How To Do Progressive Muscle Relaxation (I Lost My Textbook)

How To Do Progressive Muscle Relaxation… I Lost My Textbook

I lost my textbook.  The one from which I learned how to do progressive muscle relaxation back in grad school.  I went to grab it in preparation for this blog post, and nada.  Tsk.

Ah well.  I mean, after teaching PMR approximately 56 kajillion times in the (many) years since grad school, I don’t really need the textbook…

Maybe it was the basement flood when we lived in Hamilton.  That happened to almost every home in the neighbourhood, sitting just a few blocks from the base of “The Mountain” as Hamiltonians call it.  Everyone else calls it the Niagara Escarpment, by the way.  A certain well known waterfall pours over the same cliff, a few miles down.  No waterfalls in the middle of Hamilton, but you know, even regular old rain water flows downhill.

 

Back to our story.

I digress.  Back to how to do progressive muscle relaxation (PMR).  Winging it from memory, PMR was the brain-child of a man with the last name Jacobson.  Possibly Joseph.  Maybe not.  Hold on…  Nope.  It was Edmund.

In any case, Doc Jacobson did a lot of thinking back around the turn of the century.  The 20th century.  As I mentioned in my last post, good ol’ Dr. J had it down and ready to go by 1908.

The good doctor realized that lots of folk are tense.  Many so chronically tense that the state of relaxation ends up a rare experience.  Unfamiliar; even foreign.

 

What is this strange feeling?

Essentially, PMR helps people get familiar with what relaxation feels like.  It does this by tightening up specific muscles, noticing how that tension feels; then releasing those muscles, and noticing what happens.  Upon release, different sensations take place.  These strange and unfamiliar sensations are known as… relaxation.

By doing this a lot, focusing on many different muscles and muscle groups, one gradually becomes very familiar with the sensations of relaxation.  Relaxation (eventually) becomes an old friend.  Vivid memories of things felt in the physical state of relaxation develop through practice, allowing one to recall the feelings and coax the body into that state.

As I like to say, relaxation is a lot of work.

I know this may sound confusing.  After all, it seems so simple, right?  Just remember what relaxation feels like, then make your body do it.

Cats may have no trouble with this, but sometimes tension is the default setting of your body.  If so, the body resists relaxation, and stubbornly returns to tension even if you do manage to relax.  Many people wake up tense, go through their day in a chronic state of tension, and fall asleep tense.  Consequently, tightening and releasing some muscles a few times will barely scratch the surface.

 

Just do it.

However, the title of this blog includes “how to.”  I should get to that.  In counselling sessions, I teach PMR by doing it.  So let’s do it now.

Yes, right now.

Focus on your shoulders.  Notice whatever you feel in your shoulders, upper back and neck.  Maybe you can feel a tiny bit of friction on the skin, as you breathe and your body moves slightly against the fabric of your shirt.

 

Now shrug your shoulders!

Do it!

 

Higher!  As high as they can go.  Imagine touching your ears with your shoulders.  Hold them in that shrug and notice.  Notice how it feels.  Maybe the muscles feel solid and tight.  There might be a sensation of temperature; heat or cold.  The muscles might vibrate a little.  There might even be some discomfort or pain, as tension is commonly held in this area of the body.

It doesn’t matter what you feel, as much as paying attention to whatever it may be.  Keep noticing as you hold that shrug for another moment.

Now relax.  Just let those shoulders go, and feel them drop back into place.  Here’s the big moment.  Notice the difference in how your shoulders feel now.

Instead of firm and tight, perhaps they now feel flexible, even rubbery.  Warmth might be blooming through the muscles.  They might feel kind of heavy.  Possibly, you’ll notice a sensation of the tension draining out of the muscles, almost like water running out of them.

If you don’t feel the water thing, don’t worry.  Just pay attention to everything you feel.  Stay focused and notice any sensation you can pick up on.  Some of the sensations can be subtle, so really pay attention.

What you are feeling is relaxation.

 

Summing up.

You just completed the the basic building block of PMR.  A good routine could start at your feet, and work your way to the top of your head.  Quite a few mucles between the two.  Clench the toes tightly.  Pivot your feet up or down to flex the lower leg muscles.  Move on to the upper leg muscles; the butt muscles; the abs; the chest and back muscles; biceps and triceps…

Whew.  There are a lot of muscles in the body, and it can take 15 or 20 minutes to do a decent job of working through the body.  I recommend doing this after getting into bed to sleep.  You’re not doing anything else.  As a bonus, PMR may well help you to conk out.

Here’s a decent PMR routine, put together by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which makes sense if you think about it.  For obvious reasons, soldiers can develop serious chronic tension.  Anxiety Canada has another take on it.

OK, before wrapping up, let me say I intend to record a PMR routine to upload to the free resources section of my site.  Stay tuned to hear my dulcet voice guiding you through some progressive muscle relaxation!