Muscular relaxation

“ This old lady's thoughts were fixed so firmly upon her journey's end that the thought took form in action and caused a muscular contraction in place of the relaxation which she should have indulged in during the trip. Many of us are just as bad; we strain forward anxiously, if we happen to be looking at an object, and in one way or another we tense a number of our muscles all the time. We clench our fists, or frown, or close our lips tight, or bite our lips, or set our jaws together, or something else along the same line of expressing our mental states in physical action. ”

“ We have heard much of the influence of the mind over the body, but we must not forget that the body, or its attitudes and positions, react upon the mind and influence mental states. We must remember these two truths in considering the question of relaxation.
Much of the harmful and foolish practices and habits of muscular contraction are caused by mental states taking form in physical action. And, on the other hand, many of our mental states have been produced or encouraged by habits of physical carelessness, etc. When we are angry the emotion is apt to manifest in our clenching the fist. ”

“ Now it is evident, without comment, how immense must be the benefit of muscular exercise. Not only does it allow time for the brain to rest when exhausted by mental work, but, by increasing the circulation all over the body, it promotes the threefold function of oxygenation, nutrition, and drainage. ”

“ The muscles thus called into play, are those which are ordinarily under the sway of the will, but which in these cases act through this reflex action of the cord, altogether independently of the will. A healthful reflex activity produces an elasticity, or "tone," of the voluntary muscular system, which, in a great measure, explains the existence in the young and vigorous of a feeling of buoyancy and reserve power. Its possessor is restlessly active, and it may appropriately be said of him, "he rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." ”

“ The too dominant idea of "gymnastics" should not make us lose sight of the vast therapeutic importance of the nervous reactions associated with muscular movements, and of the systematic culture and training of the involuntary neuromuscular apparatus, which certainly depends in large degree on the activity of the skeletal muscles, but is often best elicited by massage, passive movements, hydrotherapy, and hygiene; all these involve exercise in a fundamental sense, and are of great therapeutic utility, even in febrile states, where exercise of the skeletal muscles is absolutely contraindicated. ”

“ The tension between nerve and muscle can only cease, if the tension also between the termination of the brain and nerves be suppressed. We are now reduced simply to the consideration of the nervous system, and may, in treating of sleep, pay no attention to the muscular system. ”

“ Unused muscles soon become flabby, as athletes and their trainers well know. The best time for taking exercise is, as stated above, just after the morning bath, and it is astonishing what results can be obtained from fifteen minutes of intelligently directed exercise each morning. Here, again, regularity will work wonders. It may be a week or two before you will notice any marked improvement in the muscular condition, but you will be amply repaid by the glow of health which pervades the system as the result of stimulated circulation. ”

“ Their constitution does not yield to every trifling accident; their nerves can stand the wear and tear of ordinary excitements; a little change in the weather does not disturb their sleep; they can digest more than other people. Any kind of exercise that tends to strengthen—not a special set cf muscles, but the muscular system in general—has a proportionate influence on the general vigor of the nervous organism, and thereby on its pathological power of resistance. ”

“ On the other hand, many young men, and probably more young women, expend too little of their available active energy upon basal and massive muscle work, and cultivate too much, and above all too early, the delicate responsive work. This is, perhaps, the best physiological characterization of precocity and issues in excessive nervous and muscular irritability. ”

“ Now, in the movement of our muscles, in which our activity is continually applied to overcoming a resistance, and in which, therefore, we are perpetually active and passive, we see the pleasure of exercise and the pain of fatigue drawn clearly one upon the other, according to the exact relation that exists between our muscular force and the external resistance. ”

“ Long breaths, taken deeply and quietly, should be interspersed all through these exercises for extreme relaxation. They prevent the possibility of relaxing too far. And as there is a pressure on every muscle of the body during a deep inspiration, the muscles, being now relaxed into freedom, are held in place, so to speak, by the pressure from the breath,—as we blow in the fingers of a glove to put them in shape. ”

“ Exercises of endurance do not require supreme efforts, but they do accelerate the action of the heart and lungs, and the aggregate of work done is very much greater than in exercises of strength, but the exercise must be sufficiently active to provide for the free circulation of lymph, which is carried on mainly through the massage of muscular contraction. ”

“ The well-trained muscles contain only healthy protoplasm, and give off but a small percentage of nitrogenous decomposition products. Let the well-fed person who takes but little exercise, run half a mile, or play a simple game of ball, and the following day the muscles will be stiff and sore; this unusual exertion has caused the breaking down of much loosely organized tissue which could have been made firm and healthy by daily muscular activity. ”

“ The result is something akin to a massage of these nerve structures, and in this way, as I have long contended, it is possible directly to stimulate the source of energy and vitality. I am convinced for this reason that muscular exercise for the back is infinitely more important than for any other part of the body, important as it is for all parts. If one has only very little time each day to devote to exercise, then it would pay him best to give that time to movements which will strengthen and stimulate the spine. ”

“ Upon muscles fatigued or weakened by a cause which acts upon the whole muscular system, such as prolonged walking, loss of sleep, loss of food, excessive intellectual work, etc., massage exerts a restorative influence which brings back to them their power of doing a natural amount of work. ”

