CARs Morning Routine

I jump right into it so here are a few things to remember before you get started:

CARs // Controlled Articular Rotations
CARs will teach you more about your joints than you ever thought necessary and have the ability to maintain or expand your current range of motion and health of each individual joint and are great to incorporate in every day. When performing these joint rotational movements, you are speaking directly to the joint capsule, and in turn, directly to your central nervous system. This signals the tissues to adapt and create greater function at the joint. By speaking directly to the CNS, we are maximizing neural drive and teaching your body to CONTROL the range of motion you already have, and potentially open up NEW range of motion that you'll have access to for the long run.

Things to remember when doing CARs:
1. Take your body through the SAFEST and GREATEST range of motion (or circle) possible and think about moving ONLY at the joint you are targeting, without compensating with a nearby joint.
2. Be HONEST with your movement. Keep the rest of the body extremely stable throughout the circle to prevent it from going along for a ride. (do this through "irradiation")
Irradiation = take a deep breath, pack the air into your abdomen and brace your spine. 3. Engage the entire body (core, arms, legs, spine, hips, glutes, etc) and spiral the feet into the floor. Do whatever you need to irradiate and create more tension in the body. This may mean squeezing tight fists, squeezing a tennis ball or block, driving a dowel or broomstick into the ground, etc. The more you can irradiate, the less likely you are to compensate and the more range of motion you'll be able to squeeze out
3. Squeeze out more range of motion with each repetition
4. Be as smooth as possible throughout the rotation and keep the same speed/cadence throughout. Observe the spots that may be jumpy or your body tries to speed through. Slow it down and aim for control of these areas in particular.
5. If you feel pinching, shooting pain, closing angle pain, this may indicate a deeper issue at that joint. Discomfort is ok, but avoid pushing through pain. Let me know what you're experiencing and I can help you address what you're feeling with either a different approach, another movement or variation (there are LOTS more than shown in this video) or recommend a Functional Range Release practitioner to do some manual work on you.