Jacobson's Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Encyclopedia
Progressive muscle relaxation (or PMR) is a technique for reducing anxiety by alternately tensing and relaxing
Relaxation technique
A relaxation technique is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; to attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of anxiety, stress or anger...

 the muscles. It was developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson
Edmund Jacobson
Edmund Jacobson was a US-American physician in internal medicine and psychiatry and a physiologist. He was the founder of the Progressive Muscle Relaxation and of Biofeedback....

 in the early 1920s. Jacobson argued that since muscle tension
Muscle tone
In physiology, medicine, and anatomy, muscle tone is the continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles, or the muscle’s resistance to passive stretch during resting state. It helps maintain posture, and it declines during REM sleep.-Purpose:Unconscious nerve impulses maintain the...

 accompanies anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

, one can reduce anxiety by learning how to relax the muscular tension. PMR entails a physical and mental component.

The physical component involves the tensing and relaxing of muscle groups over the legs, abdomen, chest, arms and face. With the eyes closed and in a sequential pattern, a tension in a given muscle group is purposefully done for approximately 10 seconds and then released for 20 seconds before continuing with the next muscle group.

The mental component focuses on the difference between the feelings of the tension and relaxation. Because the eyes are closed, one is forced to concentrate on the sensation of tension and relaxation. In patients with anxiety, the mind often wanders with thoughts such as "I don't know if this will work" or "Am I feeling it yet." If such is the case, the patient is told to simply focus on the feelings of the tensed muscle. Because of the feelings of warmth and heaviness are felt in the relaxed muscle after it is tensed, a mental relaxation is felt as a result. With practice, the patient learns how to effectively relax and deter anxiety when it becomes at an unhealthy level where an anxiety attack would otherwise occur.

Jacobson trained his patients to voluntarily relax certain muscles in their body in order to reduce anxiety symptoms. He also found that the relaxation procedure is effective against ulcers
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...

, insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...

, and hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...

. There are many parallels with autogenic training
Autogenic training
Autogenic training is a relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz and first published in 1932. The technique involves the daily practice of sessions that last around 15 minutes, usually in the morning, at lunch time, and in the evening. During each session,...

, which was developed independently. The technique has also proven effective in reducing acute anxiety in people with Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

.

Jacobson's Progressive Relaxation has remained popular with modern physical therapists
Physical therapy
Physical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...

.

Relaxation method

Progressive relaxation involves alternately tensing and relaxing the muscles. A person using PMR may start by sitting or lying down in a comfortable position. With the eyes closed, the muscles are tensed (10 seconds) and relaxed (20 seconds) sequentially through various parts of the body. The whole PMR session takes approximately 30 minutes. As this is a technique, practice with PMR does make perfect and will usually not work effectively as it should the first couple of times.

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder who first try PMR with anxiety may become frustrated, feel rushed, or feel an increase in anxiety for various reasons such as being afraid to "let your guard down." As with doing anything new, this is to be expected and simply practiced again once or twice a day.
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