A door to the most secret rooms of our body and mind
Author: Dr. Marco Mancini - Personal Trainer - Doctor of Clinical and Health Psychology
Introduction
When we think of our musculature, what can come to our mind is that structure which, through movement and action, allows us to interact with the surrounding environment, a symbolic system of activation and dynamism.
Thanks to the "encouraging cultural diffusion of the concept of psychophysical well-being as a preventive factor for organic diseases and psychological discomforts, and to the greater attention we pay to ourselves and to improving the quality of life, many of us are actually concerned with preserving good health muscles and not only through physical exercise.
Keeping the muscles in good condition, or rather "toned", protects us from the risk of some common and thus preventable ailments, such as postural problems, myalgias or joint pains.
Physical activity: any type of body movement produced by muscle contraction that increases caloric expenditure.
Exercise: category of physical activity, quantified by volume, intensity and frequency in which the movements are structured in a repetitive manner to improve or to maintain one or more components of the state of form.
Such information has now become easy to access, therefore, if we think about improving our physical condition, concepts such as conditioning, hypertrophy, muscle elasticity begin to be familiar to us.
In this case, we note how the achievement of psychophysical well-being is associated with the idea of muscle stimulation, so it goes through all those training methods that aim to increase muscle performance.
In the imagination of some of us, a beneficial intervention on the muscular system involves hyperstimulation of the muscle itself.
What we now propose to consider is actually something different: the achievement of psychophysical well-being through distension and muscle relaxation.
Just like physical exercise, muscle relaxation is also used for two purposes (Fig. 1):
1. therapeutic;
2. performing.
Figure 1
To understand how muscular distension can act on organic decompensation, it is necessary to clarify the physiological mechanisms and the relationships underlying these systems:
- Muscular system;
- Nervous system;
- Endocrine system.
Relaxation, in addition to acting on the muscular system, also determines global existential modifications on the nervous system, with relative consequences both on a bodily and emotional level; in this direction it is possible to recognize the distinct value between relaxation techniques and gymnastic techniques of "movement therapies".
The ability to manage emotions is what, from a therapeutic point of view, is fundamental to prevent imbalances of the neuro-vegetative system, and to avoid that this remains blocked in a form of chronic activation with consequent hormonal dys-regulation and cognitive modification of the meaning of some environmental stimuli The situations that we interpret as a source of aggression, in fact, leave our organism under a permanent condition of threat, from which it is possible to escape through relaxing techniques aimed specifically at the treatment of "toxic" anxiety and stress.
As for the relationship between relaxation techniques and relaxation / increase in performance, we must know that distension and the consequent relaxation favor the perception of the body scheme with a consequent improvement in somatoesthetic sensitivity. The first thing that can come to mind is how the improvement of this ability can, in particular in sportsmen, improve the control and execution of fine movements, with a qualitatively superior performance of the technical gesture.
A greater sensitivity to changes in muscle tone, and an acute perception of the various districts, are undoubtedly some of the strengths of the conscious athlete, capable of detecting the onset of fatigue and optimally managing their level of activation.
Here are the main techniques that involve muscle relaxation (Fig. 2).
Figure 2
Progressive Jacobson relaxation
It is a self-relaxation technique that can be performed anywhere, making it easy to practice.
In the initial phase it is necessary to learn the technique from a Trainer, later you are able to perform it yourself, so it turns out to be a technique that provides complete autonomy to the practitioner.
The purpose of the technique is to induce modifications on the autonomic system through muscle relaxation.
It is often used for the control of anxiety considering its close relationship with muscle tension.
We proceed through phases of muscle tension-relaxation to induce progressive relaxation of all muscle groups, starting with the arms and ending with the feet, then a general relaxation of the whole body.
Autogenic Training
Psychic switching:
To commute means to change course, to change a state of affairs that is now firmly structured.
From a psychological point of view it means changing ingrained mental attitudes, abandoning habits, using thought and attention in a different way.
The method involves bringing the subject to the achievement of the switching state (see box on the right), consisting of a good level of relaxation and calm that favors the recovery of psychic energies, stimulating at the cognitive level the capacity for self-observation through mobilization some thoughts and feelings that usually occur outside the field of consciousness.
