How to relieve tension and anxiety: 4 ways from a candidate master of sports

How to relieve tension and anxiety: 4 ways from a candidate master of sports

You can do it at home – no special equipment is needed.

Candidate for Master of Sports, PRO-expert Sportmaster PRO

How to relax and get rid of anxiety over the weekend?

Breathing practices

Breathing practices from yoga work on a physiological level and help turn on the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic is turned on in response to stress – it mobilizes the body when danger appears, increases heart rate, breathing and so on. The parasympathetic system promotes recovery.

Key techniques to reduce this effect are based on lengthening the exhalation. When the exhalation becomes longer than the inhalation, it is the parasympathetic regulation that is turned on. If we can calm our breathing to this ratio, it can help us fall asleep or relieve stress in the moment.

If you catch yourself having a stress response, smooth breathing: inhaling and exhaling through relaxed jaws can help. This exercise helps to release clamps in the body. Another way to release tension is to inhale sharply with your nose and exhale through your mouth.

Yoga

Relax the body and switch the brain with yoga exercises and meditative techniques.

Inclines are one of the easiest and most effective ways. To perform the exercise correctly, you need to do it on bent legs. At the same time, they should be bent so much that the belly touches the hips. The goal is to “put” the belly on the hips and bend over so that the back and neck are relaxed. You should stand in this position for 3-5 breaths.

Then push off the floor with your hands, leave your legs in the same position, straighten your back. It is stretched, the neck becomes an extension of the spine. Take 3-5 breaths in this position – and again in the incline. Alternate with relaxation and extension of the back. From the incline you should rise smoothly so that you do not get dizzy.

Another exercise is to open the thoracic region. Under stress we clench, and to relieve this effect, apply a good passive relaxation practice. Twist a towel roll and place it near your shoulder blades. The task is to lie on the roll sideways so that it turns out to be under the armpit. The head should lie on the floor (you can put a small plaid). If you just lie passively in this position – you get a slight deflection in the thoracic region and a relaxed neck. The result is a stretching of the thoracic region, which relaxes the pectoral muscles.