The Listenary

What a great power lies in this little organ called the tongue! It is total muscle. Think of what body building you could do with that!

Voice Care Tip #6 is Exercise Your Tongue.

Yes, body building or body shaping is what I mean, all in your tongue.

There are two benefits. One benefit will be heard in better articulation. An agile tongue can make clearer diction and be heard at the back of the room with less vocal strain. The second benefit will be noticed in deeper resonance as the sinus cavities clear and expand.

Whenever you exercise your tongue, the circulation in your ENT area increases and remains increased for several hours. Increased circulation brings increased immune system warriors and increased oxygen and nutrition. Many people carry residual dried mucus and even dead blood or clogs of mucus in their sinus cavities. Increased circulation allows your body to begin clearing up these toxins. When you exercise your tongue, or several hours later, you might notice a clearing of breathing passages. Perhaps you can think of other side benefits of this clearing!

As you continue, over time, to exercise your tongue, the muscles continue to pull at the bones wherever they are attached. Continued stress in one direction causes bone tissue to lay down new layers where needed and to remove other layers where not needed anymore. This is why you can change even the shape of your bone structure by exercising intelligently.

You can probably create a great tongue workout for yourself. Here are my principles.

*I try to cover as complete a range of motion as possible. (The tongue has an amazing range of motion!)
*I use isometrics against the cheek. (That's a good way to strengthen the cheek and lose some jowl.)
*I reach and push as far as possible and hold for 30 seconds. (At first I could hold for only 10 seconds.)

Exercising the tongue will increase the resonance in your sinus cavities both by clearing them and by expanding them. Resonance sounds good and pleasant.

We are now exploring here some of the more fabulous voice care tips, those that will make a noticeable difference almost overnight.