Progressive Muscle Relaxation in your training regimen.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) can be used as part of a warm-up or cool-down routine, or as a relaxation exercise before or after training and competition.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a method of deep muscle relaxation. It involves alternately tensing (squeezing) and relaxing (releasing) your muscles. It is progressive because you start at one end of your body — say your toes — and work your way up (or the other way around, if you prefer). What really matters is scanning all body's major muscle groups.

PMR is an anxiety-reduction technique forces your body to get into a relaxed state first, so that the mind can naturally follows, and calm down.

Edmund Jacobson, an American physician in internal medicine and psychiatry and a physiologist, developed Progressive Muscle Relaxation in the 1930s to help his patients deal with anxiety. He later went on to create Biofeedback, too.

How can Progressive Muscle Relaxation help you as a fighter?

Benefits for fighters are multiple:

• Reduce stress and anxiety.

• Improve systolic blood pressure - the amount of pressure experienced by the arteries while the heart is beating.

• Improve your sleep.

  
  

Research shows a connection between relaxation and blood pressure because stress is a contributing factor to high blood pressure. So, when you learn to relax, you calm your nerves, and your heart beats a slower rate.

Last, physically relaxing your muscles helps your body shift from its sympathetic nervous system (also known as “fight-or-flight” mode) to the parasympathetic nervous system (also called “rest and digest” mode).

By adding PMR to their practice, athletes can become more aware of tension in their muscles and learn how to release it, which can in turn improve performance and prevent injuries.

To start your Progressive Muscle Relaxation routine, find a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted for the next 10-20 minutes, and…

• Sit or lie down in a comfortable position.

• Concentrate on your breath and initiate a state of calm.

• Tighten and relax each muscle group, starting from your toes and moving upwards.

• Hold tension for about five seconds and fully let go.

• Notice the contrast between tension, this will fine-tune your awareness of what relaxation should feel for you.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a technique used to help fighters relax, relieve muscle tension, better concentrate, and improve performance and prevent injuries.