- So for the movements in detail, we must be lying flat

on our back, without pillows or anything, and we raise

our head and only our head, we do not raise our

shoulders or our upper back, the rest of our body must

remain fixed. We look at our feet and we stay like that

for the time we have fixed ourselves. Then we put our

head back down gently and we take a minute's break,

and if we do it several times we always take a minute's

break between the two, it is very important to take a break.

 

​

​

 - We finish with alternating movements, we look at our feet... we rest our head... we look at our feet... etc.
  Alternating and always moving only our head, we make slow gestures, we gently lift and gently put down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my series of exercises I will adapt the difficulty of the exercises to my level because I have never seriously practiced these exercises before, and increase the difficulty gradually so as not to injure myself. I will start with 2x30 seconds, without forgetting the minute of rest between the two, and finish with a sequence of 15 alternating movements, and this every day.

​

At the time of the beginning it was December 7, 2023 and I officially began the shaker adventure.

Here are my first sessions in detail :

- I lifted my head and held the position for 30 seconds...

- I was taking my one minute break...

- I lifted my head and held the position for 30 seconds again...

- I was taking my new one minute break...

- And I did my 15 reps (the alternating movements).

I used my smart watch to time myself.

 

___________________

​

Day 8 : No burps in sight, no aches or pains, the exercises are going normally.

Small note : just after the exercises the muscles at the bottom of the neck and those of the throat are a little tense, like after a sports session, but it does not persist.

 

Increased difficulty: I go to 3x30 seconds but I stay at 15 repetitions.

 

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Day 15 : nothing to report, still no pain, no injuries, no aches the next day, and still no burping.

 

Increased difficulty: I go to 4x30 seconds and 20 repetitions.

 

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Day 22 : I feel that it is a little more difficult, the fact of having added a 30-second session, and at the end also of having added 5 alternating movements makes a difference, it is a little more contracted at the end of the exercise but it remains correct.

On the other hand, I also have more pronounced discomfort in my head, when I start to get tired during exercise I feel like a cramp going up the back of my head, but once I have finished the exercises it gradually fades away.

But no injuries or aches afterwards, and still no burping either.

 

Increased difficulty: I go to 4x45 seconds but I stay at 20 repetitions.

 

 

__________1 month_________

 

 

Day 36 : Discovered another exercise called the Mendelsohn Maneuver, which consists of keeping your larynx elevated during a swallow for a few seconds. This exercise would help to prolong the opening of the upper esophageal sphincter and strengthen the compression of the swallowing muscles. As we learn to control our larynx and the muscle that is malfunctioning, I found this exercise interesting, so I did a little more research and I came across a video of Dr. Bastian talking about it, he mentioned the healing of a patient who had done the Shaker exercise and the Mendelsohn Maneuver, and she explained that she did not know which of the two had helped her and Dr. Bastian expressed his opinion that it would be more the Mendelsohn Maneuver that had played a significant role. He also explained that exercises like practicing lowering your larynx could help and I just read the testimony of another person who recovered from R-CPD and who explains that when he burps his larynx lowers, so I thought that if this is the movement to do when burping, why not practice doing it. So I added these exercises a few times during the day, while trying to lower my larynx when I had air that was blocked.

 

And miracle : two small uncontrolled burps happened, I managed to do them when the air bubble got stuck at the top, I was trying to lower my larynx and I had to do that for several hours before doing this first burp then I did another one in the evening. But they were such small burps that it was not enough to relieve me, and I tried to reproduce them afterwards and I did not succeed.

​

 

Some explanations for these new exercises :

 

- Mendelsohn Maneuver : This consists of blocking your larynx in a high position when swallowing. We start by putting our fingers on our throat to try to capture the muscle that moves when swallowing, we swallow to feel the movement of the muscle, I felt that my muscle went up then went back down to its place, this step just allows us to understand what the muscle does when we swallow. And the goal of the exercise is to swallow and once we feel that the muscle is up we block it by contracting the muscles of the larynx, we can also help ourselves by blocking the tongue on the palate, like a half swallow finally, which we would block for a few seconds before finishing swallowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Lowering of the larynx :

We are on a reverse movement, this time the muscle will go down before going back up to its place when we release. We can also help ourselves by putting our hand on our throat to better capture the muscle. We tilt the jaw muscles downwards a little as if we were starting to yawn, trying to control the Larynx and put it as low as possible, we hold for a few seconds before releasing, to do also when the air is blocked in the esophagus and it is time to burp.

