Not really, just taking the tension off enough to hold it in place. The exciting part is putting it back together.
I do use a sleeve at the top and run a bolt through the shock. Just undo the shock nut and release the spring a few inches and the worry is over.
If you use a coupe of hooks to hold the springs, I found that was a bit more worrisome. They tended to ****.

 

as Wayne said - just need to remove tension and I actually felt a lot safer doing this than with spring compressors from Advance or AutoZone. went this route to remove old and install new - worked quite well