Establishing a Daily Mobility Routine

Your mobility work should to be part of your daily hygiene like brushing your teeth

Hey, no one goes days without brushing their teeth, outside of maybe an 8 year old who decided to skive off brushing his teeth, pretending to have already done it. Yeah, if you have, or have had an 8 year old boy in your life then this has probably happened to you.

I learned the word “skive” way back in 2010 from one of my group training participants, back when I contracted to conduct sessions at Bangkok’s Dusit Thani hotel a couple evenings per week. It was a British bloke who was making reference to one of our participants who was not in attendance. Yup, I also just used bloke, because, why not? I reckon all those years surrounded by OZ’s and Brits kinda wear on your vocabulary. Fun times, but I digress…

The point I’m after is this.

What happens when you forget to brush your teeth, or don’t have access to brushing (for whatever reason)?

Stuff starts to build up and it starts to build up fast!! My dentist was telling me about how the stuff we eat immediately begins to impact our teeth and gums if it isn’t removed. So if we don’t floss, then the stuff between our gums and teeth begin to work negatively towards our oral health.

Well that’s interesting isn’t it? I mean, if you don’t floss and brush before bed your breath smells markedly worse when you wake up in the morning.

It’s almost like if your garbage man missed a week of pickups… Yikes!! The stench would be awful… especially if it were warm, wet and ewww… Ok, you get my point.

I have impeccable oral hygiene by the way. My dental hygienist always enjoys the leisurely hour spent basically doing very little in my mouth, and at 46 I have never had a cavity. But this comes down to a very consistent habit. Flossing after meals and brushing twice per day.

What is this doing?

It’s moving an external object (floss and brush) over tissues (gums) that cannot move on their own as they aren’t joints.

It’s helping tissue remain healthy through…. drum roll please… movement!!

Oh my god, yes… I’m when I tell you that “quality movement is life”, I really mean that. If things aren’t moving then they’re beginning the process of decay, deterioration, atrophy… you know, all the stuff that expedites our travels along the road towards death.

No wonder why the breath of a person who hasn’t brushed their teeth in as little as 24 hours smells like the Grim Reaper itself.

But Coach, what does this have to do with my joints?

I’m glad you asked.

We can’t smell our joints… That’s probably a good thing, because the vast majority of people have awful joint hygiene. I’m just telling it to you straight and pulling no punches. If we could actually smell the results of the inactivity of most people’s joints, our daily life would be miserable and no amount of deodorant would be sufficient to cover it.

But lucky for you, there is a very simple, manageable way to address your joint hygiene.

Think of it like a Toothbrush, Floss and Mouthwash all rolled in one. You probably already know where this is heading. Daily CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations) are just that.

Why?

1. Because it moves your tissues like a brush does for your gums.

2. Because like floss, you’re able to move into nooks and crannies of your joints ranges of motion.

3. Because the fluids in your joints, like mouthwash are able to move over the surface of your tissues and move waste out.

So there we have it. The analogy is complete.

Daily Mobility Training should be right there alongside brushing your teeth and washing your ass.

Get started with your Daily Routine below.

Move Better | Feel Better | Do More

Rich Thurman is a Strength & Conditioning Coach, with an emphasis on Mobility Training, based in San Francisco, CA. With over 20 years of coaching and education experience, Rich works to improve the lives of both his In Person and Virtual Clients.