Improve Your Range of Motion & Protect Your Joints with C.A.R. Exercises
Our poor joints never seem to get any attention until they are in trouble. Then they are all we think about. One of the most important ways to protect and promote good joint health is through mobility - and intentional mobility that targets the full range of motion of each joint. According to my favorite college professor, Dr. Jim George, “movement is critical for joint health because it brings vital blood & nutrients into the tissues.” It also aids in tissue strength and pliability.
Why Range of Motion and Proper Movement in Daily Life Matter:
Our muscles and tissues are all interconnected. An issue at one muscle or tissue in the body often trickles down to create more problems in other areas. Because joints are pulled on by muscles and are where muscles meet to enable movement, they too can be significantly impacted by movement dysfunction.
Someone may complain of knee pain and believe they simply have weak knees, when the problem may actually be an issue with their hips. As a physical therapist I know once put it, “our knees our bullied by the ankles and/or the hips.” Everything is connected.
An insightful article by Precision Nutrition put it this way:
“For instance, if the movement in our ankle joints is restricted from normal range of motion, this can impact our gait. To make up for this restriction, our knees and/or hips may change movement to support the missed job of the ankles. We practice this compromised gait many times a day, causing our muscles and related tissues to adapt to support our “special” gait.
This adaptation may have painful consequences: our knees may hurt from a walk that moves those joints outside a normal range of motion. Likewise, our hips may be pulled out of their normal pattern emerging as low back pain.
This cascade is often why movement specialists will say “the site of pain is not always the source of pain.” Compromised joint range of motion is often seen with limited squat depth and poor running economy (or pain).
As use-it-or-lose-it organisms, we get the body we practice having.
On the plus side, this means that better practice = better body.”
Controlled articular rotations are a great way to practice proper form and range of motion for healthier joints, movement, and bodies.
So What Are Controlled Articular Rotations?
Controlled Articular Rotations or CAR for short, are exercises designed to take your joint through a full range of motion. They were developed by Dr. Andreo Spina and are defined as “active rotational movements at the outer limits of articular motion.”
You can get through a routine for your whole body in less than 10 minutes, and I’d recommend doing them daily. These are very functional exercises and are not meant to make you break a sweat.
A few preliminary instructions - you should not experience pain during or after the exercises are completed. If you do have pain, it could be a sign of tissue injury. If the pain feels more like an uncomfortable stretch, you gently may be able to keep going but use caution and don’t push too far. Talk with your doctor if you are concerned. In most cases, your range of motion should improve gradually as you move as much in the range of motion as you can without pain. Usually these are good to do standing, but you can do them seated as well. Keep your core tight.
CAR Exercises
I won’t spell out each exercise here, there are plenty of free videos that will be more helpful than you trying to imagine what I’m saying from a description. I do highly recommend this video which will take you through each of the exercises, teach you proper form, and is only 11 min long.
No matter how you choose do the exercises, these are the joints you will want to target:
Cervical/Upper Spinal Joint (neck)
Scapula Joint
Shoulder Joint (glenohumeral joint)
Elbow Joint
Wrist Joint
Thoracic Joint (mid back)
Lumbar Joint (lower back)
Hip Joint
Knee Joint
Ankle Joint
Foot Joint
Hope you enjoy these exercises! They will improve your movement quality as well as muscle, joint, and tissue longevity.
Sources
*James George, PHD Ex
Starting a daily mobility practice: Controlled articular rotations [part 3]. Inverted Gear. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/inverted-gear-blog/starting-a-daily-mobility-practice-controlled-articular-rotations-part-3.
All About Dynamic Joint Mobility. Precision Nutrition. (2021, October 29). Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://www.precisionnutrition.com/dynamic-joint-mobility.
George, J. (2021). Unit 1, Controlled Articular Rotations. In Exercise Science 385 Textbook. essay, Brigham Young University.
