Have you gone to bed without brushing your teeth? I have. When that happens, my teeth feel gross and for lack of a better term, “mossy.”
How often should you brush your teeth? I would say twice (morning and night). Some would say once more after lunch, so kudos to those people who keep a toothbrush at their desk.
How often should you workout? This is a really common question, especially around this time of year when people are looking to start a workout routine. Unlike brushing teeth, this doesn’t need to be twice a day, or even daily. We generally say about three days a week and it should be a mix of lower intensity to high intensity. This works for most people because of that thing called LIFE: kids, work, significant other, trying to have a social life, hobbies, downtime, etc.
Rather than focusing on daily or weekly numbers though, take a step back. For brushing your teeth, does it really matter if you missed a nightly brushing or even a day or two? It might be gross, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. But imagine going a full year without brushing your teeth! And then going to the dentist asking them to fix you once a year. It doesn’t work like that.
The same applies to working out. Does it really matter if you worked out twice last week vs. your regular four days? Not at all. But take a step back and look at how consistent you are month to month and year to year. Can you go eleven months without much physical activity and then expect to make up for it in January with everyone else at the gym? Hardly. Unless you then make it a routine to go a couple times per week and stick with it.
When you come in for a free intro, one of the things we discuss is how often you should be working out and in what kind of environment (small group vs 1:1). So while you might think we would recommend the most expensive membership to everyone ($1060/month for 1:1 coaching plus nutrition), we actually recommend the BEST one for you as an individual given your history, lifestyle, and goals. For most people with some workout experience, but no CrossFit experience, we generally recommend Base Camp (three 1:1 sessions to teach you the basic movements), plus 3x/week small group class. If you are looking to lose weight, we also recommend three months of nutrition coaching because we know that’ll be the fastest track to your goals.
If brushing your teeth is dental maintenance that should be done regularly, then think of working out as physical maintenance for your body that should also be done regularly.
