Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a great relaxation technique that can help to quickly decrease feelings of stress and anxiety. It is frequently recommended by medical practitioners including psychologists, doctors, massage therapists, as well as physiotherapists. You can practice it by consciously relaxing tense muscles, while at the same time focusing on deep breathing. It is one of the most effective and efficient relaxation techniques and can provide you with almost immediate results. Stress hormones can interfere with our ability to feel pleasure. By incorporating PMR into your day, your workouts will leave you happier (source).
How does Progressive Muscle Relaxation Work?
Progressive muscle relaxation works by screening the body for tension. By placing increased focus and attention towards separate muscle groups, fully contracting, and then relaxing them, we can work on decreasing local muscle tension. This, in turn, will decrease your heart rate, as well as high blood pressure, resulting in a decrease in the release of your body’s stress levels. By reducing your body’s stress levels (i.e. your cortisol levels), you will become more capable to experience feelings of joy. Typically, the session is completed using a bottom-up approach, meaning that you should start with your feet and end with your facial muscles. Progressive muscle relaxation is considered a type of systematic desensitization.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise
In order to enhance your experience, I recommend that you perform progressive muscle relaxation while listening to an audio recording. It can be more satisfying and effective to be guided through this experience by a soft voice and relaxing background music.
- Prepare. Get rid of tight clothing, find a quiet space, get into a comfortable position and close your eyes
- Focus on deep diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing). Aim to make your exhalations about twice as long as your inhalation.
- Once you get into a good rhythm, pay increased attention to your feet and ankles. Fully contract these muscles for about three seconds, and then fully relax them to decrease any tension.
- Now, slowly move up towards your lower leg and calf muscles, before continuing with your thighs, the next muscle group.
- Move on to your hips, low back, abdomen, as well as your forearms and upper arms until they are free of any tension.
- Next, focus on your chest and back musculature. Make sure you don’t forget about the muscles in between your shoulder blades.
- Finish off focusing and relaxing on your neck and facial musculature.
- Quickly screen for any tension that may have remained or built back up again within your body. Continue for as long as you need to induce a full body relaxation response.
When to Perform Progressive Muscle Relaxation
One of the great things about PMR is that you can perform it anywhere. Whether it is from the comfort of your own home or at work, PMR can help you anywhere, anytime. I recommend that you perform a session when you are experiencing greater than normal levels of stress and anxiety. Additionally, you should perform a quick session of PMR before you perform your workout. This can keep you focused during your workout and remove any mental stress during your workout, which may negatively impact your workout happiness.
How Long to Perform Progressive Muscle Relaxation
This depends on your levels of stress and tension. If you are experiencing greater amounts of distress, you may need to perform PMR exercises for 5-8 minutes to return your body to its baseline. If you want to perform it while you notice that your stress levels are on the rise, anywhere from 2-5 minutes may be sufficient in clearing overall tension. The good news is that you will become more efficient with PMR and that it will take less time the more often you practice it.
Benefits of Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Physical Relaxation. By actively scanning and relaxing individual muscle groups throughout your whole body, your body will be able to relax
- Decreased Stress and Anxiety Levels. When we relax our body, our mind will follow. The PMR technique can have a positive effect on managing both short, as well as long term stress and anxiety.
- Management of Certain Conditions. This includes, but is not limited to conditions such as chronic pain, high blood pressure, as well as heart disease.
- Relief of Tension Headaches. If your tension is coming from your shoulder girdle and neck musculature, you may be familiar with tension headaches. Progressive muscle relaxation can help to decrease the intensity by purposefully targeting these muscles. It is also recommended to stretch afterwards. In addition, I recommend that you go and see your local physical therapist or massage therapist for an assessment and treatment.
- Better Sleep. Progressive muscle relaxation can help to improve your sleep quality. It can help to bring both body and mind down after a long and stressful day, helping you to fall asleep faster and give you a higher quality snooze.
- Treat Digestive Disturbances. PMR training can help in the treatment of light digestive disturbances. Researchers have found a close connection between your mental health and your gut health. Therefore, by taking good care of your mental well-being, your gut will respond likewise!
- Better Overall Health. By continuously engaging in PMR training, normal activities of daily living can become less stressful. The physiological effects of PMR training can help to negate health problems in both the short, as well as the long term.
Tips
- Find comfortable place to perform PMR. Wear comfortable, loose clothing and ensure that your surrounding space is quiet. Ear plugs may help to block out any unwanted noise!
- Pay attention to the order of muscle groups (I recommend the bottom-up approach, i.e. starting with your feet musculature and ending with your facial muscles).
- Try to perform PMR while listening to a guided audio recording to get the most out of your session. As you get more experienced, you will become more comfortable at performing PMR without any guidance.
- Focus on deep, slow breaths. Breathe through your belly (i.e. make your belly rise on the inhalation instead of your chest). Hold your breath for a few seconds following full inhalation. Then, try to make your exhalation time about twice as long as your inhalation time.
Conclusion
The technique of progressive muscle relaxation has become increasingly more popular over the last few decades. It is a great way of quickly reducing stress levels and induce relaxation across the entire body and mind. It can help you make your workouts more enjoyable by reducing the levels of stress hormones circulating within your blood stream. The benefits of PMR training include, but are not limited to increased physical relaxation, decreased levels of stress and anxiety. Additionally, regular PMR training can help in the management of certain health conditions, including chronic pain, high blood pressure, as well as heart disease and lead to an overall better level of health. Try your first 5 minute session today!