Progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension. It was developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s.

Dr Jacobson wrote several books on the subject of Progressive Relaxation. The technique involves learning to monitor tension in each specific muscle group in the body by deliberately inducing tension in each group. This tension is then released, with attention paid to the contrast between tension and relaxation. These learning sessions are not exercises or self-hypnosis.