What do Pilates and Toothbrushing Have in Common?
I started my Pilates career as a Sports Therapist for Spine & Sports Therapy in Houston. Our five person team specialized in high endurance and high intensity athletes. Ironmen, marathon runners, ultrarunners and extreme athletes were our bread and butter. As a new instructor, I was constantly amazed by the intensity of the training programs our clients followed. They’d wake up at three in the morning for three hour runs, head home to get themselves and their kiddos ready for the day, work a full day, take care of parenting duties, make dinner, help with homework, put the kids to bed and then head out for 2-3 more hours of training. Their weekends were spent training around soccer schedules, dance performances and grocery shopping.
The craziest thing was how much time, money and effort these folks spent on managing their injuries.
They had biweekly standing appointments with the chiros and due to the nature of our program setup, they were forced to attend 1-2 appointments per week with me for Corrective Exercise and Stretch Therapy.
A large portion of my job included movement reeducation and a deep dive into the ergonomics of everything. From gait training, shoe selection and posture to sleep habits, desk setup, and driving habits, we covered the gauntlet of non-exercise habits that could be contributing to their issues. It was common for clients to lug bags full of shoes, pillows and other accessories to be tested, fitted and trained on.
We also spent a lot of time on the absolute very basic foundational things. Standing posture, breathing, core engagement and standing balance chief among them. It wasn’t uncommon to have clients with extreme debilitating back pain who could run competitive marathons, but were incapable of standing up straight or being able to balance on one foot for more than 5 seconds.
I can’t tell you the number of Ironmen I worked with who paid big bucks for specialized bootcamps but still couldn’t do a single *proper* pushup or sit-up.
They could do 1000 shitty form pushups and 1000 neck strainer sit-ups, but they would struggle, tremble, sweat and glare at me when they had to do one proper set. It wasn’t uncommon to see one of these amazing endurance athletes resembling an upside down turtle as they struggled to engage their core and lift their head, neck and shoulders up without kicking through their legs or bumping their bum into the floor to utilize momentum to get them back up.
Working 40-hour weeks with these clients taught me one key lesson. The importance of what I now call the “toothbrushing work”.
Think about it. Tooth brushing is the smallest most benign habit we have. Low skill, low attention required. Minimal time commitment of twice a day, two minutes a day. Add another minute or so for mouthwash and floss. We’re in and out in under 5 minutes a day for this ridiculously small habit.
Despite it’s minimal nature, we all know skipping tooth brush time it isn’t an option. Without this small, regular habit, bigger problems start to build. In addition to yucky mouth feel and bad breath, routinely skipping tooth brushing leads to tooth decay, gum disease, infections, and an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and even dementia! Brushing our teeth isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about preventing systemic health issues that can affect the entire body.
Core strength, balance, proprioception, and mobility are the toothbrushing of our movement practice.
Those Ironmen weren’t getting injured just because of their insane training plans. They were getting injured because they weren’t doing the movement equivalent of brushing their teeth. They weren’t doing the foundational basics that kept their bodies resilient and functional.
When we neglect these foundational elements of movement, we might find we have poor posture, weak core muscles, bad balance, and lack of mobility. For some folks, those things can translate into chronic neck, shoulder, hip, and back pain, fall risk, increased injuries, sprains, strains, tears, fractures, joint stiffness and trouble moving with ease. Not to mention the constant fatigue and wear and tear that accompanies poor mechanics.
Just like skipping tooth brushing can lead to major problems, ignoring the daily foundational movement basics can severely impact your health and quality of life.
Here’s the good news.
Just like toothbrushing is a total low level activity with a big bang, your foundational basics don’t have to be hard or fancy. They don’t need to be intense or take forever. They just needs to be consistent. 4 minutes a day is 1,460 minutes a year, which adds up to about 24 hours and 20 mins. That’s a whole lot of investment for a little work each day.
If you’re looking for that quick extremely foundational and basic routine, here’s what we taught at the clinic and asked clients to do. You’ll recognize the daily routine as your Pilates homework. 15 years later, I’m still using this work, because it’s so effective.
Daily:
3-D Breathing x 1 minute
Single Leg Standing Balance 2 x 1 min each leg
Total time: 5 mins
3x/week:
Therapy Bridges (aka neutral bridges or Pilates bridges) 2 x 1 min
Side laying double leg lifts 2 x 1 min each side or Elbow/Knee side planks 2 x 1 min each side
Table Top 2 x 1 min or Elbow/Knee planks 2 x 1 min
Total time: 8 mins
Your subconscious can’t tell time, so if the 1 min time frame is too much starting out, break it down into smaller pieces and start to build your way up.
ie Start with six 10 second holds, work towards four 15 sec holds, progress to three 20 sec holds, to two 30 second holds, one 45 sec hold + one 15 sec hold, work up to one 60 sec hold.
