Progressive Muscular Relaxation

Progressive Muscular Relaxation

How to Perform the Technique

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is completed by a two-step process. First, you systematically tense particular muscle groups in your body, such as your neck and shoulders. Then, you release the tension and notice how your muscles feel when you relax them.

The first step involved contracting a specific muscle group that feels tense. Then we focused on the target muscle group, for example, the left hand. Next, take a slow, deep breath and squeeze the muscles as hard as possible for about 5 seconds by making a tight fist with your left hand.

The next step involved quickly relaxing the tensed muscles. After about 5 seconds, let all the tightness flow out of the tensed muscles. Exhale as this step is completed. The muscle should feel loose and limp, as the tension flows out. It is important to focus on and notice the difference between the tension and relaxation. This is the most important part of the whole exercise.

Remain in this relaxed state for about 15 seconds, and then move on to the next muscle group. Repeat the tension-relaxation steps. After completing all of the muscle groups, take some time to enjoy the deep state of relaxation.

How this technique might be used

This exercise will help to lower overall tension and stress levels, and help to relax an individual when they are feeling anxious. This is important to athletes at any level to prevent them from becoming over-aroused and anxious in a competition environment.

Prior to sporting events athletes can become nervous just thinking about the event, the use of PMR can help them to gain control over these fears. Once the feelings of anxiety subside then the athlete can focus on the task in front of them and concentrate on what they need to do in order to win. Releasing tension in the muscles by the use of PMR can also allow the individual to move more freely and get their technique correct.

It can also be used at night time before bed to calm an individual and relaxing the body and the mind, which will allow them to fall into a deep sleep and have a good sleep. By gaining a good sleep this can help an athlete to feel refreshed and ready for the match or competition the following day.

What I thought of the Technique

I felt that this technique was very effective and left me feeling relaxed and in a positive state of mind. I think that this would be a good technique for all athletes to use at night time before a match or an event as after we completed PMR it left me wanting to fall asleep. However this is why it would not be appropriate to use just prior to training or a match as it would lower arousal levels too low and away from an individual’s level of optimal arousal and have a negative effect on performance. Also this technique requires time to be effective if the entire body is feeling tense. However it can be tailored to target specific muscle groups if only one or two muscle groups are tense which would help just before competition. Overall I think that short-term, PMR can help to reduce state-anxiety just before an athlete performs which can only increase their performance levels; therefore I think this technique is very effective.

Breathing control and Meditation

Relaxation and Breathing Exercises (Meditation)

How to Perform the Technique

These techniques required everyone in the class to take their heart rate. An average value for the class was calculated. The next step was to take part in breathing exercises that should calm and relax the body by focusing on breathing. Before starting the exercise everyone found a comfortable position and begun by closing your eyes or focusing on one spot in the room. The exercises involved concentrating on every breath and not dwelling on any stray thoughts.

The three techniques we used were:

1.       Complete Breathing – involves imagining your lungs being divided into 3 parts; lower, middle and upper sections. Imagine filling each part with air and focus on the air entering and leaving the sections of our body. The stages were continuous and smooth.

2.       Rhythmic Breathing – involves breathing to a rhythm e.g. inhale for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4 and pause for 4.

3.       Concentration Breathing – involves concentrating and focusing on your rhythmic breathing. This exercise is also known as meditation.

The breathing exercises lasted roughly for 20 minutes. After this, the class retook their heart rate and again the average heart rate was calculated. The average heart rate of the class pre breathing exercises was 60.3 and the average post exercise was 54.7. My heart rate declined 6 BPM from 58 to 52 BPM.

 

How might this technique be used?

This technique can be used to lower heart rate and anxiety levels of athletes before they perform in order for them to reach their own personal levels of optimal arousal. Many athletes struggle with ‘over arousal’, where they are overly anxious and stressed or even over-motivated, before matches and this can have a negative effect on performance during the game. The use of breathing techniques can help overcome these negative pre-match effects by decreasing arousal to a level that is more suitable for the match situation, therefore ensuring that performance is not adversely affected.

Breathing techniques are most relevant in sports involving a ‘closed skill’, where there are fewer outside distractions during a match and there is the time available to take a moment to relax. For example, sports such as darts and snooker would appear to be tailor made for relaxation techniques as a player may find themselves becoming ‘over aroused’. In team sports, there will be times when deep breathing techniques can give an athlete a vital few seconds to ensure they are in the right state of mind to execute a skill effectively such as Messi hitting a penalty or Phil Taylor scoring a 180.  

What I thought of the Technique

I think that breathing exercises can be very useful, however it does heavily depend on the type of sport that an athlete partakes in and when they perform them i.e. before a competition, before training or before they sleep at night. I feel it would be effective to athletes who get too aroused before a performance, but only if they play a sport that requires low levels of arousal. Therefore I don’t think it would be useful for sports that require large amounts of arousal and awareness such as football or rugby where players need to have a ‘pumped up’ state of mind. However these games players may find it useful to use these breathing techniques if they over-think the night before competition. Breathing techniques would enable them to calm themselves and relax their minds. I would be one of those people who over-think about a match or a competition so this technique would be very useful so that I can get rid of a lot of nervous energy. However, in order for this technique to be at it’s most efficient it is important that the athlete has a quiet surrounding with no loud noises or distractions. Therefore, allowing the athlete to focus on their breathing. Overall I feel that it is an effective technique to relax the body and help athletes to reach their level of optimal arousal.

Listening to Music and Acting energised

Listening to Music and Acting Energised

How to Perform the Technique

The first step in this technique was to record the results of a hand-grip test using a dynamometer of five subjects in the class and calculate an average which was 50.74.

The next step involved the actual energizing technique which involved the 5 subjects cycling on static bicycles for six minutes at a steady pace. Whilst cycling they were listening and watching a motivational video that including historic speeches and motivational music that included mood words and famous quotes. The idea was that watching the video would increase the arousal levels of the subjects and that cycling on the bicycles would increase blood flow and their heart rates so that they would obtain a higher score in the hand-grip test.

After the six minutes, each subject retook the hand-grip test and again the average was calculated. This time the average was 51.74, showing a percentage change of 1.97%.

 

How this technique might be used

Many athletes may find it hard to reach their own personal level of optimal arousal. Using this energizing technique can help them to reach their level of optimal arousal which will have a positive effect on their performance. It can be used just prior to an event to quickly increase the arousal of athletes and get them in a ‘pumped’ state of mind as adrenaline is released into the body and prepares an athlete for the performance. If an athlete goes into an event where they are under-aroused then they will not perform to their potential and they may revert back to a badly learnt skill as that is the dominant response.

What I thought of the technique

Personally I feel that this is a very effective technique to use to increase arousal levels and become energized. Personally I would often use this form of technique prior to a match or training to increase my motivation and ‘pump’ myself up so that I am ready for action. I think it is effective as listening to music and watching motivational videos increase the heart rate and the blood flow which produces the adrenaline needed to prepare the body for action much like a warm-up does. However I also feel that how an individual prepares for an event is very personal and for certain people this technique may not having any effect on where they find it useless. Some individuals are energized and motivated enough just by the thought of the event and listening to music may only increase their levels of arousal so much that it actually has a negative effect on their performance. I think that this technique is more suitable for sports that require high levels of arousal and that are very physically demanding such as football and rugby. From our experiment there was an increase in the scores of the hand-grip test which shows that this technique is effective.