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

Note for Shakers:
I film myself every day and I noticed that I tilt my head less and less, after re-studying the gestures I realized that my head does not go as far as it should, which can explain the discomfort I had. From what I have seen, people's chins touch their chests or almost, their gaze is well "in front" of their feet, while as soon as I saw my feet a little I stopped there, my head was not tilted enough. Trying to tuck your chin can help, even if the chin does not touch the chest (it depends on each person) it still works if you are at your maximum (without forcing either, the goal is not to hurt yourself). So I corrected that and I feel a difference, both the exercise is a little more difficult, but paradoxically the discomfort is more bearable. But I think it remains subtle and I don't think the gesture I was doing before was completely useless, but now this gesture is more complete.

 

Increased difficulty: I stay at 4x45 seconds but I go to 25 repetitions + a few sessions of Mendelsohn Maneuver and laryngeal lowering.

 

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Day 46 : Increase in small uncontrolled burps, I have done them all week long but they are so small that they do not relieve me and no matter how hard I try to meet all the conditions I cannot reproduce them voluntarily it is quite random. There are days when I do not do any, and days when I do one or two.

 

Then I got sick, a bad bronchitis, I haven't burped since then and I haven't been able to keep up my exercises either, today I'm better so I'm going to start again after a 5 day break.

 

No increase in difficulty, I stay at 4x45 seconds and 25 repetitions (+ Mendelsohn maneuver and laryngeal lowering).

 

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Day 52 : I didn't do any micro-burps again, I feel like getting sick broke all my momentum. Otherwise no pain, no injuries, the 45 seconds are getting easier and easier so I'm going to get to the full minute mark.

 

Increased difficulty: I go to 4x01 minute and stay at 25 repetitions (+ Mendelsohn maneuver and laryngeal lowering).

​

__________2 months_________

 

​

Day 77 : Back to the little burps, with a little more sensation and control!

I "studied" my partner by putting my hand on his throat like I do with some of my exercises and I asked him to burp to see where the sensation was and I felt that it was happening at the hollow at the bottom of the throat, finally it is quite low it is almost the top of the esophagus, so I concentrated on this place on me while lowering my larynx and then I had more control over the little burps that I made.

 

I have no relief for now, they are already too small, and paradoxically my symptoms are worse than before, I have the impression that it is the fact of trying to burp all the time, maybe I try too much, that I tire my stomach and my digestion too much, because it is true that I do it all day long and even in times when I do not need to burp. I also tried sparkling water for two days but it did me more harm than good because I could not expel all the air that I swallowed, and it did not change anything in terms of effectiveness.

 

Even after stopping the sparkling water, for a few days I have felt like I am swallowing air from trying so hard, my stomach is heavy, it is swollen and painful, I have a lot of air trapped, I have contractions in my esophagus, I do not eat much because I can eat less, I have more heartburn than before, and I really feel like it is the fact of forcing to burp, I have to do less, to do more in order to expel what I have inside me that bothers me, but not with the aim of practicing absolutely all day long, and to see if it gets better and if "just that" would be enough to learn to burp, because right now it is doing me more harm than good, for the moment.

 

The mistake I made was that I focused too much on it, from the moment I started burping a little it gave me so much hope that I think about it all day and I practice constantly, it's probably too much.

 

Increased difficulty: Still 4x01 minute, and I go to 30 repetitions (the maximum not to exceed so it will always stay like that now) + Mendelsohn maneuver and laryngeal lowerings.

 

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__________4 months_________

 

​

Day 122 : It's much better, the pain still lasted about 3 weeks despite the fact that I'm calming down, then gradually faded. I don't yet have 100% control so the air has a lot of trouble getting out and it makes you want to force and insist until it comes out but that's exactly what gives me attacks, so I shouldn't persist as much as I did, the key is to know how to "dose".

