Motion Specific Release (MSR): The Power of Integration
Pain can take people away from the things that give their lives meaning: work, independence, sport, or time with family. Helping them regain those possibilities gives our clinical work and teaching its purpose.
At the heart of Motion Specific Release is a commitment to helping people become more fully alive. In musculoskeletal care, that means helping people develop the capacity and confidence to participate in the life they want to live.
For practitioners, purpose shapes how we listen, what we investigate, and how we respond when progress falls short. Patients experience that purpose through the care we provide, the explanations we offer, and our willingness to keep learning. The procedures matter. Understanding why we use them gives those skills direction.
Developed through more than three decades of practice, study, and teaching, MSR connects clinical assessment, manual therapy, progressive exercise, and patient education within an approach that adapts to the individual. It draws on diverse perspectives to help practitioners recognize relevant relationships, consider options they may have overlooked, and make thoughtful decisions about care.
We teach MSR to expand both what practitioners can do and how they understand the person in front of them.
Article Index:
Evolving Perspectives in Musculoskeletal Care
Patients whose progress remains limited often teach us the most. They challenge our assumptions and encourage us to investigate beyond familiar explanations. A practitioner may know several treatment methods yet still encounter a patient whose presentation calls for a different perspective.
MSR has developed through learning across chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy, acupuncture, myofascial therapy, sports medicine, rehabilitation, fascial research, and biomechanics. Each has contributed questions, concepts, or practical skills. Its development continues as research evolves and clinical encounters reveal gaps in our understanding.
No discipline provides every answer. Diverse perspectives become valuable when we can judge their relevance to the individual.
An anatomical relationship may suggest something worth examining. A neurological finding may change our priorities. The patient's history may reveal that poor sleep, concerns about movement, or an exercise program that never progresses deserves further attention. Some findings call for treatment; others call for investigation, collaboration, or referral.
Learning to distinguish these possibilities is central to MSR education. Practitioners explore kinetic chain and fascial relationships while developing the judgment to decide which findings matter. Supporting evidence, patient preferences, scope of practice, and response to care guide how those perspectives enter the plan.
Bringing Assessment, Treatment and Rehabilitation Together
Integration begins with a question: What does this person need to move forward?
The answer requires connecting the patient's goals and examination findings with treatment choices, rehabilitation, and the circumstances affecting recovery. It also requires recognizing when an explanation is incomplete.
An Illustrative Example: Persistent Low Back Pain
Consider a person with persistent low back pain who has tried numerous treatments and medical interventions with limited progress. They exercise regularly but lack a clear progression, sleep for roughly four hours a night, and describe difficulty relaxing because they are constantly anticipating pain.
A broader assessment would explore relevant movement and loading patterns, including relationships beyond the lower back, alongside the sleep history, concerns about movement, and demands of daily life. These findings would help establish priorities rather than automatically justify more treatment.
Care might combine appropriate manual procedures with gradually progressed exercise, breathing or meditation practices, and support for sleep and nutrition within professional scope. Significant sleep difficulties or other health concerns may require collaboration. Reassessment would consider changes in a meaningful activity, loading tolerance, confidence, and the person's experience over time.
This example illustrates a reasoning process, rather than a documented outcome or a prescription for every patient with low back pain.
The educational value lies in learning how to connect these decisions. When is a manual procedure useful? Which response matters? What should the patient practise between visits? When should the plan change?
MSR education helps practitioners investigate these questions and translate their answers into an adaptable plan.
The Components of Motion Specific Release
MSR brings together examination, myofascial procedures, fascial expansions, joint mobilization and manipulation, neural mobilization, exercise, and education. Practitioners learn both the application of individual procedures and the reasoning that connects them.
Orthopedic and Neurological Examinations
A familiar presentation can contain findings that change the clinical direction. Examination helps practitioners prioritize symptoms, identify concerns requiring further investigation, and distinguish findings that influence treatment from those that may be incidental.
MSR teaching connects orthopedic findings, neurological signs, and functional limitations. Practitioners explore possible neural involvement, overlapping presentations, and the relationship between regional findings and the broader clinical picture.
The goal is to translate examination findings into decisions about treatment, reassessment, and referral.
MSR Pro provides 70 concise examination videos and fillable examination PDFs covering all body regions. These resources support practical review, structured documentation, and reassessment.
