Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a relaxation technique that is effective and easy to learn. By repeatedly tensing and relaxing various muscles, you can learn to recognize the feelings associated with a tensed muscle and a relaxed muscle. After developing this awareness, the idea is to be able to induce relaxation just by thinking about relaxed muscle states when you encounter stress or tension. Practice this technique twice a day for about a week to get the hang of it. Add it to your other stress management strategies if it works for you.

Sit in a comfortable chair-reclining armchairs are ideal. Get as comfortable as possible-wear loose fitting clothes, take off your shoes, and leave your legs uncrossed. Take a deep breath; let it out slowly. What you'll be doing is alternately tensing and relaxing specific groups of muscles.

After tension, a muscle will be more relaxed than prior to the tensing. Concentrate on the feel of the muscles, specifically the contrast between tension and relaxation. In time, you will recognize tension in any specific muscle and be able to reduce that tension.

Tense only the muscles of the specific group at each step. Continue to breathe, relax your jaw and face muscles. Breathe slowly and evenly and think only about the tension-relaxation contrast. Each tensing is for 10 seconds; each relaxing is for 10 or 15 seconds. Count "1,000 2,000 ... " until you have a feel for the time span. Note that each step is really two steps-one cycle of tensionrelaxation for each set of opposing muscles.

Do the entire sequence once a day if you can, until you feel you are able to control your muscle tensions. Be careful: If you have problems with pulled muscles, broken bones, or any medical contraindication for physical activities, consult your doctor first.

1. Hands. Tense your fists; then relax. Extend your fmgers; relax.
2. Biceps and triceps. Curl your biceps (make a muscle-but shake your hands to make sure not tensing them into a fist); relax (drop your arm to the chair-really drop them). Extend your triceps by squeezing the backs of your arms (try to bend your arms the wrong way); relax (drop them).
3. Shoulders. Squeeze your shoulder blades together; relax them. Push your shoulders forward (hunch); relax.
4. Neck (lateral). With your shoulders straight and relaxed, the head is turned slowly to the right, as far as you can; relax. Turn to the left; relax.
5. Neck (forward). Dig your chin into your chest; relax (bringing the head back is not recommended).
6. Mouth. Open your mouth; relax. The lips are brought together or pursed as tightly as possible; relaxed.
7. Tongue (extended and retracted). With your mouth open, extend the tongue as far as possible; relax (let it sit in the bottom of your mouth). Bring it back in your throat as far as possible; relax.
8. Tongue (roof and floor). Dig your tongue into the roof of your mouth; relax. Dig it into the bottom of your mouth; relax.
9. . Eyes. Open them as wide as possible (furrow your brow); relax. Close your eyes tightly (squint); relax. Make sure you completely relax the eyes, forehead, and nose after each of the tensings.
10. Breathing. Take as deep a breath as possible-and then take a little more; let it out and breathe normally for 15 seconds. Let all the breath in your lungs out-and then a little more; inhale and breathe normally for 15 seconds.
11. Back. With your shoulders resting on the back of the chair, push your body forward to arch your back (be very gentle with this one).
12. . Butt. Tense the butt tightly and raise pelvis slightly off chair; relax. Dig buttocks into chair; relax.
13. Thighs. Extend legs and raise them about 6" off the floor or the foot rest-but don't tense the stomach; relax. Dig your feet (heels) into the floor or foot rest; relax.
14. Stomach. Pull in the stomach as far as possible; relax completely. Push out the stomach or tense it.
15. Calves and feet. Point the toes (without raising the legs); relax. Point the feet up as far as possible; relax.
16. Toes. With legs relaxed, dig your toes into the floor; relax. Bend the toes up as far as possible; relax.

Wikipedia.org content found under 'Jacobsen's Progressive Muscle Relaxation" Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/ or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.