 

Today I suffer less and I still feel relief, I have less pain, less gurgling and blocked air since I can evacuate some of it, I have less bloating and stomach aches, I can fill my stomach better, before I had a small appetite because I felt full very quickly, and now I feel that there is still more room in my stomach. I mention a lot of positive things but I am not 100% cured because I do not have total control, I do not let out a real burp like a "normal" person would do because they do not make the same noise and do not come out frankly like it could do in someone who burps normally, and I evacuate in half a day what a normal person would evacuate in two or three burps.

 

Note: When I have a lot of blocked air, that's when I'm least able to burp. The other night I ate half a pizza to try it out. I never digested that dish well. I wanted to try and I had a lot of trouble burping. I almost had a crisis because I couldn't do it. Another night I drank a glass of beer and it was the same. I couldn't burp. It really caused a crisis and I had to lie down. It's quite paradoxical since you might think that the more air there is, the more you'll be able to do it, but I feel the opposite. I feel like my esophagus is like an elastic band and when there's a lot of air it's so tense that it can't move and expel the air out.

​

 

For posture, to maximize my chances of burping:

- I stay straight

- I lower my larynx to decrease the distance between my esophagus and my cricopharyngeus muscle

- I turn my head to the right because I feel like it helps me.

- I push a little while remaining relaxed, a bit like I'm exhaling hard, and concentrating on the area of ​​the hollow of the throat

- Sometimes on top of all that while burping I pull my stomach in to leave less room in my stomach and help it empty and push the air out.

​

I do this when air bothers me in my esophagus, if it comes out so much the better and if it doesn't come out too bad I start again later, only when the air bubble rises and I stay relaxed and I don't force too much. All this at the same time requires concentration and coordination because for me it is not a natural mechanism, but my comfort of life has greatly improved compared to a few months ago.

 

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​

Regarding the exercises I came across the testimony of a person who managed to heal herself with exercises similar to the Shakers. This person first tried the classic Shakers with very little results, and then she did repetitions like I do with my exercises but on the side, to work the areas on the side of the neck, and she also does throat and neck stretches. She said that doing this has considerably accelerated the progress she had already made and following her sharing there have also been encouraging comments.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

- For the exercise :

We lie on our side, flat, and we raise our head... we put it down... we raise it... by chaining as with the repetitions during the Shakers. We must do it slowly, and the goal is that when the head is placed on the ground to feel the stretching of the muscles on the side of the neck, and on the contrary when the head is raised to feel the contraction of the muscle that is in action. And we must do it on each side.

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So I'm going to add these exercises to my routine, I'm going to do 30 reps on each side (so 60 in total), I'm going to do it away from my usual evening Shaker session so as not to do either with tired muscles and so that they have time to recover in the meantime.

 

​

Increased difficulty: x30 ratings (+ 4x01 minute and 30 repetitions + Mendelsohn maneuver and laryngeal lowering).

 

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__________6 months_________

 

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Day 194 : Improving results – Stopping exercises – Rehabilitation completed, I hope – 6,3 months in total

 

Summary of the last two months: I did the exercises on the side, and the contraction during the exercise is really on the side, I thought it would stay in the same area as the larynx and not at all, it is really on the side, it even goes down to the shoulder, but once the exercise is finished it does not persist. I also practiced the stretches that the person in the testimony had also done except that each time I did them I had aches, even real pain in the neck for several days, so I stopped the exercises several times to recover, and each time I started the stretches again it was the same, I simply started the exercises again without the stretches and then it was ok. That's why I didn't describe the stretches to you because if I had pain it's because I didn't know how to do them correctly.

 

So I did this for several weeks and my burping improved, so whether it was the new exercises, the other exercises, or whether it was also the fact of practicing and improving burping every day, I don't know but the main thing is that it worked.

 

I did the pizza test again and it worked, I can now burp properly after eating pizza, and I did the famous beer test again, so that was my ultimate test because it was very complicated to burp after drinking a few sips of beer, and there I finally succeeded.

 

After all these improvements I wondered if I should stop the exercises, and see if I continued to burp, because the goal of these exercises is to unblock the burping mechanism, but not to do them all my life. In the positive testimonials that I have read, people have ended up stopping these exercises and are still burping several years later.

