The Rock in The Shoe

Why is it so hard to do my exercises!!????

A few weeks ago, I was at a 3-day camp with my 8yr old and we walked a lot. One of my friends, Marc was there with his son and early in the morning on the 2nd day he mentioned he had a rock in his shoe “You should probably take that out.” I proclaimed with a chuckle. About 3 hours later after 4+ miles of walking he finally says, “I gotta stop. This rock is killing my foot!” So, he stops, puts down his backpack, sits on a big boulder, and takes the dime-size rock out. “Man, that feels so much better!”

What happened that caused him to finally remove the rock from his shoe? His discomfort became so severe it overcame his drive to conserve energy!!! It was an epiphany for me. I have always been perplexed by most humans when it comes to exercises that will help us heal, and this includes me, many times I take the “lazy way.” Immediately after our pain decreases to an acceptable level, or we get our beach body for the summer we stop the exercising or the nutrition program that got us there in the first place. There is a reason everyone wants to take a pill. Taking a pill is the most energy-efficient way of reaching our goal of being pain-free.

I did some background searching and found that my hypothesis was tested in 2018 by a doctoral student Mathieu Boisgontier, he found that humans used more computing brain energy to avoid sedentary activities. “Conserving energy has been essential for humans’ survival, as it allowed us to be more efficient in searching for food and shelter, competing for sexual partners, and avoiding predators,” explained Boisgontier. “

When we have a behavior that we want to change it can be very helpful to understand why we do it. For me, it helps to explain the behavior is the first step to changing it.

This is relevant to TMJ treatment mostly because self-treatment and Physical therapy take effort. We need to grind out 12 weeks (about 3 months) to really change our unhealthy habits which were initially developed to save energy. Most people that follow our protocol see resolution of symptoms. However, it takes effort to overcome the desire to conserve energy. Spend time doing things you love with people you care about. Take care. Dr. Josh