One thing I don't like about tongue chewing exercises with gum is that it is very hard to get the gum back far enough to train the base of the tongue/hyoid muscle without the discomfort of activating your gag reflex or the fear of choking.
Instead try this: Have a glass of water nearby and stand at an angle in front of a mirror, facing straight ahead. Assume very good posture and hold a small amount of water in your mouth. Do your best McKenzie chin tuck; go as far as you can without discomforting yourself. When you go to do a proper adult swallow (tongue swallow, zero/minimum facial/buccinator activation) you will notice that the force of the swallow will likely cause your chin-tuck to be forced upwards slightly; this is rising of the tongue pushing against the chin tuck. You should definitely feel the increased resistance against the tongue/hyoid. It may be slightly uncomfortable at first near the throat area but you should get used to it quickly.
As your tongue strength increases over time, you can increase the intensity of the chin-tuck to make the workout harder. It's really remarkable just how powerful a force a swallowing action can exert against the palate. Also, since the chin-tuck and the swallow are antagonizing forces, this will increase the strength of your chin-tuck over time as well which is a nice bonus.
This exercise has made it much, much easier for me to maintain unconscious correct tongue posture even while asleep; which I think a lot of people here are desperate for. Combining this exercise with typical hard chewing and chin tucking ought to make mewing a whole lot easier.
cheers
I've been doing exactly this the past few days and was wondering if I might be doing the swallow wrong because my head was being pulled slightly forward every time I did it from the force of the tongue. Good to hear you frame it as an exercise.
I find that if I do 10 reps of proper swallows that the root of the tongue automatically starts sticking to its proper position.
Have you been able to achieve tongue posture during sleep @krollic? If so how long did it take?
I know you're being a little gross about 'hard swallowing', but I honestly have noticed improved control over gag reflex since becoming able to get the tongue up into the soft palate. I think there must be some sort of connection--maybe being used to the sensation of something touching the soft palate, or having better muscle control.
But yes, I agree with you on the push swallow. It really is intense.
@drunkwithcoffee nice mate. yeah, I too find that once you've "warmed up" a bit it becomes substantially easier to maintain
(@xeuronholder) not perfectly but far more often than I used to be able too. I attribute this primarily to tongue strength and a suction hold and secondarily to sleeping posture and jaw strength. you will be surprised just how quickly you can improve in a matter of weeks
(@elevee) lmao. yeah. when I started hitting the soft palate with the posterior third it was triggering my gag reflex; after a few days you become desensitized to it I think unless you are suffering from very bad recession.
I don't really pay much attention to the whole reps/sets thing when it comes to orthotropics. The average person supposedly swallows around 2400 times a day or around once every half a minute. Just see if you can do the exercise when you go to swallow. Try at least 100 and see how you feel, you aren't going to hurt yourself.
It will become easier but I consider the "jerk up" movement a good thing as it's your tongue and jaw acting as counter forces which improves the strength of both. Any improved tongue strength (and jaw) will make the suction hold easier
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