FAQ's About Specialist Myofascial Therapy

What is Myofascial Release?

First, it’s important to understand what the fascial system is! Think of your fascia as the suit of your body. Every structure, organ, bone, nerve, and cell is connected via continuous weaving fibers, supporting and shaping us from head to toe.

When we’re injured, these fibers become glued and bound, no longer gliding as they should. This leads to a ripple effect of distortions and problems like stressors and other symptoms like chronic joint pain, stiffness, and headaches.

Myofascial release is a form of healing that supports the body to change and heal itself. When done properly, this technique involves gentle hands-on pressure that nudges into areas of tissue that aren’t working as they should be. Myofascial release supports the body in releasing and unraveling so it can move well again.

At Release Works, our approach to myofascial release therapy involves addressing these restrictions through the highly effective John Barnes Myofascial Release Approach® and shockwave therapy to enable your body to move/continue moving. We also emphasize movement practice and coaching to empower you to become a better mover, maintain your health, and prevent long-term issues. We look deeper to find what is preventing healthy movement, taking a compassionate, patient, and thorough approach to healing the mind through the body…and vice versa.

How is Myofascial Release therapy different from other solutions?

Conventional medicine and even other modalities like massage and physical therapy use rubbing, breaking up, injecting, cutting, etc., to try to fix the symptom—but miss the underlying issue.

For example, you may go to a chiropractor for a neck adjustment, but your neck is thrown out of alignment when you stand up again. Or you may get an injection to reduce inflammation in one disc, but it’s still being crushed and twisted, so the pain persists.

Even at-home methods like balls and foam rollers can loosen tight muscles and joints temporarily. However, these often overwhelm the area. So, your body wants to build up protection around the pain, making it even tighter and thicker.

Rather than strictly addressing the symptom, our style of myofascial release takes a psychosomatic approach, uncovering where and why your body has built up these “walls” that create tension and pain along with movement and posture issues. In doing so, we unwind these issues gently and re-teach your body how to move well.

Will it hurt?

Will this work for me?

People who see us are dealing with stuck, glued connective tissue, joints that are over-stressed and wearing out, and bony structures that are misaligned and compensating. They frequently struggle with habits and behaviors that contribute to this stuckness. As we address troubled areas and get things moving in the totality of the being, people often describe what they feel as a "hurts so good" type of pain. There is a difference between injurious pain and therapeutic pain. There can be a level of therapeutic pain.

We will never force, we will never injure. If it is painful or uncomfortable, we want you to tell us. Understanding how aWhen life is slowed down or stopped by something, it is frustrating (to say the least) to spend time, money, and energy looking for and trying things that promise to help—only to be let down. If only there were something that actually worked. If only someone would really listen, understand, and know how to help.

We promise that if you allow things to change, you will see change. As you work the program, learn to reconnect with your own intuitive healing nature, give yourself the time needed in each stage, never forcing or rushing through, and commit to regaining control of your life, you will see change. We will help you find the things getting in your way, identify what works for you, and support you in the ways you need most.

You will experience more improvement than just “the thing.”