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Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Table of Contents


Overview

The body responds to stress with muscle tension, which can cause pain or discomfort. In turn, tense muscles relay to the body that it's stressed, which keeps the stress–muscle-tension cycle going. Progressive muscle relaxation helps break this cycle by reducing muscle tension and general mental anxiety. Progressive muscle relaxation often helps people get to sleep.

Procedure

You can use a recording to help you go through all the muscle groups, or you can just learn the order of muscle groups and work through them from memory.

  1. Choose a place where you can lie down on your back and stretch out comfortably, such as a carpeted floor.
  2. Inhale and tense each muscle group (hard but not to the point of cramping) for 4 to 10 seconds, then exhale and suddenly and completely relax the muscle group (do not relax it gradually). Give yourself 10 to 20 seconds to relax.
  3. When you are finished, return to alertness by counting backwards from 5 to 1.

Muscle groups and how to tense them

Progressive muscle relaxation is sometimes combined with meditation.


Credits for Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Current as of: June 24, 2023

Author: Healthwise Staff (https://www.healthwise.org/specialpages/legal/abouthw/en)
Clinical Review Board (https://www.healthwise.org/specialpages/legal/abouthw/en)
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