Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Have you ever had a back ache, pain in your neck, or knots in your body when you are anxious or stressed out? When there is stress in your life, one of the ways that your body responds is with muscle tension. Progressive muscle relaxation is a method often used to help relieve tension.

*In progressive muscle relaxation, the person will tense up a group of muscles as they are breathing in deeply and they would relax them as they are breathing out. They are working on their muscle groups in a certain order.

*When our body is relaxed, you cannot feel anxious. Practicing this for a few weeks will help get your better at this valuable skill and in time, you will be able to use this skill to relieve stress.

*When you first begin, it may help to use and audio recording until you learn all the muscle groups in order. You can check out your local library or a bookstore for progressive muscle relaxation recordings.

*This method may also help with sleep problems, if you have trouble falling asleep.

How to do Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

Progressive muscle relaxation teaches you how to relax your muscles by following a two-step process. First, you efficiently tense specific muscle groups throughout your body, such as your neck and shoulders. Next, you release the tension and you will notice how your muscles feel when you relax them. This will help to lower your overall tension and stress levels. It also helps you relax when you are feeling anxious. This may help reduce physical problems such as stomach aches and headaches, and it helps improve your sleep.

People with anxiety difficulties are often so tense that they cant even recognize what being relaxed feels like. Through pracice you can learn to distinguish between the feelings of a tensed muscle and a completely relaxed one. Then, you may begin to cue the relaxed state at the very first sign of the muscle tension that accompanies feelings of anxiety. By tensing and releasing, you not only learn what relaxation feels like, but you can also recognize when you are starting to get tense throughout the day.

Helpful Hints

*Set aside at least 15 minutes to complete the exercise.

*Find a place where you can do the exercise without being disturbed.

*For the first few weeks, practice the exercise twice a day until you get the hang of it. The better you become, the quicker the relaxation will kick in.

*You do NOT need to be feeling anxious when you practice this exercise. Actually, it is better to practice when calm at first. That way, it will be easier to do so when feeling anxious.

Getting Ready

Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit, then close your eyes and let your body go loose. A recliner is ideal. You can lie down, but it will increase the chances of falling asleep. Although relaxing before bed can improve your sleep. The goal is to learn to relax while awake. Wear loose, comfortable clothing, and dont forget to take off your shoes. Take five slow, deep breaths before you begin.

How to Do It

The Tension-Relaxation Response

Step One: Tension

The first step is to apply tension to a specific part of the body. First, focus on the target muscle group. Next, take slow, deep breaths and tighten the muscles as hard as you possibly can and hold for about 10 seconds. It is very important to REALLY FEEL the tension in the muscles. It may even cause some discomfort or shaking. It is easy to accidentally tense the surrounding muscles, so try to ONLY tense the target muscle. With practice, isolating muscle groups gets easier.

Step Two: Relaxing the Tense Muscles

This step involves quickly relaxing the tensed muscles. After about 10 seconds, let all the tightness flow from the tensed muscles. Exhale as you do this step. You should feel the muscles become loose and limp. As the tension is released. It is extremely important to deliberately focus on and notice the difference between tension and relaxation. This is the most important part of this exercise.

Remain in this relaxed state for about 15 seconds, and then you move to the next muscle group. Repeat the tension-relaxation steps. After you complete all of muscles enjoy the deep state of relaxation.

The Muscle Groups

Muscle Group What to do

*Hands Clench them

*wrists and forearms Extend them, bend hand back to wrist

*Biceps and Clench your hands into fists, bend arm at the

Upper arms elbow, flex biceps

*Shoulders Shrug them (raise them toward the ears)

*Forehead Wrinkle it into a deep frown

*Around the eyes and Close eyes tightly, (Remove contact lenses

Bridge of the nose before starting).

*Cheeks and jaws Smile as widely as you can.

*Around the mouth Press your lips together tightly

*Back of the neck Touch your chin to your chest.

*Chest Take deep breath, hold 4 to 10 seconds

*Back Arch back up and away from chair or floor.

*Stomach Suck it into a tight knot.

*Hips and buttocks Press your buttocks tightly

*Thighs Clench them hard

*Lower legs Point your toes toward your face. Point toes

away , and curl them downward at the same time

It can be very helpful to listen to someone guide you through the steps.There are many great CDs for sale that will help you through the process (or something very similar). You can record a script yourself of this process on a tape, or you can ask a friend or relative that has a very warm, inviting, calm and soothing voice.

Quick Tense and Release

Once you have become familiar with the tension and release technique, and have been practicing for several weeks, you may begin practicing a very short version of PMR. In this approach, you learn how to tense the larger groups of muscles which takes less time. These muscles groups are:

Lower limbs (legs and feet)

Stomach and chest

Arms, shoulders, and neck

Face

Instead of working with just one muscle group at a time you can now focus on the complete group (stomach and chest). You can start by focusing on your breathing during the exercise. It can be very helpful when doing this version to say a certain word or phrase to yourself as you are slowly exhaling. The word or phrase (mantra) will be associated with a relaxed state of being; eventually, just saying this word alone can bring on a calm feeling. This can be very handy especially during times when it would be hard to take the time to go through the steps of PMR.

Final Note

Remember to practice PMR often, whether or not if you are feeling anxious. This will make the exercise more effective for when you actually do need to relax. Although it may feel a bit tedious at first, you will ultimately be gaining a skill that will probably become a very important part of being able to manage your anxiety throughout your daily life.

*How do you feel about PMR?

*What are some of the benefits of PMR?

*How do you relax your stressed muscles?

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