In the same way we don’t just start brushing our teeth when we feel a cavity forming, we also don’t want to wait for aches, pains, or injuries to start moving.
Movement is medicine. And it’s essential preventative maintenance.
Think of Pilates as the toothbrush for your posture, your core, your balance, and your mobility.
Until next time,
-Rubecca
How I deal with a pain flare-up
Posted on March 26, 2024 by pilatesnative
Hey there, happy March!
What a joyous thing to see so much more sun the last few weeks. I am so excited for the longer, warmer days. This newsletter comes to you fairly late in the month. March has been extremely dualistic, from long cold days and a month long pain flare-up of a decades old injury, to a wonderful family vacation, visiting my 49th state and beautiful warm sunny days.
The deep bone throb in my leg has accompanied (and unfortunately at times dampened) hanging out with my kiddo, spending time with my family and even fully enjoying our instructor trainees completing their Mat modules and diving into the equipment work. This nagging flare has interrupted my strength training schedule, negatively impacted my running and has even been rude enough to disrupt sleep. I’ve been cranky beyond belief. Even this newsletter, one of my favorite admin tasks, is low effort and lacking this month.
Sound familiar?
Like many of you, I came to Pilates through extreme chronic pain and injury.
In my early 20’s, my body was extremely worn out and ragged from a really terrible relationship with fitness that frequently left my body very damaged. Limping, bracing, sleeping with heating pads, smelling like Tiger Balm, and taking Ibuprofen on a regular schedule was normal. I had a standing weekly appointment with the chiropractor and frequently chose shoes based on which pair minimized pain. At 25, I, along with the 65 year old men in my department, had a prescription for a standing desk and midday walk breaks to help with pain management. Road trips, flights, concerts, my car, even dinner plans were made around pain.
When my doctor prescribed Pilates, I was skeptical and certain that my lifestyle choices meant just dealing with a life of constant irritation, aches and pains.
At the time, I just didn’t know any different.
It’s been a long time since that first Mat Pilates class, which left me shaking and unable to perform 75% of the class.
Pilates has been a constant companion for the last 16 years, through injury recovery, pregnancy, postnatal recovery, moving cross country, changing careers twice, surgery, and a whole lot of major life moments.
With this latest pain flare-up of an extremely old injury that I was certain was managed, I’ve felt betrayed by both my body and by my Pilates practice. Between feeling angry, frustrated and disappointed, I have managed a few moments of clear reflection.
And the truth is, that I just haven’t been doing my own work…for months.
At some point, without reason or me noticing, I just stopped doing any sort of recovery or restoration work. Stopped warming up or cooling down for runs. Stopped stretching. Stopped meditating. Stopped my Pilates practice. Stopped managing my food allergies. Stopped all Stretch Therapy, Chiro, Rolfing and Massage. At the same time, I maintained my weekly running sessions, tripled my strength training sessions and doubled my dance lessons.
This, in my professional opinion, has been a recipe for disaster.
As my low back and left leg will attest, disaster has struck.
So what now? After a good long pity party, I’ve spent the last few weeks using aaaallll of the tools I’ve learned over the last 16 years, including tapping into a team of experts to help me recalibrate. Recovery has looked like:
Immediately eliminating all food allergens and working with Tina, a trusted friend and nutritionist to get me back to normal.
Meditating again, and actively working on recognizing when I am in a mental pain spiral and separating that from an actual physical pain cycle. The book The Way Out, recommend by a client, has been a invaluable resource this month.
Unrolling my mat for a weekly movement and soul practice at Urban Sanctuary.
Adding the required PT exercises to my strength training routine, backing down to twice a week and getting back on schedule with my trainer, Josh.
Booking appointments with my friend Britni for PT and my favorite chiro, Britni at Denver Sports Medicine.
Dusting off the trusty old reformer and rekindling the love affair with Pilates that started 16 years ago.
I’ve always described my Pilates and recovery work as the toothbrushing of my movement practice. It’s not sexy, or entertaining, or overly exciting. But man, is it effective.
If you’ve been experiencing a similar pain cycle or set back, I see you. It sucks. But with consistency and intention, we can get back on track.
See you very soon!
-Rubecca
p.s. if you’d like to book a session with me, you can do that here.