Break the Matrix

I saw this video. He suggested something similar and gives a bit of a demo in the video "Large Bolus Chewing 'Golf Ball' By Dr. Mike Mew." Although now, he seems to be saying we should focus on these tongue exercises more than the traditional masseter chewing exercises, especially for people who haven't perfected their resting tongue posture. I seem to have more issues with sleep bruxism when I've spent a lot of time chewing hard gum to work out my masseter muscles. Does anyone know of a gum that is free of artificial sweeteners and flavors like mastic but is suitably soft for these tongue exercises?

Quote from: Progress on June 02, 2017, 02:27:12 am

At least here in Finland every regular grocery store sells full xylitol gum with nothing else added.

Sugar alcohols are also often used as the sweeteners in gum in the US because they have been show to inhibit the growth of cavity-causing bacteria and because we can't digest them so they are calorie-free. That means, however, they are a FODMAP, passing unabsorbed into the colon and could impact the balance of gut flora.

Quote from: Progress on June 02, 2017, 09:11:43 am

Yes it's not generally wise to swallow the gum. The amounts of xylitol leeching out of the gum into the saliva and ending up in your stomach would be easier to write in milligrams rather than even grams. Compared to everything else you disturbate your gut flora with every single day, the consequences of a little xylitol can hardly be seen as being significant at all.

Sorbitol is generally the first ingredient here in the US. Swallowing the gum has nothing to do with it as the sugar alcohols are soluble. I understand that you're saying it isn't a significant issue, and I'm not telling people they should avoid sugar alcohols. I'm just saying that with my gastrointestinal problems, if I'm going to have something in my mouth for multiple hours per day, I would prefer something without any kind of sweetener. My mastic gum is too hard to do this new exercise effectively.

Does it seem to you like Mew's face has become slightly fuller recently? He must be doing something right.

On a related note, the underside of the tongue, what do you do with it? I used to only pay attention to the top side of the tongue being against the palate, but recently with all the postural improvements, I noticed that I've started pushing and expanding the underside of the tongue against the chin and the sides of the mandible while maintaining the regular tongue posture.

This seems to make the tongue posture and the whole head much more stable and activates the muscles on the frontside of the neck in a very similar way than the exercise in the video does. Perhaps there's some kind of relationship between these observations, I don't know.

Based on my n=1 experience, that means there's still progress to be made in terms of unlocking the head and shoulder posture. At this point my head is held and moved mostly by the muscles on the front and the side of the neck, while the back of the neck serves as a light support. Pulling your shoulders back and wide and chest frontward seems to aid in not having to use too much of the back of the neck. Stressing a muscle makes it harder to lengthen it, you most likely only have to lengthen the back of the neck/head, and strengthen the front neck.

Notice how much forward the hip area has come (as a result stomach and butt don't stick out so much).