Progressive muscle relaxation · squeeze then drop · skin bar
The drop needed a squeeze.
A clenched muscle has to lift before it can drop.
I sat on the bed asking the apartment to land while my shoulders were already up by my ears.
The tape started at the hand
Fist first.
Toussaint printed the sit in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2021 as article 5924040, DOI 10.1155/2021/5924040, after sixty undergrads at Luther College sat for a twenty-minute Smith tape that told them to tense a muscle group and then let it go.
Sixty people sat down.
Seventy-one point four percent were women. Mean age sat at 19.64 with a spread of 1.32 years on a sheet that ran from 18 to 23, and the four rooms matched on sex and age, chi-squared 4.54, p = 0.21, age F = 0.58, p = 0.63.
They came for extra credit in an intro psych class. The lab ran in the evening, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, across a fall term and a spring term.
The sheet asked them to skip caffeine for twelve hours. Alcohol and nicotine sat on the same line.
A researcher wired the first and second fingers of the nondominant hand for skin conductance, then put heart leads above each ankle and on that same wrist.
They filled the Smith Relaxation States Inventory-3, thirty-eight items on a 1-to-6 line, before the tape and after it. The total score held together, alpha above 0.90 both times.
Then the tape talked.
Jonathon Smith wrote the voice. It told the squeeze arm to tighten a group and drop it, then move on, for twenty minutes.
The magazine readers barely moved
TIME stayed flat.
The control room got TIME and Sports Illustrated. Those sheets rose 0.31 on the relaxation total, p = 0.019. That bump was small next to the squeeze room.
The squeeze room rose 0.42, p = 0.002. After the tape, that room sat 0.43 above the magazine room, p = 0.046.
The four rooms started even. Baseline group tests sat above 0.118.
Group by time on the self-report printed F = 2.81, p = 0.048, eta squared 0.14.
Skin conductance told a cleaner story. The four rooms split, F = 8.18, p less than 0.001, eta squared 0.31.
The magazine room stayed put, F = 0.36, p = 0.837, eta squared 0.03.
The squeeze room fell in a straight line, F = 13.40, p less than 0.001, eta squared 0.51.
That is a large within-room move on the bar the fingers printed.
Heart rate sat through the drop
The pulse missed the cut.
Heart rate across the four rooms only approached a split, F = 1.65, p = 0.084, eta squared 0.11.
The fingers moved. The pulse did not clear the line they set.
Toussaint wrote that the self-report rose and the skin bar fell, and that the pulse stayed a maybe.
I still wanted the keys. I ran the squeeze anyway.
The file paid on the fingers.
The jaw was already locked
Reels sold a limp sit.
Reels keep telling you to soften and receive. I looped a raise-the-vibe caption with my jaw already locked and called the grind a sit.
A reel this month said tense all over, then soften one muscle at a time. That is the file, said in a kitchen.
Healthline still walks the same hold-then-drop, last updated 22 July 2025, and still has to say you tense first.
The wish can wait for the fist.
Date the jaw after.
Run the twenty-minute tape.
Squeeze one group. Hold. Let it go. Move to the next. When the tape ends, write how the jaw sits.
This page is about a squeeze that lets a drop happen. The Library keeps the other files.
Leftover questions from the tape
How hard do I squeeze?
Hard enough that you feel the group. The Smith tape asked for a tense-and-release. Keep the cramp out of it.
What if my pulse stays the same?
The pulse missed the cut in this room. The fingers still fell. Write the jaw anyway.
Can I run this sitting at a desk?
The measured sit was a lab chair in the evening with a tape. A desk chair already paid if you can tense a group and drop it.
What if I only have five minutes?
The file ran twenty. A short pass on one group is a start. The printed n used the full tape.
Does a locked jaw belong with a clinician?
A torn muscle or a chest squeeze that stays the night belongs with a clinician. This file is a twenty-minute tape in a psych lab.
The Luther sheet
Toussaint L., Nguyen Q.A., Roettger C., Dixon K., Offenbacher M., Kohls N., Hirsch J., Sirois F. "Effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Deep Breathing, and Guided Imagery in Promoting Psychological and Physiological States of Relaxation." Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2021;2021:5924040. DOI 10.1155/2021/5924040. PMID 34306146 · Received 19 April 2021 · Accepted 14 June 2021 · Published 3 July 2021 · Luther College, Decorah, IA · n=60 undergraduate psychology extra-credit · 71.4% female · mean age 19.64 SD 1.32 range 18 to 23 · sex chi-squared 4.54, p=0.21 · age F=0.58, p=0.63 · evening sessions 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, fall and spring · caffeine withheld 12 hours, alcohol and nicotine on the same line · Biopac MP35 · electrodermal activity on first and second fingers of the nondominant hand · heart rate triple-lead, ankles and nondominant wrist · five-minute epochs · Smith Relaxation States Inventory-3, 38 items, 1-to-6, total score alpha above 0.90 at baseline and follow-up · 20-minute recorded audio by Dr. Jonathon Smith · four rooms: progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, guided imagery, magazine control (TIME, Sports Illustrated) · psychological group-by-time F=2.81, p=0.048, eta squared 0.14 · control baseline-to-follow-up difference 0.31, p=0.019 · PMR 0.42, p=0.002 · deep breathing 0.68, p less than 0.001 · guided imagery 0.79, p less than 0.001 · baseline group ps above 0.118 · follow-up vs control: PMR 0.43, p=0.046 · deep breathing 0.54, p=0.014 · guided imagery 0.54, p=0.015 · relaxation groups vs each other ps above 0.621 · electrodermal group F=8.18, p less than 0.001, eta squared 0.31 · control F=0.36, p=0.837, eta squared 0.03 · guided imagery F=3.86, p=0.008, eta squared 0.23 · PMR F=13.40, p less than 0.001, eta squared 0.51 · deep breathing F=7.46, p less than 0.001, eta squared 0.37, curvilinear up then down · heart rate F=1.65, p=0.084, eta squared 0.11 · Jacobson 1920s origin named in the file · age and sex covaried. doi.org/10.1155/2021/5924040 · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34306146 · White Rose PDF · Healthline 22 July 2025