Week no. 6

Date: 28th April 2014
Aim of week: Progressive Muscular Relaxation

Hi Lee, this is one of the last weeks of training programmes, and I find that one of the next programmes that we could use to help and improve your training and overall competition abilities will be to help you with a technique called Progressive Muscular Relaxation.

What is Progressive Muscular Relaxation? Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension. The technique involves learning to monitor tension in each specific muscle group in the body by deliberately inducing tension in each group. This tension is then released, with attention paid to the contrast between tension and relaxation. 

The techniques themselves supposedly are used to help you use more muscles to perform a particular task.  These techniques from this blog will hopefully benefit you massively as the relaxation procedure is effective against a number of ailments including insomnia and hypertension.

Training session 1: For the first training session, I would like you to try this on your own first in your room or somewhere you feel more comfortable, and then when you are able to do this I would like for you to try and use this technique in day-to-day life. Firstly I would like you to find a quiet room, somewhere you are usually comfortable in your house, and this could be your room, a study, a living room, just somewhere quiet without the TV on or anything in the background. In a reclined position, close your eyes and relax. Focus first on one specific muscle group; this could be your biceps and triceps, or possibly your quads and calves, or even your lats and abs, your face, and your chest.  Concentrate on one of these particular muscle groups, and focus on trying to overall relax that muscle group using the technique of tensing the muscle group for about 4 seconds, then relaxing the muscle group, you can try doing this as many times as you want; remembering to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth, releasing any residual tension. If you are struggling with a particular muscle group (as a lot of people do when they first start this sort of programme) focus your attention on this muscle group further next time you practice this.

Let me know if the technique does help with your sleeping Lee, as I know you’re never one to get good night’s sleep. Also see if the technique can help lower your blood pressure levels at all, as one of the reasons this test is used is to help level out and control BP too. Before starting the programme take your blood pressure levels, and then again after trying the exercise.

Training session 2: This technique is called Body Scan Meditation, I would like for you to try lying on your back, legs uncrossed, arms relaxed at your sides, eyes open or closed. Focus on your breathing, allowing your stomach to rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale. Breathe deeply for about two minutes, until you start to feel comfortable and relaxed.

Then I would like for you to turn your focus to the toes of your right foot. Notice any sensations you feel while continuing to also focus on your breathing. Imagine each deep breath flowing to your toes. Remain focused on this area for one to two minutes.

Move your focus to the sole of your right foot. Tune in to any sensations you feel in that part of your body and imagine each breath flowing from the sole of your foot. After one or two minutes, move your focus to your right ankle and repeat. Move to your calf, knee, thigh, hip, and then repeat the sequence for your left leg. From there, move up the torso, through the lower back and abdomen, the upper back and chest, and the shoulders. Pay close attention to any area of the body that causes you pain or discomfort.

Move your focus to the fingers on your right hand and then move up to the wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Repeat for your left arm. Then move through the neck and throat, and finally all the regions of your face, the back of the head, and the top of the head. Pay close attention to your jaw, chin, lips, tongue, nose, cheeks, eyes, forehead, temples and scalp. When you reach the very top of your head, let your breath reach out beyond your body and imagine yourself hovering above yourself. 

After completing the body scan, relax for a while in silence and stillness, noting how your body feels. Then open your eyes slowly. Take a moment to stretch, if necessary.

Try this technique after reading through it a few times to see if it can help you gain full body relaxation; this is really important for this exercise, if this hasn’t worked, do try it again a few times to see if you can get it to work for you. Let me know if either of these training session techniques work for you Lee and give you full body relaxation.

29/4/14

Lee: Hi Joseph, hope you are well. Just read over both the sessions earlier today and tried the first one earlier today, training session 1, I have to say I really liked this programme; I’ve never done it before being completely honest! I sat back, relaxed, tensed the muscle groups and relaxed them, I didn’t really seem to struggle relaxing any muscle groups, and I found that each part of my body felt really relaxed after a few tries, and funny enough I think it will help with insomnia because I feel tired already! The picture was also a nice touch, gave me a bit of guidance on what I had to do, so I could look it over a few times whilst I was doing the programme. I probably will use this technique again in the future because now I feel really relaxed. I also measured my blood pressure level before I tried the techniques a few times, and I got 125/85, which I’m pretty sure is in the pre-high blood pressure stage, I checked a few times to make sure that the reading was right, and then after the test I found that it had dropped a whole 10 for my systolic to 115 and dropped about 12 for my diastolic to 73, which I find is pretty impressive! Now I’m sure this sudden drop is only temporary since I’ve only done the technique a few times, but I bet if I keep doing it that it could really help my blood pressure levels, so I’m definitely going to keep trying the technique. Thanks for introducing me to it I do appreciate these blogs. I’ll try the next training session programme as soon as I get a chance and see what that does for me. Thanks Joe.

30/4/14

Lee: Hi Joe, already tried the second technique since I got off work early. The body scan meditation technique, and I’ve seen it before so you know, at a martial arts course once we used it before a session to help us all relax, however I found that it didn’t really do much for me, I know it does seem to work with some people so I gave it a try again myself just before, I felt a little bit relaxed at first after performing the technique, although after a few seconds I felt exactly the same again, I tried it a few times and felt nothing, not even relaxed! It was good to try the technique again though, if it did work that would have been great but unfortunately this one isn’t for me, or maybe I need some more time practicing the technique to see if it could help me do it? Not sure if I’ll be using this training session programme again although I will definitely be using the first training session programme again, as that really did help me relax, and sleep last night! Thanks for the blog, I think you said the last one is next week, which is a bit sad because I enjoyed doing these, hope my information helps, thanks Joe. Lee Watson.