How to do progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple technique. You tense one group of muscles for about five seconds, let go all at once, and notice the difference for 10 to 20 seconds. Then you move to the next group, usually working from your feet up to your face. A full round takes about 15 minutes, and once you know it, a short version takes two.

It's one of the easiest relaxation techniques to learn because it gives your mind something physical to do.

What progressive muscle relaxation is and why it works

The NIH's center for complementary health describes progressive muscle relaxation as tensing different muscles in your body and then releasing the tension. Researchers also call it Jacobson's progressive relaxation, after the doctor who developed it.

Stress lives in your muscles. Your shoulders creep up, your jaw sets, your hands stay half-clenched on the mouse. After a while that tension feels normal, so you stop noticing it. Being told to "just relax" doesn't do much, because you can't let go of tension you can't feel.

Squeezing a muscle hard on purpose makes the tension obvious. When you release it, the change is easy to feel, and that contrast teaches you what loose actually feels like. Do it enough times and you start catching the tight jaw at 4 p.m. before it has been there all afternoon.

Relaxation techniques like this aim for what that same NIH page calls the relaxation response: slower breathing, lower blood pressure and a lower heart rate, the opposite of the stress response. It can start quickly. In a study that randomly assigned 60 students to 20 minutes of progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, guided imagery or a control condition, all three techniques left people more relaxed than the control group. With progressive muscle relaxation, heart rate and skin measures of arousal trended toward relaxation right away.

How to do progressive muscle relaxation, step by step

Give yourself 15 minutes the first few times. It gets faster once the order is automatic.

1. Get comfortable. Lie on your back, or sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Loosen anything tight and kick off your shoes.
2. Take a few slow breaths. Breathe in through your nose and let each breath out a little longer than it came in.
3. Tense one muscle group. Breathe in as you squeeze, firmly but short of pain or cramping. Hold for about five seconds. Don't hold your breath while you do it.
4. Let go all at once. Breathe out and drop the tension in one go, like setting down a heavy bag. Don't ease off slowly.
5. Notice for 10 to 20 seconds. How does the area feel now? Heavier, softer, maybe a little tingly. This noticing is the point of the exercise, so don't rush it.
6. Move to the next group. Use the same order every time so you don't have to think about it.
7. Finish slowly. Lie still for a minute and scan for any spot that's still tight. If you're getting up, wiggle your fingers and toes first.

Here are the muscle groups in order, with a simple way to tense each one:

• Feet: curl your toes down.
• Calves: pull your toes up toward your shins.
• Thighs: press your knees together or straighten your legs hard.
• Hips and buttocks: squeeze them together.
• Stomach: pull your belly in tight, as if bracing for a poke.
• Chest and upper back: breathe in deeply and pull your shoulder blades together.
• Hands: make tight fists.
• Arms: bend your elbows and tighten your biceps.
• Shoulders: shrug them up toward your ears.
• Neck: gently press the back of your head into the pillow or chair.
• Jaw and mouth: clench your teeth lightly and pull the corners of your mouth back.
• Eyes and cheeks: squeeze your eyes shut and scrunch your nose.
• Forehead: raise your eyebrows as high as they go.

Go easy on your neck and lower back. Skip any area that's injured or sore, and use half the effort on your feet and calves if they tend to cramp. If you have a muscle or joint condition, check with your doctor before you start.

A progressive muscle relaxation script you can follow

Read this slowly to yourself, or record it on your phone in a calm voice and play it back with your eyes closed. A recording turns it into guided progressive muscle relaxation, which is how the 20-minute session in that study was delivered. The pauses matter more than the exact words: count five seconds for each squeeze and about fifteen for each release.

Settle into a comfortable position and let your eyes close. Take a slow breath in through your nose, and let it out slowly through your mouth. Once more. In, and out. Let your body be heavy wherever it's resting.

Feet. Bring your attention down to your feet. Curl your toes down, tight. Hold it. Two, three, four, five. And let go. Feel your feet soften. Notice the difference between tight and loose, and stay with it for a few breaths.

Calves. Now pull your toes up toward your shins and feel your calves tighten. Hold. And release. Let your lower legs grow heavy.

Thighs. Press your knees together and tighten the big muscles in your thighs. Hold it. And let go. Notice whatever you feel there now, warmth, heaviness or nothing much at all.

Hips and stomach. Squeeze your buttocks and pull your belly in tight. Hold. And release. Let your belly rise and fall on its own.

Chest and back. Breathe in deeply and pull your shoulder blades together, feeling your chest open. Hold for a moment. Now let the breath and the squeeze go together. Breathe normally.

Hands and arms. Make two tight fists and bend your elbows, tightening your upper arms. Hold. And release. Let your arms drop and your fingers uncurl. Notice how heavy your hands feel.

Shoulders. Shrug your shoulders up toward your ears. A little higher. Hold. And drop them. Let them sink lower than they usually sit.

Neck. Gently press the back of your head into whatever is behind it. Just a little. Hold. And release. Let your head be completely supported.

Face. Clench your jaw, squeeze your eyes shut and scrunch up your whole face. Hold. And let it all go. Let your jaw hang slightly open and your tongue rest. Now raise your eyebrows as high as they'll go. Hold. And let your forehead go smooth.

Whole body. Scan slowly from your head down to your toes. If any spot is still tight, breathe into it and let it go on the next breath out. Stay here for a minute, breathing slowly, heavy and still.

If you're going to sleep, stay right where you are. If you're getting up, count down from five, move your fingers and toes, and open your eyes when you're ready.

