High muscle tension

[lovak]

So, my muscle tension is really, really high again. My neck, shoulders and back are constantly cramped. I can feel the knots in my muscles really easily. I know this is a common 'stressthing' for me, but stress is currently high as I just started EMDR and it's pretty tough on me.
Getting out of the house is almost an impossible task most days, so I'm looking for something specific I can do at home without too much effort. I know, practicly impossible.

I've tried mindfullness a couple of times but when I actually try to feel my body the pain gets 10x worse and I just feel like shit after.

I've tried yoga but the videos I found are either too long or the moves are too complicated.

Physical therapy and massage don't really fit in my budget right now, and I feel like it's a waste of money since I can't remove the thing that causes my muscles to tense up. So then I'll just be throwing money away.

As for medication, I know some medication has musclerelaxing components to it, and it seems like the most achievable option at the moment, but I'm going to see my psychiatrist tomorrow because I have to reduce my meds because of the emdr. I'm not sure, but to my knowledge musclerelaxers are heavy stuff that I shouldnt be on right now because of the therapy.

I know I may be asking for something impossible, but I hope someone here has a golden tip I haven't tried yet.

 

[ILoveLife]

I've tried yoga but the videos I found are either too long or the moves are too complicated.

Try Yoga with Adriene on youtube, she has 20 minutes yoga for complete beginners videos that are pretty good to get into it.

 

[lovak]

@Sietz Her Youtube page looks promising! I actually think I tried the 30 day yoga but gave up on day 2 because it was honestly quite challenging, but I havent looked at the beginner videos yet. Will do!

 

[ILoveLife]

I'm doing the current 30 days. Had to stop due to a nasty flu. To not lose momentum, I started over, so I'm basically behind everyone :D It's cool though, not beating myself up over it.
Going back to day 1 was hard, though. My body is still recovering from the flu, so planks?! No way :D

 

[shimmerz]

Feldenkrais.

 

[lovak]

@shimmerz Yeah I believe my psychomotoric therapist once mentioned that. Will check that one out too!

 

[Friday]

1. Drink water. Lots and lots of water. Even before working on muscle relaxing, because it helps start shifting toxins. Once you start freeing up the lactic acid in your muscles, you’ll need even more to help flush them out of your system. In general, aim for peeing once an hour, and having it be clear to extremely pale yellow at most. As a rule of thumb / general fitness... If you’re not in the bathroom once an hour, & peeing clear, you’re not drinking enough water... how much water that takes depends on fitness level & environment.

2. Make sure your diet is potassium rich. (Especially if you’ve been anxiety puking, potassium is one of the salts that gets out of whack when we’re sick). Every time you flex a muscle it uses calcium. No worries, you’ve got loads of that in your bones, and your body is constantly making withdrawals from its bone banks in order to pay that out, but we don’t have a good store of potassium, and have to keep replenishing it (this is also why people go stiff when they die, all that calcium from your bones, but no more potassium in your blood, means for several hours after death every single muscle fiber flexes rock hard = rigormortis). So for muscle fatigue up your calcium levels... but for muscle cramping & promoting muscle relaxation... up your potassium. Otherwise known as... eat a banana or drink a Gatorade.

3. Heat & stretching. Hot showers or hot water bottles to help relax the muscles, stretching to start moving blood & lymph & shifting lactic acid and other toxins out, and nutrients in.

Three easy things to do without needing to even leave the house, and almost no effort. Not so impossible after all :P

 

[shimmerz]

Magnesium is key for mental health as well.

 

[lovak]

Thanks for all the useful tips! I take vitamine D with magnesium everyday, and I also eat a lot of banana's. Had bloodwork done recently and everything (except vitamine D) was ok.

Water.. yeah I need to drink more water. Seems silly, but my waterbottle broke and I don't like drinking water from glasses. It's my birthday in a few days and I know I'll be getting one from my sister.
I'm always wary of drinking a lot in the evenings though, after dinner I probably drink around 0.5 liter. I don't really wake up from a full bladder (meds make it hard to wake up) so I actually (TMI) peed in the bed two times (luckily just a litte, when I started peeing I did wake up). Yeahhhh trying to avoid that.... But I could drink more during the day

Hot water is always nice but showering can be triggering so I usually do it as quick as possible. I have a.. I really don't know the english word for it and cant find it online. Like, a rubber sack you can fill with boiling water and use it to heat parts of your body? Going to use that again while sitting on the couch or whatever.


I actually did a short neck/shoulder yoga video I could do seated. It was nice, I guess it helped a little. Refilling my glass as well!

@shimmerz Do you have any specific video's or exercizes that I can check out?

 

[The Albatross]

Feldenkrais.

This technique was only available to me a couple times BUT the practitioner identified a core issue other disciplines overlooked and it really helped me tremendously. Great suggestion if available.

 

[mamachick]

I have a lot of neck and shoulder pain and it worsens with any stress. The best heat pack/coldpack can be bought on internet and is called Bucky. It has buckwheat in it and so doesn't have smells that bother me. It says 2 min in microwave but I heat mine for 3.5 min and have had same one for 10 yrs, and just bought another one when I ordered several for Christmas gifts. Its a good warm up before any exercise too. That with tea helps me relax to sleep at night.

 

[Teasel]

Progressive muscle relaxation - there's lots to choose from on you tube, find one you like enough to do every day. And maybe figure out for yourself a short version you can do many times a day.

For me the worst tension is in my shoulders and back, so I regularly scrunch my shoulders up to my ears, hold the tension for 10 - 20 seconds, really tensing the muscles then relax them. Then do the same with the muscles in my back.

Also if possible laying flat on my back for a minute or two everyday and really relaxing into the floor.

Also, am trying to train myself to regularly notice how I'm sitting / standing, and if I'm tensing, to change posture or purposely relax those muscles. :)