The effects of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on the Psychosomatic of Psychological states and the electromyography of athletes were examined during three weeks of PMR practice. Participants were male university students of high performance athletes (n＝13, mean age 21.8 years, SD＝1.0). They practiced the simplified version of progressive muscle relaxation (Wolpe, 1954), daily for three weeks and assessed on the first day of the practice period, as well as after one, two and three weeks of practice. Changes in psychological state and electromyography of the flexor carpi radialis muscle, upper part of trapezius, upper and lower rectus abdominis, and soleus muscle were examined. The Two-Dimensional Mood Scale was used to assess Psychological states using positive arousal, negative arousal, and Hedonic tone. Root Mean Square (RMS) was calculated based on the electromyogram (EMG) of each muscle. The results indicated that positive arousal scores and negative arousal scores decreased after PMR. Furthermore, two and three weeks after PMR, the hedonic tone scores increased significantly, suggesting that it takes over two weeks for the effect of PMR on the Psychological state to relaxation. However, RMS scores did not change even after three weeks of practice
