White House Sport Psychology

Progressive muscle relaxation is a great exercise for athletes looking to relax their mind and body, as well as enhance their awareness and understanding of what is happening in their body. This is especially true when it comes to carrying stress and tension in different muscle groups throughout the body. Use this shorter version of the full progressive muscle relaxation exercise to guide yourself through a series of contracting and relaxing your muscles to help your muscles relax and let go of that tension and in the process, help your mind let go of stress.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a great exercise for athletes looking to relax their minds and body, as well as enhance their awareness and understanding of what is happening in their bodies. This is especially true when it comes to carrying stress and tension in different muscle groups throughout the body. Use this exercise to guide yourself through a series of contracting and relaxing your muscles (starting in the feet and working your way up through the legs, torso, and then out the arms toward the hands and fingers) to help your muscles relax and let go of that tension and in the process, help your mind let go of stress.

This exercise uses a unique approach to managing pain. Instead of trying to avoid or mask our pain, this exercise guides the injured athlete into their pain. Doing this helps the athlete understand their pain on a deeper level and reduces the fear that many people have about pain. Reducing our fear and worry about pain helps us relax our mind and body which in turn reduces the amount of pain we are experiencing.

Mindfulness is a great way to build your awareness and acceptance. These two elements are key to managing emotions and reducing the negative impact of daily stress. Using this exercise helps the listener practice awareness and acceptance which are core components of mindfulness.

This is a simple exercise that uses focused breathing patterns to help injured athletes reduce their pain. During this exercise the listener will focus on letting their mind and body relax which allows their muscles to let go of excessive tension, stiffness, and ultimately pain. It also promotes a calm mindset which can help alleviate the stress that many athletes experience when they are injured.

This exercise helps the listener build their overall sense of awareness. Developing mental skills like awareness and mindfulness helps the athlete build the mental strength, mental flexibility, and mental endurance they need to manage stress, pressure, and high expectations during competition. In this exercise - which is a shortened version of the full length body scan for mindful awareness - the listener will combine focused and deliberate breathing patterns with a series of non-judgmental observations that begin in the lower body and gradually move to all of the major regions of the body.

This exercise helps the listener build the foundation of their mind-body connection. The mind-body connection, along with the mindful awareness that is developed through this exercise, is a key element to building mental strength, mental flexibility, and mental endurance which helps athletes manage stress, pressure, and high expectations during competition. In this exercise, the listener will combine focused and deliberate breathing patterns with a series of non-judgmental observations that begin in the feet and gradually move up through the legs and torso, and finally down through the arms to the hands and fingers.