Hi it's Elissa Weinzimmer, founder of Voice Body Connection and it is time for
another how to warm up video how to warm up in today's video we're going to cover
how to do a laryngeal massage that means massaging around your larynx or your
voice box now when the muscles around your larynx get tight or even the
muscles inside your larynx they can actually dampen the vibration of your
voice think about a bell ringing if you were to put your hands around the bell
it would dampen those vibrations right in the same way your voice box is like a
bell ringing and if the muscles are tight it dampens the vibrations so when
we release these muscles it actually allows us to have a more resonant free
sound coming out of us now many people know that you can go to a
speech-language pathologist to have a full-circle laryngeal massage done for
you and while that's very important and useful if you're having some deep issues
there's a gentle simple technique that you can use on yourself at home now just
a couple more things before we dive into the full laryngeal massage one is that
some people have a reaction where they touch the front of their throat and they
go oh that's disgusting I can't handle it if that's you if you're having a
little bit of a gag reflex then that's okay it's actually relatively normal and
you may want to check out the vibrator for your voice exercise which is also in
this series and was in fact created for someone who was having that I can't
touch the front of my throat feeling another thing to acknowledge is that
it's really really imperative that you do this exercise for yourself now the
front of the throat you'll notice if you ever go get a massage that they don't
work on the front of your throat that's because we have the carotid artery and
we have other nerves and lymphatic stuff running through this area so it's really
important that we can judge when we're feeling a little bit queasy when we're
feeling like we don't want to proceed and that we are very gentle and take a
break whenever we need to the only time someone should be doing
this exercise for you is if it's a licensed speech therapist okay now that
I've given you that disclaimer let's go ahead and gently dive in okay so step
one is that you're going to find your thyroid notch which is the fancy word
for your Adam's apple women yes we have it too so find the
part where your larynx sticks out just a little bit now the significance of that
point is that's where your vocal cords are they are meeting right behind that
point on the inside of the larynx and by the way if I use the term vocal cords or
vocal folds they're the same thing so once you find that spot go ahead and put
a thumb and your other fingers on either side of the spot on the flat cartilage
that is called the thyroid cartilage on either side okay step number one is that
we're going to take the fingers from up above that point and down below and
we're gently dragging the fingers down lengthening the muscles that run along
the side of the larynx these muscles are called the strap muscles and they are
strap like and strap the larynx into place when they are tight our larynx
will pull up higher in our throat and when they are loose our larynx will sit
a little bit lower in our throat which is what we want you can think about this
metaphor it's almost like your larynx is like the basket of a hot air balloon and
there are strings coming down and of course in this metaphor your head is the
hot air balloon and you want the basket to sit a little bit lower you don't want
it up inside the air balloon and in fact there's actually a stabilizing structure
just like in a hot air balloon that has that ring around it there's a
stabilizing structure in there that will find as well - in just a moment
so just a couple more times first step stroking the muscles down to let the
larynx rest lower in the throat okay that is step one of five okay so now
step two is actually to wiggle the larynx side-to-side because just like
the hot-air balloon basket being able to sit lower we also want some freedom for
it to wiggle around on those strings that it's on so you're gonna take the
same position with your hands thumb on one side on the thyroid cartilage and
fingers on the other side and you're gonna wiggle the whole thing
side-to-side to slightly that might be a little bit crazy and if you hear a teeny
bit of clicking that's actually okay the truth is there's two cartilages here
there's the thyroid cartilage above which has those flattish sides and
there's the cricoid which sits below it and they're actually sitting right on
top of each other so as you wiggle the whole thing side to side you may hear
them shift a little bit on top of each other and just be sure to relax your jaw
relax your tongue as you do this whole exercise make sure you're also not
crunching the back of your neck and that you're sitting up nice and tall for the
whole sequence okay and that wiggling side to side is step number two now
steps three and four involve a bone that is called the hyoid bone now the hyoid
bone is that stabilizing structure that we talked about it's the equivalent of
the stabilizer in the hot air balloon it stabilizes in your throat and fun fact
