The impact of release work

I’m sure we can all relate to that one client who is always late to class, who misses the first part and jumps straight into an exercise. Even as practitioners, we can feel the pressure to help the client get the most out of their workout. And to be fair, that is how some Pilates practitioners opt to start their clients - straight into the exercise. However, I would argue there is a missing element in not adding key points of release work specific to that client before starting with movement. If our goal is to help our clients move better, shouldn’t we first create space for this shift to happen?

In theory, release work can help to recalibrate our awareness of our body, and the actual tissue sites we’re releasing. It gives the mind and body time to connect and for sensations to appear, which will help determine exercise programming as the person feels what they need on a particular day.

So what does release work entail? It’s much more than just rolling out on a foam roller. By massage, I mean the idea of self-massaging (Self Myofascial Release/SMR) as a way of ‘ironing out’ areas of dysfunction to allow for better movement. Even if the evidence for its use is fairly patchy (1), I do still believe that it holds relevance in a space that is focused on what I call ‘renovating’ a body, so that we’re creating a genuine change in behaviour and movement efficiency.

I have no doubt that we’ve all experienced areas of tightness in our body that seem to feel better after we’ve given them a massage or areas that are really sore to massage, that we had no idea about! So how can we know some areas are sore and tight, and other areas are completely fine, until actually massaged? A lot of this comes down to our interoception, or internal body awareness. Areas that we use/contact often are generally higher on our awareness spectrum, while less regularly used/contacted areas are lower. Often this is overridden once we’ve experienced significant contact to the area e.g. massage, exercise or injury, and then we become more aware of those areas. The real question is: was it really that problematic before you knew about it? 

I believe that the tension we feel when contact is made, is a sign of either over- or under-utilised tissue - and I say that ‘I believe’ as depending on whom you ask, and what evidence you want to read, you will find arguments that will be for or against that opinion. For me, regardless of whether it is under- or over-utilised, making contact will have a positive impact. 

For over-utilised tissues, the general outcome we’re searching for is the relaxation of tissue that feels tense or stiff. Part of this is the actual tissue site experiencing a shift in its residual tone, but the other part is the participants' conscious awareness of relaxing tense areas - both parts play off each other creating a cycle of relaxation, to create meaningful change in the tissue area. If someone isn’t able to relax, then you’ll have a limited response. A great example is working with an athlete to massage their thighs or glutes - it’ll generally feel sore, but they need to be able to soften into it to get real benefit. 

For under-utilised tissue, the general outcome is to increase awareness of the area to better facilitate its role in movement, in the hope of offloading areas that may be over-utilised. With more facilitation to these areas, we create the opportunity for our body to coordinate new, and hopefully more efficient movement pathways. The classic example for me is that of massaging that lateral rib cage to create awareness of our Serratus Anterior and intercostals, to offload Pec’s and Upper Trapezius. 

Does it actually work though? Well, with all things, it comes down to consistency. Our body (consciously and subconsciously) LOVES consistency.  If done consistently and to a meaningful level, you can see immediate improvement in movement which then you can drive into their system during the Pilates session.

Generally, I’ll always do specific release work prior to doing Pilates - in saying that, I’m also really happy to stop an exercise midway through to do some release work as a test to see if it improves a certain element of what we’re working on. For example, if we’re trying to facilitate more glute connection, we may first have to release off excessively tight hip flexors. To do this, we may have to trigger point release the Tensor Fascia Latae (TFL) muscle either statically, or while going through hip extension or external rotation movements. The end goal is to balance out how the TFL and Glute muscles work with each other, for a more balanced control of the hip socket, not to completely ‘switch off’ the TFL. This works well in a small group, mixed-equipment space, but can be a little trickier in a group reformer setting. For this, you might make time early on in your class to teach your clients how to do SMR themselves, or even have posters or videos available where they can learn to target particular areas that they have issues with.

I don’t believe there is a specific ‘best method’ for any one person. Variables worth considering include their muscle mass, body fat, movement restraints, pain threshold and emotional resilience! For example, someone who has a lot of lean muscle but a low pain threshold may be better suited to a soft foam roller or Franklin balls until they relax and their tension eases, and then they can progress to more firm rollers and balls to work deeper. Someone with a larger body mass may need a firmer ball/roller but may struggle to get onto the floor - so they’ll need standing or sitting options. Someone with a high pain tolerance may want the really hard/firm stuff, but not even feel it, so they may need a softball and learn to relax into it… You can see how it gets hard to keep up with!

The key things I look for are…

a) Are they able to relax into it, breathing easily
b) Is the discomfort matching what you’d expect for that area? E.g. does it feel like a massage, rather than a burning or cold or sharp sensation, does it radiate or is it localised? For soft tissue, I’d expect it to stay fairly local, but if you explore massaging your viscera (organs, highly recommend!) then it may well radiate throughout the body. 
c) On a week-to-week basis, are the pain points moving? If they are, they’re successfully creating a change in movement patterns. If they are the same every week, then a change isn’t occurring, and you may need to change tactics. You don’t want to keep going at the same points every time as they’ll eventually become desensitised, resulting in a desire for more intense releases to get the same sense of relief, rather than actually changing the source for why they’re sore in the first place!

If they can maintain the release work consistently over several weeks then the change often becomes sustained and you can build in more challenging or larger movement patterns. This is why I’ll often refer to our work as a ‘renovation’, as we’re aiming for long-term, systemic change in how we move.

Rob graduated from the Otago University in 2012 with a double major in Exercise Prescription, and Sport Science, allowing him to slide into the Pilates industry in London during his travels abroad, where he also started studying Functional Neurology courses. Moving to Melbourne in 2016, he and Ash Berry opened Movementality in 2017, where they quickly grew to be recognised as thought leaders in the Melbourne Pilates scene, working with a varied clientele base from athletes through to chronic pain and complex injury rehabilitation.