Joint Hygiene: The Missing Link in Pain, Recovery, and Performance
Everyone knows oral hygiene. You brush your teeth not because they hurt, but because you want them to last. Skip it, and problems build.
Your joints work the same way. They don’t stay healthy by accident. They need consistent care. That’s what I call joint hygiene.
What Is Joint Hygiene?
Joint hygiene is the daily practice of giving your joints what they’re designed for: movement.
Joints are built to move.
Joints like to move.
Joints that don’t move become stiff, painful, and less resilient.
Pain, stiffness, and “wear and tear” aren’t signs that your body is broken. They’re signs your joints haven’t been getting the right inputs.
Why It Matters
Research is clear:
Motion is essential for cartilage health. Studies in Arthritis & Rheumatology show that lack of joint loading accelerates degeneration.
Fascia, the connective tissue that links everything together, needs movement to stay hydrated and pliable (Schleip, Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 2003).
Joints with greater variability of movement show lower rates of chronic pain and injury (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2019).
Translation: when you move your joints well and often, you literally change the biology of your tissues.
Why Most People Get It Wrong
People only think about their joints when they hurt. Then they throw quick fixes at the problem: rest, stretching, massage guns, pain meds.
Those tools aren’t wrong. They’re just incomplete.
Pain isn’t the time to start joint hygiene. Pain is typically the signal that hygiene has been missing.
The 3 Steps of Joint Hygiene
Here’s the framework I teach every client:
Create Space
Free up restricted areas through bodywork, breath, or mobility drills.
Example: fascia-focused bodywork for the spine and hips.
Move Through Space
Once space is created, reinforce it with movement.
Example: controlled rotations, crawling patterns, cat/cow with side-bending.
Strengthen Space
Load the new range so your nervous system trusts it.
Example: carries, hip hinges, rotational lifts.
This is what makes results stick. Space without movement disappears. Movement without strength collapses. Strength without space leads to compensation.
Why Hygiene, Not Maintenance
I don’t like the word “maintenance.” It sounds mechanical, like your joints are parts in a car shop. That’s not how the body works.
Hygiene is different. It’s about care. It’s about inputs. It’s about doing small things consistently so problems don’t stack up later.
You don’t brush your teeth only when they hurt. You don’t floss once a month and call it good. You do it every day, because you understand the consequences if you don’t.
Your joints deserve the same respect.
The Bottom Line
Joint hygiene isn’t a workout. It isn’t recovery. It’s the baseline. The daily practice that keeps your system adaptable, resilient, and pain-free.
If you’re ready to stop reacting to pain and start building a body that holds up under stress, start with joint hygiene.
At Bodywork by Nic in Columbus, every session I do is built on this principle: create space, move through it, strengthen it. Because joints are designed to move and they like to move.