Soft tissue release (commonly called STR) is an advanced massage technique widely used in assessing and stretching soft tissues. Soft tissues include muscle fibres, their tendons and the deep and superficial fascia surrounding and invaginating these tissues. Stretching is often used for easing the pain of muscle tension and realigning the body so that it functions in a more optimal way. However, unlike generalised stretching, soft tissue release targets specific areas of tension within a muscle. It is also useful for targeting muscles that are difficult to stretch actively (the fibularis muscle group, or peroneals, for example) and for isolating a muscle within a group of muscles that would normally stretch together (the vastus lateralis from the quadriceps, for example). It has proven useful in the treatment of certain conditions such as medial and lateral epicondylitis and plantar fasciitis, perhaps because it stimulates tissue repair in these conditions.
There are many different forms of stretching. Unlike traditional stretching, STR involves the application of pressure to part of a muscle during the stretch. In this respect, it may be likened to Thai yoga massage. However, unlike Thai yoga massage, it does not target specific acupressure points and is not applied along specific sen lines (meridians; sen means ‘channel’). When applying STR, pressure is applied either generally (for the purposes of genera l stretching) or, more commonly, to a specific area of soft tissue that the therapist and client perceive to be tensioned, regardless of whether this happens to fall on a particular acupoint or meridian. Stretching in genera l is believed to be beneficial for overall health, and the American College of Sports Medicine (2018) recommends that stretching is performed 2 to 3 days a week, with each stretch held for 10 to 30 seconds, repeated 2 to 4 times per muscle group, to include the neck, shoulders, trunk, lower back, chest, hips, anterior and posterior legs, and ankles.
Because there has been no research into the use of STR as a stretching technique, it is not known whether these guidelines would also apply to STR. STR is almost always performed as part of a massage routine, where massage is used to soothe and stretch tissues following this lock-and-stretch approach; therefore, it is likely that benefits of STR reported by clients and therapists are the result of both the stretch and the massage combined.