PMR - Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This 10-minute technique could be your newest aid to recovery

Ask any bodybuilder about muscle recuperation and recovery and chances are you'll get a funny look. Ask again and you might get a response like "Well, I try to get enough sleep."

And who could blame these warriors of the iron game who voluntarily subject themselves to perhaps the most rigorous of all sports training. After all, most bodybuilders are working their butts off with their training regimen, nutrition program and bodybuilding supplements — they have no time to worry about recovery!

If you're like me, when you get home from the gym your time is spent cooking and eating among a myriad of other household chores. Who's got time for a massage, sauna, etc.? I sure don't. But, we all do have time for a simple 10 minute technique that promotes muscular recovery and restoration so that all our hard training and careful dieting can result in growth!

The simple procedure I'm talking about is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), and to fully grasp its benefit to us consider this: Just as we want to find ways to increase muscular activity during a workout, thereby enabling our muscles to contract more forcefully, we also want to find ways to decrease muscular activity after a workout in order to bring about a more complete state of muscular relaxation so there is less muscular stress inhibiting the repair processes. PMR is a technique that enables you to achieve a high level of control over the muscles while at the same time maintaining a high level of relaxation within them. This easy exercise was developed to help people reduce anxiety levels, so PMR is used in stress management programs. Check out the benefits to a bodybuilder.

PMR FOR BODYBUILDERS
Here are the four ways PMR can help a bodybuilder progress:

1)         Enhanced circulation in working muscle. By the process of tightly squeezing and relaxing each muscle group, which is the basis of PMR, you're able to bring more blood to the recovering muscle group while the squeezing action of contraction helps to circulate/pump out waste products from high-intensity activity.

2)         Better muscle control. Because as a bodybuilder you work hard to develop individual muscle groups, your ability to control and feel each muscle group you're training is critical. PMR will help you achieve the sensation that you can isolate various muscle groups during your training, and you'll begin to recognize what it feels like to work each muscle group more effectively.

3)         Posing. Since PMR requires hard isometric contractions (like posing), it will help you gain better control of your poses and posing routine. You'll be come more acquainted with the feeling you get from contracting each muscle group during a pose, and you may even be able to enhance your muscle separation.

4)         Relaxation/stress management. At the very least, PMR will help you reach a state of relaxation, enabling you to effectively manage stress. So often we go from one high-intensity situation at work to another high-intensity situation in the gym (and so on and so on); it seems that we never get a chance to just be quiet and feel ourselves completely relax. PMR will let you explore total muscular relaxation — a pleasant feeling for many of us. Now then...

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH PMR
Find a quiet, comfortable spot and lie on your back with your hands at your sides. Close your eyes and begin by thinking about a particularly pleasant and tranquil scene — perhaps a favorite vacation spot. Use your imagination to feel as if you are there. For instance, if you are thinking about a favorite beach you go to, try to feel the sensation of the sun beating down on your face and chest.

Taking slow, deep breaths, now shift your attention to your muscles. Starting at your right calf muscles (gastroc and soleus), contract them as hard as you can and hold them tight for 10 seconds. (They'll hurt for a few seconds.) Now let them relax — completely. Concentrate and feel the blood flow out of your right calf muscles. Feel what it is like for your calf muscles to be totally relaxed. They should feel heavy and warm. Do this contraction-relaxation process one more time on your right calf. Now, shift your attention to your left calf muscles. Contract these muscles as tightly as you can for 10 seconds. Then, relax them completely so they feel heavy and warm. Repeat this procedure one more time for your left calf muscles.

Continue this process of PMR by systematically contracting and relaxing your quads, your hamstrings (pretend you're doing a leg curl against the floor), your glutes, your abdominal muscles, your back, your chest, your shoulders (fight against raising your arms), triceps, biceps, traps, neck and even facial muscles (to feel a relief of tension in this area most vulnerable to stress).

Maintain slow, deep breathing and be aware of the feeling of warmth and control that comes from this contraction-relaxation process. Remember: With this simple exercise, which can be done virtually anywhere at anytime, you have complete control over your muscles' contractile state — a valuable tool whether your goal is a more complete contraction in the gym or onstage, a means to relieve stress and tension, or both.

Give PMR a shot! It only takes a few minutes out of your day; and the rewards of enhanced recovery, better muscle control and posing, and an ability to more effectively manage stress are well worth the investment.