Shake Out Stress With This Easy Trauma Releasing Exercise

Since undertaking this study of our breath and learning breath work exercises, I have been more and more aware of how amazing and wonderfully complex our physical body is.  Learning about our nervous system and how our breath can control our interaction with our sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves has altered how I think about our daily activities and decision making . 

Now I have, for lack of a better description, stumbled upon another stress relieving exercise that fundamentally effects ones nervous systems and utilizes our built in stress release function to let go of stored trauma in our bodies. It is a incredible tool for relieving pain, anxiety, reoccurring trauma, mental stress, sleeplessness and many other stresses we carry with us everyday, old and new.

TRE or tension release exercise was developed by Dr. David Berceli. As he explains, "TRE® is an innovative series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. The exercises safely activate a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return back to a state of balance."

In order to facilitate this exercise, you must first exhaust your muscles, primarily the legs and the psoas muscle to the point where they begin to tremor.  Once this is tremor is activated, you can relax and let your muscles and nervous system involuntarily explore where the tremor will flow through your body. You may experience shaking throughout your entire body as well as vocal releases.  

It is not painful and it does not take you back to when the trauma was experienced, although you can pay attention to your thoughts and memories that might come along with the motions to give you clues as to their origins.  For instance, the first time I practiced TRE, after a few moments of leg and back tremors, I experienced a quick side to side vibrating motion and I recalled when my car was struck in the passenger side door about 15 years ago.

In the various videos available online, there is some variation as to the sequence of exercises one can do to lead into TRE, it can even be done after a long walk, run or horseback ride for example, when your legs are tired.  The following steps are my suggested series of exercises to activate TRE but as you practice them more often, you will be able to activate the shaking easily and you will develop your own practice to lead yourself into the release exercise.

This is a easy set of exercises that will tire your muscles but will not exhaust you. At any time if you should feel pain or discomfort, you can back off the stretch or posture and let yourself relax. Go back into the posture when you are ready.

1. Begin by standing on one leg and rising up to the ball of your foot.  Put a hand on the wall or something to balance yourself as you rise up and down until your calf muscle is tired, approximately 15 times. 

2. Repeat with the other leg.

3. Next, with your legs more than shoulder width apart, lean forward and reach for the floor beneath you. Stretch your leg muscles. Swing gently to one side and reach for your toes, then move to the other leg and reach for your other toes. Return to your middle and reach behind you, feeling the increase in the stretch.

4. Lean against a wall and lower yourself into a wall sit posture. Hold this for as long as comfortable. You can move your sit higher up the wall to give yourself a rest. 

5. Continue this wall sit posture until you start to feel your legs begin to tremor or shake.

6. Once this has initiated, move to a lying down posture, on your back with your hands by your sides and your knees bent.

7. Take a few deep breaths, so deep that you sigh as you exhale.

8. With your knees still bent, place the soles of your feet together and drop your knees to the side. Imagine you are holding an exercise ball between your knees.

9. Keep squeezing your knees together and hold them up and out.  Your tremors will begin again. Move your knees slightly higher. The tremors will increase and feel larger and involuntary. TRE shaking has begun.

10.  As you shake, you can place your feet on the floor with your knees bent.

11. Let the tremors vibrate through you, as they do not require any thought from you to move, but they can easily be stopped by you by stretching out your legs.

12. You can let these vibrations carry on for 10 to 15 minutes, unless they have stopped on their own.

Once you have completed the exercise you may be surprised by how relaxed you feel. By lengthening your legs, stretching and breathing deeply, you will feel grounded and an overall sense of calm. A cool sensation will run through your muscles and throughout your body as tension melts away.

Each of the following short videos has information, descriptions and demonstrations that will help you understand the basic actions that make up TRE. In this first video, she shows a very honest first hand experience of practicing TRE for the first time.  In the second video, she shows a more practical approach to performing TRE at home that can be done alone by anyone.  

I would love to hear about your experiences if you try TRE in the comments.

Until next time,
keep exercising your breath. xoxo

Kerri