Progressive muscle relaxation for sleep

Sleep is where this technique has some of its strongest evidence. A 2026 review of 31 randomized trials with 2,277 people found that progressive muscle relaxation significantly improved sleep quality compared with control groups. A second 2026 review, of 14 trials with 957 adults, also found better sleep quality, with a clear benefit in adults under 55 and a less certain one in people 55 and older. In that review, the number of sessions people did wasn't linked to how much their sleep improved.

Using it for sleep is a little different from using it during the day:

• Do it in bed with the lights off. Put your phone across the room first, so you can drift off without getting up.
• Squeeze at about half strength. At night you want heaviness. Hard squeezes can wake you up.
• Stretch out the releases. Give each area 20 or 30 seconds of letting go, and slow your breathing down through it.
• Skip the ending. Don't count yourself back up. If you fall asleep somewhere around your stomach, it worked.
• Use it at 3 a.m. too. If you wake up and can't settle, do just your legs and feet, slowly, instead of checking the time.

Progressive muscle relaxation for sleep works best as part of a steady routine: the same bedtime most nights and a dim, quiet last hour. These sleep hygiene tips are easy to build around it. If you've slept badly most nights for a few weeks, mention it to your doctor. It's common and very treatable.

Using it for anxiety and stress

Anxiety and stress both show up in the body. Tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, a stomach that won't unknot. Progressive muscle relaxation for anxiety works on that physical side. The 31-trial review above found it significantly reduced anxiety as well as improving sleep. An older review of 27 studies on relaxation training, which included progressive relaxation, found a medium-to-large effect on anxiety, with better results from longer programs.

Here's how to make it useful when you actually need it:

• Practice when you're calm first. Once a day for a week or two, ideally at the same time. Learning a new skill in the middle of a bad moment is much harder.
• Then use it before the hard thing. Five minutes in the car before a meeting, a difficult call or a medical appointment. The short versions below fit.
• Know your tension spots. Most people hold stress in one or two places. If yours is your jaw, check it every time you open your email or stop at a red light, and let it drop on a breath out.
• Keep your eyes open if you need to. If paying close attention to your body makes the anxiety louder, look at one spot in the room and move through the groups a bit faster.

Progressive muscle relaxation for stress handles the body. The racing thoughts usually need words. Writing out what you're worried about, or typing it into a chat, gets it out of your head and into something you can look at. Here's what talking anxiety through in an online chat is like, and a wider set of techniques to relieve stress when you can't unwind.

Shorter versions for when you only have a few minutes

The full routine is how you learn the technique. Once it's familiar, you can shrink it.

• Five minutes, four groups. Instead of 13 areas, tense four big ones: hands and arms, then face, neck and shoulders, then chest and stomach, then legs and feet. Hold each for five seconds, release for 15 to 20, and do every group twice.
• Two minutes, whole body. Breathe in and tense everything at once, from your fists to your toes. Hold for five seconds, then let it all go on a long breath out. Rest for 20 seconds and repeat three times.
• Thirty seconds at your desk. Shrug your shoulders to your ears, hold, and drop. Then make fists under the desk, hold, and release. Nobody will notice.
• Release only. After a couple of weeks of practice, you can skip the tensing. Breathe in, think a cue word like "drop," and let your shoulders, jaw and hands go as you breathe out. This is the version you can use anywhere, including mid-conversation.

Pairing it with breathing or meditation

Progressive muscle relaxation already uses your breath: in as you tense, out as you let go. You can lean on that more.

• Start with a couple of minutes of slow breathing. Breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six. It settles you, so the first squeeze doesn't feel like a jolt.
• End with stillness. After the last muscle group, stay where you are for three to five minutes. Notice your body resting and your breath moving in and out. This is what people mean by progressive muscle relaxation meditation: the tensing pulls your attention into your body, and the quiet minutes keep it there.
• Swap in a body scan on sore days. A body scan moves through the same areas without tensing, just noticing. It's gentler when your muscles are already tired.

In the 27-study review, meditation had the strongest effect on anxiety of the relaxation methods compared, so a few quiet minutes at the end are worth keeping. If your mind wanders during them, that's normal. Here's how to meditate when your mind won't stop thinking.

Quick answers

What is the progressive muscle relaxation technique?

It's a relaxation technique where you tense one muscle group for about five seconds, then release it and notice the difference, working through your whole body. Practiced regularly, it trains you to spot tension early and let it go.

Is progressive muscle relaxation a form of meditation?

Partly. It uses the same focused attention as meditation, aimed at sensations you create by tensing and releasing. Many people find it an easier way in than sitting still with their thoughts, and ending with a few quiet minutes turns it into a full meditation session.

Do I need a guided progressive muscle relaxation recording?

No, but one helps at first. A recording keeps the pace slow and saves you from remembering the order. Record yourself reading the script above, and after a week or two you'll know it by heart.

Wind down with Moodu

Once the progressive muscle relaxation steps feel familiar, Moodu is a good way to finish the wind-down. Its Meditation Journey conversation opens with: "Let's slow down together. Would you like a 2-minute breathing exercise, or to talk about what's been noisy in your head?" Finish your round of PMR, then pick what you need: a short breathing exercise to stay settled, or a chance to talk through the thoughts that kept pulling you out of the quiet. You can type, or tap the mic and say it out loud.

Moodu's breathing exercises, including 4-7-8 breathing and the 3-minute breathing space, run on an on-screen timer, so one fits neatly after PMR at bedtime. Chats are encrypted before they're saved and never used for ads. Moodu is $39.99 a year after a 3-day free trial, or $4.99 a week.