more space for play – because, really, this is where the more felt-sense elements of the practice comes through. It’s these types of things that turn a practitioner from being “really good” to being “reliably excellent”.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years:

• • Firstly, “release” can be various different sensations. It’s not just a single thing and it’s not just brought on by a single thing.
• • Sometimes the release is localized to one spot – like a dense bundle of muscle fibers – or it can be more systemic, like the effect on the whole body of a sighed exhalation.
• • When it’s a release of dense muscle fibers, it feels like a softening of the resistance that was there, which is perhaps the easiest type of release to sense.
• • When it’s more systemic, it’s usually a sensation of slightly more space to sink into. In the work we do, we’re trying to “take up space” that the tissue gives us, and so when the whole body releases a small amount (because this happens in small doses), you can usually pecieve a little more space. That can often be easier detected by how much weight you’re using to provide the pressure. As you add more weight, you know that you’re getting a release.
• • Sometimes you also get points (like trigger points) where there’s not an increased density of the muscle fibers. In that case, the point often feels like it can absorb a lot of pressure. It almost feels “hungry” for lack of a better way to descirbe it. This situation is one of the more challenging ones to sense, because you didn’t have the baseline of a dense set of muscle fibers. So it’s also where I feel like it’s hard to describe. The way I feel when the point is released is “full”. Like, I feel like the hunger of the point has been satisfied. Which probably doesn’t really help, but that’s what I feel. I also pay attention to the response of the body – that point of release/fullness usually is signalled by a deeper cycle of breath from your client. The other thing you can do, is get them to verbally tell you when the sensation drops in 3-4 points of intensity.
• • And then there’s another one, which might actually be a mix of these other types of release, or it could be something entirely different. It’s an extra space that you can perceive in the fascia (or at least, it’s what I perceive to be the fascia). It comes much longer after the systemic space release, you have to keep the pressure for a long time (a minute at least), and it’s most perceivable when you are moving the tissue at an angle. You’re specifically trying to take the tissue directionally over deeper layers. Essentially it becomes sort of a second layer of the same type of release when the nervous system calms down. But it’s also more subtle. There’s not as much space as the first layer. It’s finer, a smaller sensation of space. So it’s an even smaller change in how much weight you’re applying.

The two releases that give more “space” can also often be felt when you’re stretching. The other two, point-based releases, can be more felt if you’re doing some self-manual release. This means it’s something you can practice yourself – and then calibrate further on other people too.

These things are also something that I will probably keep adding to as the years of practice continue – it’s one of those things that gets more and more nuanced as I keep doing this stuff.

It’s also something that I try to communicate to everyone who takes training with me – because it’s with this information that you can get your timing more and more exact – giving each part of the body exactly what it needs for the right amount of time. Because the other challenge you’re up against with treatments, is that if you don’t “finish” a point, but only poke it for a bit, you might end up aggravating it instead of facilitating its release. If you’ve ever had a massage that leaves you more sore than when you entered (like, the next day you feel worse), this might be what happened. The practitioner wasn’t tuned into the sensation of these releases, and didn’t stay long enough on key points.

Anyway, this little musing has been building, and it’s finally out there – and hopefully it helps to take away some of the vague-ness of the term “release” and give you a little more clarity on those sensations.

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Keep reading over here “The magic words: I feel safe“, and “Massage protocols and impending disappointment“.