J.H. Schultz (creator of the TA), in his studies on hypnosis during his long clinical activity, realized that in all subjects subjected to hypnosis two precise sensations were always referable: heaviness and heat. From these two sensations Schultz set out for elaborate the TA
Heaviness and heat are caused by changes in muscle tone; the feeling of heaviness is the expression of a muscular distension and the perception of heat the consequence of a hyperemia due to vascular distension.
The hypnogenic effect of muscle relaxation constitutes another general physiological phenomenon, the decrease in muscle tension considered from the point of view of the physiology of sleep, is one of the basic phenomena that accompany rest, internalization and the passive attitude.
The peculiarity of this method is that the exercises of psychic concentration, once learned by a Trainer, can be reproduced autonomously, as opposed to hypnosis which usually uses the therapist's action which induces a state of relaxation in the patient.
Biofeedback
Basically it is a self-monitoring technique that aims to provide the sportsman with the means to regulate his emotional responses, trying to optimize the mental approach to performance by eliminating stressors.
1- Somatic level: modifications on the neurovegetative and neuroendocrine response to stress;
2- Psychic level: cognitive evaluation and manageability of stressors.
Biofeedback trains the subject to self-regulate some physiological functions by means of some electronic equipment capable of detecting these functions and returning to the same information (feedback) capable of increasing awareness on the physiological responses activated.
Passing through an increase in awareness of physiological responses, the subject gets used to managing them in the best way.
Hypnosis
Technique in which, through the intervention of an operator, a particular mental state is induced in the subject (hypnotic trance); in this stage the field of consciousness is narrowed, favoring the expression of unconscious dynamics.
At a neurophysiological level, hypnosis passes from a level of cortical inhibition that the stronger it is, the greater the depth of hypnosis.
Schultz, in his studies that led to the implementation of his method (Autogenic Training), had identified how during hypnosis patients reported feelings of heaviness and heat resulting from changes in muscle tone.
The physiological effects activated by hypnosis are: changes in heart and respiratory rate, blood circulation, pupil diameter. However, none of the aforementioned changes is peculiar to the technique and the quality of the changes is extremely subjective.
To conclude
A greater knowledge of oneself and of the potential of one's body, as we have seen, also passes from a mastery and an "active" control of what by definition seems to be the opposite of control and awareness, that is to use muscle relaxation. as a passepartout for the control of the deeper layers of our ego and of our organism, levels that are normally beyond our control and the possibility of access.
Knowing how to interact with these deep levels, in case of imbalance and discomfort we will have powerful tools that can help us restore the condition of well-being.
And now, after having stimulated our mind on the importance of relaxation and relaxation ... let's stimulate our body and learn to appreciate its benefits.
Glossary
Myalgia: Pain localized to one or more groups. The affected muscles are contracted, painful on palpation, the movements cause pain. Myalgia can be of traumatic, viral, rheumatic or fatigue origin.
Somatoesthetic sensitivity: Ability of the organism to perceive endogenous stimuli (coming from the inside of our body).
Vessel distension hyperemia: Increase in the mass of blood circulating in the blood canals resulting from the increase in the diameter of the canal.
Stressors: Stress agents (which are a source of stress).
the: According to the psychodynamic perspective, the "Ego" is a psychic component that represents the conscience and that continuously mediates between the instances of the id (part that expresses the instinctual drives) and the Superego (which expresses what it would be right to do according to the values, norms and prohibitions that we have learned and internalized since childhood).
Bibliographical references:
Balboni B, Dispenza A. Movement + Sport = Health Turin, The capital,.
Fulcheri M. The current frontiers of clinical psychology. Scientific Publisher Center.
Munno D. Clinical psychology for doctors. Scientific Publisher Center.
Schultz JH. The Autogenic Training. Feltrinelli XVII ed. it, Milan.
Tamorri S. Neuroscience and Sport. Utet.
We thank Dr. Margherita Sassi (Sports Psychologist - Psychotherapist) for the useful insights provided to the author during the drafting of this text.