Myofascial Treatment Integration
MSR integrates regional anatomy with myofascial procedures that coordinate tissue contact, joint positioning, stabilization, and controlled movement. Practitioners examine the symptomatic region alongside relevant relationships involving synergists, stabilizers, and antagonists.
Kinetic chain and fascial anatomy provide perspectives for investigation. Their relevance is considered through the patient's presentation and examination, rather than assumed from anatomical continuity alone.
Training explores how contact, direction, force, and movement change a procedure's application. Practitioners adapt these variables to symptom irritability and patient feedback, then reassess a relevant movement or task.
More than 200 MSR treatment procedures are supported by instructional videos and articles. These resources provide opportunities to review application and refine practical skills.
Fascial Expansions
Fascial Expansions bring fascial anatomy and regional myofascial relationships together with selected acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine concepts. Within MSR, they provide additional perspectives on treatment locations, tissue contacts, positioning, and movement.
Practitioners learn how these elements form a coordinated procedure and consider when that procedure may be appropriate. Anatomical connections and traditional concepts inform exploration; they do not, by themselves, establish a clinical mechanism or prove benefit.
Selection remains guided by relevant findings, patient preferences, and response. Changes in symptoms, movement, and function help inform subsequent decisions.
Osseous Adjusting and Mobilization
MSR brings joint mobilization and adjusting together with soft-tissue procedures and active rehabilitation. Training covers spinal and extremity joints, with attention to positioning, stabilization, direction of force, and controlled application.
Practitioners explore how joint positioning can inform a myofascial procedure and how different interventions can be coordinated around a functional goal.
Clinical findings, symptom irritability, patient preferences, contraindications, and practitioner scope guide selection. Reassessment considers whether an intervention contributes to a relevant movement or task and whether the plan should continue, progress, or change.
Functional Exercise Programs
Returning to activity requires the capacity to meet its demands. MSR connects treatment with progressive exercise to develop strength, endurance, coordination, and loading tolerance.
Programs draw on mobility, resistance training, balance, proprioception, and task-specific movement. Practitioners learn to select an appropriate starting point and adjust range, resistance, volume, and complexity as capacity develops.
Doing exercise and progressing exercise are different skills. Returning to lifting, running, or sustained desk work requires preparation matched to the individual and the task.
MSR Pro provides fillable exercise prescription pads linked to more than 250 exercise videos, alongside demonstrations in condition-specific articles. These resources support clear instruction and practical guidance between appointments.
MSR Pro Condition Library
The MSR Pro Condition Library connects assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation across more than 50 common musculoskeletal conditions.
Articles bring clinical explanations together with examination videos, treatment demonstrations, and exercise recommendations. Practitioners can review the rationale for an approach alongside its application, then adapt it to the patient's findings and goals.
The library also supports patient education and communication with other healthcare professionals. It offers a reference for explaining findings, discussing the rationale for care, and identifying the functional goals guiding rehabilitation.
Unlocking the Art of MSR
Knowing a procedure and applying it skilfully are different achievements. Hands-on care requires coordination, attention, and the ability to adapt while the procedure unfolds.
More than 50 years of practising and teaching Tai Chi and mindfulness have influenced Dr. Brian Abelson's approach to MSR education. These disciplines provide a practical setting for exploring balance, weight transfer, coordinated movement, and responsiveness to changing resistance.
Practitioners learn that their own movement is part of the technique.
During training, stance and weight transfer are explored alongside contact and positioning. Practitioners practise coordinating their body motion with the procedure, adjusting how they deliver force and how they respond to the patient's feedback.
Attention is developed through application. Changes in resistance, guarding, or movement may prompt an adjustment in contact, direction, range, or pressure. These observations are interpreted alongside the examination and the patient's experience.
This teaching draws on accumulated practice and embodied skill, alongside relevant scientific knowledge. It can be demonstrated, practised, and refined through feedback.
Research informs the discussion without capturing every aspect of what occurs in skilled instruction.
Selected Tai Chi and mindfulness practices offer opportunities to develop movement awareness and sustained attention. The aim is to help practitioners bring anatomical knowledge into controlled, responsive application while remaining curious about the person's response.
Continuing the Pursuit
Helping people become more fully alive gives this work its direction. For one patient, progress may mean returning to sport. For another, it may mean walking with family, working more comfortably, or rebuilding confidence in everyday movement.