“ The heavy muscles of trunk, shoulder and thigh require but a small amount of nervous impulse or control, and they react strongly on all the vital organs, as is shown every time that we take a walk. The finest and youngest muscles of the fingers require a very large amount of nervous control for a very small output of muscular energy and their exercise stimulates the very highest centers in the brain, and this is the great argument for physical training, that through one muscle or another you can stimulate and develop as you choose either any vital organ or the highest center in the brain. ”

“ They are unable to let their arms drop of their own weight, so firmly has the habit of involuntary muscular contraction fastened itself upon them. After you have mastered the arms try the legs, one at a time, then both together. Let them drop of their own weight and remain perfectly relaxed. Rest between trials and do not be strenuous in the exercise, as the idea is to rest yourself, as well as to acquire the control over the muscles. ”

“ How many of us know that the nerves are more or less dependent upon the muscles for their tone? How many of us realize how important it is to keep in perfect muscular condition? We sit hour after hour in our chairs, all our muscles relaxed, bending over books, and begrudge one hour—it ought to be three or four!—out of doors. ”

“ But, while fulfilling this grand object, their active exercise is, at the same time, highly conducive to the well-being of many other important functions. By muscular contraction, the blood is gently assisted in its course through the smaller vessels to the more distant parts of the body; and by it the important processes of digestion, respiration, secretion, absorption, and nutrition are promoted; and by it the health of the whole body is immediately and greatly influenced. The mind itself is exhilarated or depressed by the proper or improper use of muscular exercise. ”

“ Here, again, do we find the richness of feeling associated without exception in races with a fine development of the neuro-muscular and vaso-motor systems. This is related to muscular exercise. When we come to the regal faculty, the will, our modern psychology again tells us that will must express itself in terms of muscular activity, and that power of the will in its origin bears a relation to firmness of muscle, to power of muscular contraction. ”

“ The only difference is that in the motions for this training and for the perfect co-ordinate use of the muscles, there must be a certain amount of even, muscular development; whereas although the vigorous exercise for the growth of the muscles often helps toward a healthy nervous system, it more often, where the nervous force is misused, exaggerates greatly the tension.
In every case it is equilibrium we are working for, and a one-sided view of physical training is to be deplored and avoided, whether the balance is lost on the side of the nerves or the muscles. ”

“ The muscles, when exhausted, cannot endure continued effort. When the energies of the muscular system have been expended by severe and long-continued exercise, or the brain and nervous system prostrated by protracted mental effort, the muscles are unfitted to maintain the body erect in standing or sitting for a long time, as the nervous system, in its exhausted state, cannot supply a sufficient amount of its peculiar influence to maintain the supporting muscles of the body and head in a state of contraction. ”

“ Begin your exercises each day with light movements and change gradually to more vigorous ones, then reverse the process, ending with light, relaxing movements. When beginning to take systematic exercise, do not make the separate movements too vigorous or continue them too long. If any of them cause pain or considerable strain, omit them until the body becomes stronger and more flexible. The muscular soreness often resulting from exercise at the beginning is, as a rule, of little consequence and disappears before long. ”

“ It expands the chest, strengthens the body, and gives tone to the muscles of the abdomen. It is very suitable for girls and women, as no other exercise is so well adapted to remedy the muscular defects so marked in their sex. Even elderly persons can row day after day without difficulty. The degree of muscular effort required, can be regulated so that those with weak hearts and weak lungs can adjust themselves to the exercise. ”

“ Exhaustion or over-excitement of the nerve-centres destroys the harmony of aim of muscular contractions. The hand trembles, because the tension of the flexors and extensors is no longer evenly and firmly, but jerkily maintained. If we endeavour to keep the arm stretched out, we find we are not able to regulate the nervous discharges in such a manner as to preserve the equilibrium of the muscles during work, they relax and contract alternately on one side or the other ”

“ The duration of the contraction of the voluntary muscles, in some measure, is in an inverse ratio to its force. If a muscle has contracted with violence, as when great effort is made to raise a heavy weight, relaxation will follow sooner than when the contraction has been less powerful, as in raising light bodies. ”

“ That sustained muscular exertion also makes us sleepy is to be explained from the fact that in this the brain continuously, by means of the medulla oblongata, the spinal marrow, and the motor nerves, imparts the stimulus to the muscles which affects their irritability, and in this way it exhausts its strength. [pg 466] The fatigue which we observe in the arms and legs has accordingly its real seat in the brain ”

“ The immediate effect of exercise, however, is upon the muscles themselves; for by use they become firm and large, and increase in power. If we examine a muscle thus improved by exercise, we find that its fibres have become larger and more closely blended together, that its color is of a darker red, and that the supply of blood-vessels has increased. Without exercise the muscle appears thin, flabby, and pale. On the other hand, excessive exercise, without sufficient relaxation, produces in the muscle a condition not very different from that which follows disuse. ”

“ In like manner, when a muscle is relaxed, the vibrations which descend along the motory nerves pass freely into the muscular fibres, increase the attractions of the particles, and bring on the opposite state, that of contraction ”

“ Hence the only muscular work that can be prescribed to them, at first at least, is that effected by passive movements and massage, by which a whole series of muscular, tendinous, and cutaneous stimuli are transmitted by the sensory nerves to the cells of the centres ... these stimuli gently arouse the motor centres, and even the mental image of the movement aids in the same result, that is, in preserving the functional activity of the centres without tiring the patient. Besides, passive exercise and massage promote the peripheral circulation. ”