Joints CARs stands for Controlled Articular Rotations and they are an exercise that I use often in daily practice, the rehab setting, as well as for athletic performance training. CARs are performed slow and controlled (hence the name) and involve taking a particular joint through its full, available range of motion. 

What are the benefits of CARs?

Maintenance

Think of CARs as a supplement for your joints. They offer a variety of movement and ensure that the joint is moving in all directions on a regular basis. Our regular lives and even fitness programs tend to be very pattern based, meaning we move in the same direction/same ranges repeatedly without much variety. 

By taking a joint through its full range of motion in all directions you are maintaining current mobility, ensuring that the joint receives nutrients (this is primarily achieved by movement BTW), and assisting that joint to communicate with your brain (necessary for injury prevention purposes).

Self-assessment

 CARs offer you a great opportunity for self-assessment on a regular basis. This will allow you to become acquainted with how your body is performing and feeling which will hopefully allow you to catch problems before they become full blown injury or pain. 

Key things to monitor during self-assessment include control (are you only moving the joint you are trying to move?), range of motion (how far can the joint move in each direction?), and pain or sticking point (take note of these but then avoid passing the painful range with each rep). 

Filming your daily CARs routine every few months can also be a great way to measure joint health and mobility progress. 

A way to communicate with healthcare provider

I prescribe CARs with most every client at our first visit. Sometimes it is only for a couple specific joints and sometimes, depending on the goals and concerns, it is a full body routine like the one you can access below.

My goal for using CARs in the rehab setting and medical evaluation is to get the client comfortable with these movements so that at future visits we can use CARs to assess the joint and have a discussion about how things are feeling. 

We can use a CARs assessment to look at overall movement and mobility as well as compensation patterns that often precede injury.

Develop Control

I find that many people are fairly disconnected with their body. This becomes even more apparent in the presence of pain or injury. 

CARs helps your joints communicate with your brain and nervous system to improve control and awareness as to where you are at in space and how you are moving. This is critical from an injury prevention standpoint. 

The ability to control the body internally is a skill that must be accomplished prior to training against external forces such as weights, resistance, contact sports, uneven terrain etc...

So now that you know they why, it's time to start developing this daily habit. Get started on your daily CARs routine by following this tutorial