Week 1 - Question about the stretching and relaxing the legs

[akashic610]

I'm only on Day 2 of the MAP program, and I have a question. You know how you gotta stretch/tense and relax the muscles of the legs to relax them? Well after doing all this for 5 minutes like the book calls for, my legs feel no more relaxed than they were before I did all the stretching/tensing. They feel a little more relaxed but barely. The thing is though, they usually already feel pretty relaxed even before all the tensing. Is it possible that my legs are already relaxed enough before I even begin? Thanks for the help.

[CFTraveler]

It's possible that you may not need to do it today, but there is more than one reason to do it in the way it's described anyway.
When you go through a routine (tensing feet, releasing, tensing legs, releasing, etc.) of tension-relaxation, you are not only systematically relaxing the body parts mentioned, you are doing a variety of things:
1) You are bringing awareness to each body part in order and bringing action to this awareness, which may not be done consciously if not part of a piecemeal ordered process;
2) When you do this enough times, it trains your brain to do it as a pavlovian effect; that is, without thinking about it, you go through a relaxation process just by starting it, which is why it should be done in order.
3) It becomes a ritual, and as with almost any ritual, you have installed in yourself a 'relax button', so to speak- So next time you sit (or lie down) to do this, it's almost a reflex relaxation.

So it's good to do it even if it's boring at first- it will make your practice more efficient later on, and in other times of stress you can use it to help you 'slow down and relax' when you need it.