MSR education supports that purpose by helping practitioners broaden their understanding, refine their skills, and consider perspectives beyond their familiar approaches. Its development remains an ongoing process of research, practice, teaching, and learning from others.
The next step depends on what you want to develop.
MSR Pro provides ongoing access to examination resources, treatment demonstrations, condition articles, and exercise guidance for clinical reference.
The upcoming online MSR TMD course will focus on jaw-related presentations, connecting applied anatomy, examination, clinical reasoning, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Online and live MSR certification programs planned for 2027 will provide opportunities for structured learning and practical skill development.
Explore the resources and course information at Motion Specific Release, and subscribe to the MSR newsletter for course announcements and registration updates.
As you consider your next step, ask: Where would a broader perspective make the greatest difference in your practice?
Our purpose is to help practitioners expand their capacity to care, so patients have greater opportunities to participate fully in life.
References
Abelson B, Abelson K, Mylonas E. A Practitioner’s Guide to Motion Specific Release: Functional, Successful, Easy to Implement Techniques for Musculoskeletal Injuries. 1st ed. Rowan Tree Books; 2018.
Bialosky JE, Bishop MD, Price DD, Robinson ME, George SZ. The mechanisms of manual therapy in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain: a comprehensive model. Manual Therapy. 2009;14(5):531–538.
Blanpied PR, Gross AR, Elliott JM, Devaney LL, Clewley D, Walton DM, Sparks C, Robertson EK. Neck pain: revision 2017. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2017;47(7):A1–A83.
Hayden JA, Ellis J, Ogilvie R, Malmivaara A, van Tulder MW. Exercise therapy for chronic low back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2021;9:CD009790.
Kerr CE, Shaw JR, Wasserman RH, Chen VW, Kanojia A, Bayer T, Kelley JM. Tactile acuity in experienced Tai Chi practitioners: evidence for use dependent plasticity as an effect of sensory-attentional training. Experimental Brain Research. 2008;188(2):317–322.
Krause F, Wilke J, Vogt L, Banzer W. Intermuscular force transmission along myofascial chains: a systematic review. Journal of Anatomy. 2016;228(6):910–918.
Langevin HM, Yandow JA. Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes. The Anatomical Record. 2002;269(6):257–265.
Lin I, Wiles L, Waller R, Goucke R, Nagree Y, Gibberd M, Straker L, Maher CG, O’Sullivan PPB. What does best practice care for musculoskeletal pain look like? Eleven consistent recommendations from high-quality clinical practice guidelines: systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54(2):79–86.
Myers TW. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual Therapists and Movement Professionals. 4th ed. Elsevier; 2021. 9780702078132
Stecco C. Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System. 1st ed. Churchill Livingstone; 2015. 9780702044304
Wilke J, Krause F, Vogt L, Banzer W. What is evidence-based about myofascial chains: a systematic review. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2016;97(3):454–461.
Zügel M, Maganaris CN, Wilke J, Jurkat-Rott K, Klingler W, Wearing SC, et al. Fascial tissue research in sports medicine: from molecules to tissue adaptation, injury and diagnostics: consensus statement. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018;52(23):1497.
Disclaimer
The articles and embedded videos on the MSR website are provided for educational and informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for individualized assessment, diagnosis, or treatment by an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Some videos demonstrate clinical examination and manual therapy procedures intended for licensed or regulated healthcare professionals with appropriate training. These procedures should be performed only within the practitioner’s legal scope of practice and should not be attempted as self-treatment.
Viewing or using this content does not establish a practitioner-patient relationship. If you have questions about a medical condition or symptoms that are new, severe, or worsening, consult an appropriately qualified healthcare provider.
MSR is not responsible for decisions made or actions taken solely on the basis of this educational content. For complete information about website use, third-party links, privacy, and legal terms, please review the MSR Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and full website disclaimer.
DR. BRIAN ABELSON, DC.
Dr. Brian Abelson is a chiropractor, author, and educator with more than 30 years of clinical experience in musculoskeletal care, rehabilitation, and sports performance. His educational work focuses on musculoskeletal conditions, human movement, sports biomechanics, and evidence-informed approaches to treatment and rehabilitation.
He is the developer of Motion Specific Release (MSR) and Clinical Director of Kinetic Health in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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