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By Root 204 0

But it's the most powerful muscle in your body in terms of exerting force, and as any speech therapist can tell you, that little sucker is exerting force all day long. The tongue exerts a minimum of six (and a maximum of eight) pounds of pressure in your mouth each time you swallow. The average individual swallows one thousand times in a twenty-four-hour cycle. You don't need to be a math wiz to figure out that that's a lot of pressure—at least six thousand pounds a day—to be exerting anywhere in your body. And it's more than enough to alter the structure of your mouth and the placement of your teeth significantly.

There is a right way and a wrong way to place your tongue in your mouth. If we could feel just a little more of the six thousand pounds of pressure our tongues exert every day, most people would figure out how to place their tongues correctly as a matter of urgency. There's a part of the mouth that's designed to withstand the pressure of the tongue—the hard palate on the roof—but most people never use it. Instead, they rest their tongues between their teeth, in the bottom of their jaw, or even worse, against the backs of the top teeth. Over time, placing the tongue in each of these spots weakens the tongue and surrounding muscles. As you read this paragraph, where is your tongue in your mouth? If it's anywhere other than resting on the roof of your mouth behind (but not touching) the top row of teeth, your oral sex ability is being compromised. Try this experiment: read the rest of this book with the tip of your tongue always pressing against the hard palate on the roof of your mouth, without touching your teeth. Have it be the first thing you do each time you open this book. (For an illustration of where you should place it, turn to Chapter 3.)

A poorly placed tongue impairs any and all uses of the tongue and mouth. Most people don't know that this is an issue—while performing oral sex, they might think that it's natural to feel strained, get lockjaw, or have a gag reflex. While kissing, they might think that it's equally normal to feel like they can't get their lips in the right spot. But all of these (and snoring!) are symptoms of a misplaced tongue.

Aside from these effects, the placement of these incremental bursts of pressure changes the shape of your jaw and the placement of your teeth, determines how free your tongue is to move in, out, and around your mouth, and influences how much energy it has. You probably didn't know that every time you swallow, you're either helping or hurting your greatest oral sex asset. You probably didn't even want to know that. But if you do want to give mind-blowing, satisfying, remembered-with-a-grin oral sex each and every time (and if you want to have fun doing it), you're gonna have to accept a few Tongue Realities.

Tongue Reality 1: Your tongue does not like it when you smoke. I know, I know, it's sexy (sort of) and it can be a way to bond with Mr. or Ms. Unapproachable Smoker, but the fact is that smoking isn't good for your tongue. A smoker's tongue tends to be lazy and lifeless, bulbous and placid. Your tongue needs to be an energetic, frontward, stand-up soldier, not a limp pile of mess-hall meat. Not to mention, smoking is very bad for you, so you wouldn't be getting rid of a productive pastime.

Tongue Reality 2: Your tongue needs exercise, too. You may think that your tongue gets a fine workout by eating and talking and frenching cuties, but usually quite the opposite is happening. Since most people don't even know the right position for their tongue, these activities actually weaken it by reinforcing bad habits. If you want a tongue that can lead wild excursions into intensely sensual experiences, you have to give it specific, controlled exercises. In chapter 4, you'll find some of the exercises to jump-start basic training for your tongue.

Tongue Reality 3: You don't know your tongue. Maybe you're lucky enough to have already gone to speech therapy (though you might not have recognized this as luck at the time). Or maybe you were even luckier and inherently