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Updated visitor guidelines. Top of the page Actionset. Introduction Have you ever had an aching back or pain in your neck when you were anxious or stressed? In progressive muscle relaxation, you tense a group of muscles as you breathe in, and you relax them as you breathe out. You work on your muscle groups in a certain order. When your body is physically relaxed, you cannot feel anxious. Practicing progressive muscle relaxation for a few weeks will help you get better at this skill, and in time you will be able to use this method to relieve stress.
When you first start, it may help to use an audio recording until you learn all the muscle groups in order. Check your local library or a bookstore for progressive muscle relaxation audio recordings. If you have trouble falling asleep, this method may also help with your sleep problems. How do you do progressive muscle relaxation? The procedure You can use an audio recording to help you focus on each muscle group, or you can learn the order of muscle groups and do the exercises from memory.
Breathe in, and tense the first muscle group hard but not to the point of pain or cramping for 4 to 10 seconds. Breathe out, and suddenly and completely relax the muscle group do not relax it gradually. Relax for 10 to 20 seconds before you work on the next muscle group. Notice the difference between how the muscles feel when they are tense and how they feel when they are relaxed. When you are finished with all of the muscle groups, count backward from 5 to 1 to bring your focus back to the present.
The muscle groups The following is a list of the muscle groups in order and how to tense them. Muscle group What to do Hands Clench them. Wrists and forearms Extend them, and bend your hands back at the wrist. Biceps and upper arms Clench your hands into fists, bend your arms at the elbows, and flex your biceps. Shoulders Shrug them raise toward your ears. Forehead Wrinkle it into a deep frown. Around the eyes and bridge of the nose Close your eyes as tightly as you can.
Remove contact lenses before you start the exercise. Cheeks and jaws Smile as widely as you can. Around the mouth Press your lips together tightly. Check your face for tension. You just want to use your lips. Many people are unable to find a way to put the brakes on stress. Chronic low-level stress keeps the HPA axis activated, much like a motor that is idling too high for too long.
After a while, this has an effect on the body that contributes to the health problems associated with chronic stress. Persistent epinephrine surges can damage blood vessels and arteries, increasing blood pressure and raising risk of heart attacks or strokes. Elevated cortisol levels create physiological changes that help to replenish the body's energy stores that are depleted during the stress response.
But they inadvertently contribute to the buildup of fat tissue and to weight gain. For example, cortisol increases appetite, so that people will want to eat more to obtain extra energy. It also increases storage of unused nutrients as fat.
Relaxation response. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, has devoted much of his career to learning how people can counter the stress response by using a combination of approaches that elicit the relaxation response. These include deep abdominal breathing, focus on a soothing word such as peace or calm , visualization of tranquil scenes, repetitive prayer, yoga, and tai chi.
Most of the research using objective measures to evaluate how effective the relaxation response is at countering chronic stress have been conducted in people with hypertension and other forms of heart disease. Those results suggest the technique may be worth trying — although for most people it is not a cure-all.
For example, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a double-blind, randomized controlled trial of patients with hypertension, ages 55 and older, in which half were assigned to relaxation response training and the other half to a control group that received information about blood pressure control.
After eight weeks, 34 of the people who practiced the relaxation response — a little more than half — had achieved a systolic blood pressure reduction of more than 5 mm Hg, and were therefore eligible for the next phase of the study, in which they could reduce levels of blood pressure medication they were taking.
Physical activity. People can use exercise to stifle the buildup of stress in several ways. Exercise, such as taking a brisk walk shortly after feeling stressed, not only deepens breathing but also helps relieve muscle tension. Movement therapies such as yoga , tai chi , and qi gong combine fluid movements with deep breathing and mental focus, all of which can induce calm.
Social support. Confidants, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, relatives, spouses, and companions all provide a life-enhancing social net — and may increase longevity. It's not clear why, but the buffering theory holds that people who enjoy close relationships with family and friends receive emotional support that indirectly helps to sustain them at times of chronic stress and crisis.
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While some stress is inevitable, when your body repeatedly encounters a set of physiological changes dubbed the stress response, trouble can brew. Stress may contribute to or exacerbate various health problems. This Special Health Report, Stress Management: Enhance your well-being by reducing stress and building resilience , can help you identify your stress warning signs and learn how to better manage stressful situations.
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