Here Are Some of the Best Tension Release Exercises to Help You Feel Your Best!

Tension Release Exercises 1 | BrainMD
Brain Health, Family, Healthy Lifestyle, Nutrition

Do you tend to carry tension in your head, neck, shoulders or lower back?

You’re not alone. It’s very common, especially in the workplace where both work-related stress and unhealthy sitting, standing, and/or repetitive movement can all translate to tension in the body.

According to 2023 survey statistics cited by The American Institute of Stress, 57% of American workers report feeling stress on a daily basis. Tension in the body is noted as well – with 62% of respondents reporting end-of-day, work-related neck pain; 30% reporting occupational-related back pain; and 12% reporting hand pain.

On a brighter note, you can help to alleviate some of the stress tension in your body by incorporating tension-relieving exercises into your day.

Here’s how stress can affect your body and what you can do to relieve the tension.

How Stress Becomes Muscle Tension

Tension Release Exercises 2 A daily onslaught of stressors can keep your body’s sympathetic nervous system engaged, and your stress response activated. The stress response is an automatic reflex to help your body prepare for real or perceived danger. When danger is detected, your brain signals stress hormones to be released. Your muscles tighten to prepare to fight, freeze, or flee from the threat to ensure survival.

Yet, every day in modern life is full of stressors that signal the stress response. As you go about your day dealing with stress related to work, family, relationships, finances, and other challenges of life, your muscles react by getting taut and tense. When body tension builds up, it can result in pain – often as a headache, neck pain, shoulder stiffness, or back pain. Tension worsens if you sit or stand all day or make repetitive movements in your work life. Of course, looking at computers and digital devices all day adds to the mix too.

Thankfully, tension release exercises can help to counter all that stress and tension and turn on the body’s relax response, alleviating pain – helping you to feel better. Here are four types of tension-busting exercises you can practice virtually anywhere at any time.

4 of the Best Exercises to Relieve Tension

  1. Yoga

Yoga is well-known for relaxation and stress reduction. It can help relieve tension headaches and neck pain, as well as back pain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Two gentle and popular yoga poses known to ease neck and back tension are Child’s Pose (Balasana) and Cat-Cow (Chakravakasana). If you’ve ever practiced yoga, you may be familiar with them. If not, here’s a brief explanation of each.

Child’s Pose

Releases tension in the shoulders, neck, back, and ankles.

  • Get on all fours with your palms flat on the floor, ensuring your wrists are positioned directly under your shoulders, and knees under your hips.
  • Simply sit back on your heels while you stretch your hands out in front of you. Lengthen your spine and be sure to hinge your hips.
  • Extend your hands in front of you for 1 to 1.5 minutes. Breathe. Release tension in your neck in shoulders.
  • Return to your original position and repeat several times.

Cat-Cow

Relieves tension in the neck, back, and torso.

  • Get on all fours with your palms flat on the floor, ensuring your wrists are positioned directly under your shoulders, and knees under your hips.
  • Inhale as you move into Cow Pose, dropping your belly toward your mat while you lift your chin and chest looking up to the ceiling. Open your chest and shoulders and hold for a few seconds.
  • Exhale as you move into Cat Pose (the counter movement to Cow Pose), pulling your belly in toward your spine and rounding your back (like a cat) while looking down at your mat. Pause for a few moments.
  • Inhale as you move back into Cow Pose and repeat the entire sequence 8 to 10 times.

If you’re brand new to yoga, be sure to practice these poses under the guidance of a qualified yoga instructor before practicing them on your own. If you already practice yoga or start taking classes regularly, you can bring other poses into your day.

  1. Exercise

It may seem counterintuitive if your muscles are tight, but getting out and getting moderate exercise will actually help to relieve tension. Here are three reasons why:

  • First, getting outside is a wonderful stress and tension release.
  • Second, moving your body can release the pent-up energy that contributes to tension in your body.
  • Third, exercise can also deliver a rush of endorphins, the feel-good hormones that can lift your mood while easing pain.

Keep it simple with a walk if you’re new to exercise. All you need is to move for 20 minutes a day!

  1. Deep Breathing

We tend to take shallow breaths when we’re stressed. Simply doing a diaphragmatic breathing exercise (also called deep breathing or belly breathing) can turn on the relax response and help to ease tension.

Simply take a deep breath through your nose to a count of 6, allowing your belly to expand. Then hold your breath with your belly expanded for a count of 6. Then slowly release your breath out through your mouth to the count of 6.

Repeat the sequence a few times and feel the tension in your body release.

  1. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a studied method for releasing overall body tension. It involves tensing your muscles before relaxing them, which enables you to relax them more fully after you release them. This helps you let go of physical body tension. It can help to reduce headaches, ease back pain, and lessen neck pain.

Lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol – an indicator of stress reduction – have been observed in individuals after using the PMR method.

This simple method involves the tensing and relaxing of all the major muscle groups in your body, from head to toe.

It’s best to lie flat, but you can do it seated, if need be. Give yourself 10-15 minutes of uninterrupted time.

  1. Starting with your face and scalp, tense your muscles as tight as you can, closing your eyes, grimacing, and clenching your teeth while breathing in to the count of 8.
  2. Exhale while letting go and relaxing completely. Experience the tension falling out of your facial muscles.
  3. Pause for a moment to enjoy the relaxation before you move on to the next group of muscles. (Repeat this step again if you feel like your face needs to relax more.)
  4. Then move down your body, doing the same exercise with the following muscle groups:
  • Neck and shoulders
  • Chest area
  • Mid-section
  • Entire right arm, followed by the right forearm (making a fist), and then the right hand
  • Entire left arm, followed by the left forearm and hand (making a fist), and then the left hand
  • Buttocks
  • Entire right leg, followed by the lower right leg/foot, then the right foot
  • Entire left leg, followed by the lower left leg/foot, then the left foot

Care for Your Body

Ultimately, learning tension release exercises is a way to care for your body in today’s stressful world. Try taking a pause several times a day to do a deep breathing exercise, go out for a walk, do a couple yoga poses, or practice PMR – and see if it makes a difference in how you feel!

 

At BrainMD, we’re dedicated to providing the highest purity nutrients to improve your physical health and overall well-being. For more information about our full list of brain healthy supplements, please visit us at BrainMD.

Kim Henderson
Latest posts by Kim Henderson (see all)
, ,
5 1 vote
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
TOP