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
