Elissa Weinzimmer here I'm a vocal
health educator and the founder of Voice
Body Connection and today we're going to
be talking about laryngeal massage okay
so we're at the sound stage of the how to
warm-up video series and the sound stage
for me deals with phonation which is the
fancy word for the vibration of the
vocal cords themselves but I think it's
also important when we get to this stage
of the game to think about making sure
that there's not extra tension in the
muscles around the larynx in the vocal
cords that would dampen the vibration of
your sound right so today we're going to
focus on what's called laryngeal massage
so let's talk about the larynx for a
second so you can understand the larynx
the larynx is made up of two cartilages
the thyroid above and the cricoid below
and if you find it on the front of your
throat you're going to be looking for
the Adam's apple or ladies we have it
too it's called the thyroid knotch
officially and as you look for that
knotch you'll be able to find the sort
of cartilaginous feels almost bony but
it's not bone stopped on either side of
your throat right these two cartilages
that are in there are meant to move in
relationship to each other and they're
suspended in the throat mostly by
muscles and if those muscles get tight
it's sort of like clamping on a bell
right it's going to dampen the vibration
of the bells so we don't want those
muscles to get tight now a bell is one
good metaphor for the larynx but I
actually want to share another one that
I think is really important and helpful
for understanding how the larynx can
function optimally so this idea is that
your larynx is like the basket of a hot
air balloon okay so imagine in the
basket of a hot air balloon it's
suspended by strings coming up and then
there's actually usually usually this a
sort of wooden circle and then there's
more strings coming up from that that go
actually up to the balloon itself so in
this metaphor your head full of hot air
forgive me but then there are strings or
muscles that come down from there that
connect to something called the hyoid
bone
now the hyoid bone is really fun it's
the only bone in your body that is
floating that means
it's not connected to any other bones so
it has muscles coming down to the top of
it and more muscles coming down that
suspends the larynx in place those are
like the other strings make sense okay
cool
so the basket of the hot air balloon
where your larynx is in there and just
like a higher balloon basket
it needs some freedom to move around and
float right if those strings were to get
tight it would pull the basket up
towards the hot air balloon we wouldn't
like that same thing with our larynx we
want it to sit lower and freer in our
throat so the massage that we're going
to do today is going to encourage that
so here's what we're going to do take
your thumb and your first finger or it
could be all of your fingers if that
feels more comfortable for you and bring
it to either side of your throat right
up underneath your chin and then we're
going to gently but with some pressure
gentle pressure drag the fingers down
along the sides of the larynx along the
sides of the throat releasing it
encouraging it to release down right so
just like we said if those muscles get
tight the root of the tongue muscles and
the what are called the strap muscles
that strap the larynx into place on
either side if those muscles get tight
it's going to pull up so we're
encouraging it to release and head down
I'll move my hair so you can see even
better
feel free to lengthen your chin upwards
just a little bit as you do this but
make sure you don't overdo it and crunch
the back of your neck right we want to
be gentle and optimal in our range with
this massage and not overdo it yeah so
that's step one of our laryngeal massage
for today and then here's step two we're
going to take the same configuration with
our fingers and we're going to wiggle
the larynx side to side now this is a
good juncture for me to say that some
people have an issue touching the front
of their throat and it really doesn't
feel good to them if you're having that
type of reaction if you're experiencing
a gag reflex or nausea then you're not
crazy and it's actually pretty normal
and see if you can breathe and see if
you can find your way into a gentle
version of
this exercise because it is indeed useful
right so take your thumb and your fingers
and now second step we're going to
wiggle it side to side yeah and if
you've never done this before
you may be really surprised by this
ability to move before you may find that
your larynx is relatively locked and
doesn't move much right and mine
actually stops moving so much when I
speak to you so we do want some moveability
of the larynx side-to-side so
those two motions are basically
counteracting the habitual things that
happen with our larynx where it pulls up
and it gets locked into place right
we're encouraging it to rest lower and
we are encouraging it to be wiggle-able
yes cool so here's a couple important
things to say about this exercise I was
really excited to put this video on the
internet because I think it's really
important for us to feel empowered to
touch the front of our throat I think a
lot of times in our lives we are very
disconnected from this part of our body
and we're having trouble expressing
ourselves or we're experiencing vocal
fatigue but we don't know that we can
touch this and it's a big mystery to us
so to start untangling it is I think
very powerful however I want to not only
encourage you but require that you do
this exercise on yourself don't do this
exercise for someone else it's really
important that you have the
proprioceptive awareness it's called or
the kinesthetic awareness for yourself
to realize if you're over doing
something or if you're pressing too hard
in the region of your carotid artery
right so it's really important that you
do this for yourself so that if you're
overdoing it or if it's time to stop you
can do so and you don't have to rely on
anyone else to do that now if you were
to go see a licensed speech pathologist
they would be able to do this and even
more for you manually on your throat to
help you release any tension and if
you're experiencing severe tension here
or you are having the intuitive feeling
that this would be really helpful for
you then please by all means find a
speech pathologist to help you and get
in touch with me if you need help
finding one however I do think it's very
valuable that we do this amount of the
exercise for ourselves
so if you're experiencing fatigue it's a
good time to do this if you know that
you're locked up in this area of your
throat then it's a good thing to
practice once a day check in with right
maybe even twice a day so allow yourself
to really really let go and find freedom
and ease and become friends with this
part of your body yeah okay let's see
what else do I have to tell you oh I
wanted to share with you so there's also
another way you could deal with this
exercise and I'll be right back because
I'm going to grab it
I do also teach people to use a vibrator
for their voice if you're curious about
this and want to learn more you can go
to VibrantVoiceTechnique.com but
I'll just show you briefly that you could
also do this with vibration it's a
really really nice way to allow yourself
to release through here as well and it
can even achieve sorta faster results
right so just wanted to show you that
really quickly as a teaser and I'll link
to a video below this video on YouTube
that you can also take a look and
understand this exercise more deeply
with me and David Lee the person who
came up with Vibrant Voice Technique but
if you don't have a device if you're in
a place where it's not appropriate to
use a device then please do use your
hands and get familiar with releasing
the muscles around your larynx okay this
one's big so if you have any questions
please do comment below like I said if
you need help finding a practitioner to
get deeper into what's called circum
laryngeal massage then let me know and I
hope that this is really helpful for
releasing some of the tension on the
front of your throat so you can find
better vibration and I will share with
you that this is of course been very
helpful to me which is why I am sharing
you with you today so enjoy