How to do progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation was developed by the American physician Edmund Jacobson, who first presented it in 1908 and published his book Progressive Relaxation in 1929. His original method was a long programme, with weekly instruction and daily practice. The version most people use today is a shortened one from 1973, by Douglas Bernstein and Thomas Borkovec, which starts with sixteen muscle groups and brings that down to seven, and then four.

Why you tense a muscle before relaxing it

It sounds backwards. But being told to relax your shoulders rarely does much, because you usually cannot feel that they were tight in the first place. Tension you have carried all afternoon stops registering.

Tensing on purpose fixes that. For a few seconds the muscle is clearly tight, and when you let go the change is impossible to miss. That contrast is the whole exercise: you are learning, group by group, what letting go actually feels like, so that you can recognise it later without the tensing.

How to do a round

1. Sit or lie down somewhere you can stay for a couple of minutes.
2. Hands: make fists. Hold for about five seconds, then open them all at once. Notice the difference for ten seconds or so.
3. Arms: draw them tight, then let them drop.
4. Shoulders: lift them up towards your ears, then let them fall.
5. Face: scrunch it up, eyes, forehead and jaw, then let it go slack.
6. Belly: tighten it, then let it soften.
7. Legs: straighten them and tense the thighs, then let them go heavy.
8. Feet: curl your toes, gently, then release.

Keep breathing normally while you tense. Holding your breath is the most common thing people do without noticing, and it turns a relaxing exercise into a straining one.

Where it goes wrong

Tensing too hard. Half strength is plenty. Clenching as hard as you can is uncomfortable, and feet and calves cramp easily. If a muscle cramps, let go straight away and tense that group more lightly next time, or skip it.

Rushing the release. Letting go is the part that matters, so it should take longer than the tensing. Five seconds tight, then at least as long again doing nothing at all.

Checking whether it is working. Stopping halfway to ask yourself whether you feel relaxed yet brings back the kind of attention you were trying to put down. Finish the round first.

Short versions

Seven groups takes a minute or two and is a good default. When that is still more than you feel like doing, four groups works too: arms, face and neck, chest and belly, legs. Some people find that after a while of practice they can skip the tensing altogether and simply let each group go in turn, because they have learned what that feels like.

There is no need to do it lying down, although many people use it in bed. It works just as well in a chair after a long stretch of sitting.

How Calm Moments does it

The app has a short guided round under the name Muscle relaxation. It works through the same seven groups, from your hands down to your feet, with five seconds of tensing and eight seconds of letting go for each, so the whole thing takes about a minute and a half. A circle grows while you tense and sinks back while you let go, so there is nothing to count.

If you would rather not do anything at all, the feed is right there instead: slow scenes that move without asking anything of you. That is what calm scrolling is.

Is it safe?

For most people, yes. Skip any part of the body that is injured or painful, keep the tensing gentle, and stop if something hurts. If you have a medical condition that affects your muscles, joints or blood pressure, ask the person who treats you rather than a website.

Calm Moments is a feed of slow scenes, with guided breathing and a grounding exercise alongside it. Free, no ads, collects no data.

Common questions

How long should you tense each muscle group?

About five seconds, at roughly half strength. Then let go all at once and stay with the feeling for longer than you tensed, ten seconds or more. The contrast is the point, not the effort.

Can you do progressive muscle relaxation in bed?

Yes, lying down is one of the most common places to do it. A short round of seven or four muscle groups is easier to finish than a long one, and it works with your eyes closed.

What if a muscle cramps during the exercise?

Let go straight away. Next time tense that group more gently, or leave it out. Feet and calves cramp most easily, so curl your toes lightly rather than hard.