 

So I asked myself the question for a little while and I got sick again, so like the first time it was impossible for me to do the exercises I was too bad I had a fever, so I stopped the exercises and I told myself that maybe it was time to just stop. It's been two and a half weeks since I stopped doing the exercises and I still burp just as well even if they are still rather discreet, compared to a "normal" person who burps frankly, where you would clearly hear the resonance, I don't burp like that they are more discreet but they relieve me and the most important thing is that I no longer have attacks where the air gets blocked, so I think it's successful. I still have the impression that the more air there is in my esophagus, the more difficult it is, so I have to be careful about what I eat and drink, but overall I'm doing well, this symptom is almost non-existent.

 

The symptoms that persist are the burning in the esophagus if I go to bed too close to the meal, in the evening for example. I simply do as before, as usual I go to bed away from meals. There is also another symptom that I have never spoken about is that I have always had a lot of trouble swallowing medication, and even swallowing certain meats, especially red meat, and I am not the only one, I have already read testimonies of people who had R-CPD and who had trouble swallowing medication too. So I still have this symptom, it has not changed, I do not know if mentally something is happening and I am blocked or if it is a physical problem, I do not know.

 

But my life has become more comfortable, it has nothing to do with it anymore, the fact of no longer having these gurgling airs, which were blocked in my esophagus, which made me suffer all day long, evenings, which made noise, daily, and of finally being able to expel what bothers me, what a liberation and relief, I feel much lighter.

 

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Tips for people wanting to embark on a similar adventure :

 

- Tip #1 : Be patient, because it's long, it's something that takes time, I saw it clearly, my road was not "straight" there were quite a few bends, I started to burp but it was totally uncontrolled it lasted a while, after I started to control them but it made me suffer but maybe it was time to learn to control, and despite everything today it is a success.

 

- Tip #2 : Be curious, find out as much as possible, that's why I'm sharing all this too, it's a pathology that is very little known, it was revealed not so long ago, try things, find out as much as possible, don't do anything with your body, especially if you do exercises on your own like me and you are not medically monitored, be careful, don't hesitate to read as many testimonials as possible and follow the progress of the pathology.

 

- And Tip #3 and I think that's the most important one: Understanding things, I feel like trying to understand how burping works was the trigger for me, for my body, understanding how this muscle works, knowing that it is used for swallowing and burping at the same time (and vomiting too), knowing that when you swallow the muscle goes up, and that when you burp on the contrary it goes down, having understood that, it guided me towards good reflexes, even if it wasn't always easy, it was from that moment on that things got unblocked.

 

 

__________Conclusion_________

 

I want to make this clear, I talk about it at the beginning of this page but I want to say it again: I am absolutely not a doctor, all I say are things that I have read on the internet, testimonies that I have read, things that I have understood in relation to my experience and that of others, it is possible that medically speaking I am wrong, if you ever have a doubt about something do not hesitate to talk to a doctor, try to find the doctor who will be able to understand you.

 

But whether it's the exercises, whether it's the botulinum toxin injection, whether it's another technique, there are no wrong ways, choose the technique that suits you best, there are techniques that work for some people and don't work for others, for the injection I've read a lot of testimonies from people who needed several injections, so don't give up, that's what I want to tell you if you're in this situation try things, don't stay like that. If the botox doesn't work, exercises can be another solution, I also think that understanding how the larynx moves is beneficial, whether for the people who do the exercises or for the people who do the botox, the two can be complementary.

 

I have also read other testimonies from people who have healed themselves with massages, stretching, movements, and not specifically the exercises that I do, I put as many links as possible on various techniques here.

 

Good luck to those in this situation, hoping that my experience can be useful to you.

 

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Update 6 months later the end of the exercises: I still burp well, it's quite similar to what I said just before, I haven't had a single crisis where I had air blocked, it's a pretty good sign.

 

Find sources, information, other testimonies : here

Find the directory of ENT specialists familiar with this pathology : here

 

Do not hesitate to use the comments space to share your experience and above all take care of yourself ♥