During Phase One, you learned that excessive physiological activity leads to poor performance. You also learned a simple technique to eliminate excess physiological activity from the body.

We would like to continue to Phase Two of your training in progressive muscle relaxation. This second phase with its accompanying three days of practice has several purposes. First, you will reduce the number of muscle groups from 12 to 4. Additionally, we want you to reduce the time taken by each practice session. These changes will help the relaxation response to become more useful in immediate athletic endeavors.

To accomplish these goals, we want you to learn this shorter, changed version of progressive muscle relaxation. This shorter version concentrates on four major muscle groups. The four groups we use are a combination of the twelve that you learned earlier.

Please take a moment to review the four major muscle groups. You will be using them in your practice during the next three sessions. Beneath the name of each major group are a list of the smaller groups that make it up. When tensing a major muscle group, you simply tense at one time all of the smaller groups that make it up. The four major groups are as follows:

1. Arms
   1. right hand and forearm
   2. right upper arm
   3. left hand and forearm
   4. left upper arm
2. Head
   1. forehead and scalp
   2. face and neck
3. Torso
   1. shoulders and chest
   2. abdomen and buttocks
4. Legs
   1. right upper leg
   2. right lower leg and foot
   3. left upper leg
   4. left lower leg and foot

As you can clearly see, each of the four major muscle groups is a combination of various familiar smaller groups. For practice with this shorter technique, you will tense at once all the muscles that comprise the group. For example, when you tense "arms", you will simultaneously tense the right hand and forearm, the right upper arm, the left hand and forearm and the left upper arm. Similar to the previous 12 group relaxation procedure, you may use the following guidelines for the practice sessions.

1. Find your child a quiet environment and have him lie on his back with his eyes closed.
2. Tense and relax each major muscle group twice.
3. Have your child use the following sequence for his next three practice sessions:
   1. Arms
   2. Head
   3. Torso
   4. Legs
4. For each major muscle group he should do the following:
   1. Take a deep breath and hold it.
   2. Tense the muscle group for about five seconds.
   3. Release the tension, exhale, while saying the word RELAX silently to himself.
   4. Remain relaxed for about 20 seconds.
   5. Tense and relax each muscle group twice before moving on to the

   following group.

5. After each practice session you should record the date in the space provided on Worksheet B.

After a few practice sessions, your child will find that it is easy to eliminate unwanted, destructive excess physiological activity.