it's the only floating bone in the body which means it's not connected to any
other bones it has muscles above it it's right about here in your throat muscles
above it that go up into your tongue and muscles below it which suspend the
larynx so the hyoid bone when tight and when
the muscles around it are tight it's going to cause less movement to be
capable and possible in the area so let's loosen up the hyoid bone let's
find it first here's where it is so the hyoid bone is
in the crease where chin becomes neck if you take your thumb and your finger
about two inches apart and bring them to either side of that crease and gently
search for something that feels bony in there you may find it now yours may be a
little bit higher if you're a little more tense maybe a little lower maybe a
little wider and further back but just search around very gently to see if you
can find something and when you find it if you wiggle side to side and you feel
it stick out on the other side as you wiggle it then you know you've found the
hyoid bone and that is indeed the exercise for step 3 which is to gently
wiggle the hyoid bone side to side now I'm articulating less clearly as I do
that because the root of my tongue muscles are attached right to the top of
the hyoid bone so you'll also know that you've got it if you can feel that
movement up into the root of your tongue great
and then step number four step number four is to
the space that is between your hyoid bone and the top of your thyroid
cartilage there's a space that's probably even less than a finger width
wide and if you can find it you'll just have to sort of squeeze so gently search
around once you find it you're just gonna do little teeny circles in that
space trying to create more space in that membranous area between the hyoid
bone and the thyroid cartilage and this is where you don't want to squeeze too
tight because you'll notice that it is your windpipe now can you collapse your
windpipe easily not at all but it might be where you induce the sort of a gag
feeling so gentle gentle circles here and that is step number four and then
the fifth and final step of the full laryngeal massage sequence is to stretch
your cricothyroid muscle now let me explain you remember I mentioned that
the thyroid cartilage and the cricoid cartilage sit one on top of the other
and here's what happens as they tilt it changes the relationship of those two
cartilages which stretches and releases the vocal chords now that actually
changes your pitch the muscle that's responsible for tilt and release is the
cricothyroid muscle between them right in front so we can do a very gentle
stretch of that muscle which I think feels really nice take two fingers two
inches apart the other set of two fingers on your other hand two inches
apart put one set up above your Adam's apple and the other set down below and
then just gently stretch them away from each other apart you're just getting a
gentle drag of the skin away from each other that's gonna gently stretch your
cricothyroid muscle which is quite a small muscle and if you're having any
issues with passaggio as we call it in singing or going through your pitch
shift then it can be very very helpful to stop and do this stage of the
exercise so to review again those five steps are to drag the fingers down the
front of the throat encouraging the larynx to sit lower in the throat step
two to wiggle the whole thing side-to-side entire larynx entire voice
box step three to do a gentle wiggle on either side of the
hyoid bone step forward to do the little teeny circles right below the
highway bone in that space above the top of the thyroid cartilage and of course
Google Image Search if you want to see all of this and see what you're touching
and then step number five to do the stretch of the front of the cricothyroid
pitch muscle okay so those are your five steps now when should you practice this
if you experience vocal tension if you experience fatigue
then this series of exercises is totally for you so practice it on a daily basis
because muscle tension requires some untangling so the more that you can
repeat it the more you can do it once a day the more you'll find that things on
the front of your throat get more released however if you have experienced
a lot of hoarseness intense hoarseness for longer than two weeks at a time or
if you've had a sudden change in the quality of your voice it went from great
to really not okay in one day then you need to get thee to the ear nose and
throat doctor okay please so go to the ear nose and throat doctor have them
scope your vocal cords and make sure that there's nothing going on that's
more intense than muscle tension now I know there can be a lot of curiosity and
confusion about this area on the front of our throat and what is happening here
especially if something's going on with our voice that feels abnormal or like we
haven't noticed it before so if you have any questions as you practice this full
laryngeal massage please do ask me below the video enjoy
I hope this exercise is helpful for you remember to be gentle remember to do
this for yourself and I will see you in a future how to warm up video how to
warm up