Controlled Articular Rotations: The Purpose of CARs
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What are controlled articular rotations? CARs just look like silly joint circles, what is special about that? Controlled articular rotations are a @functionalrangeconditioning concept that have many different functions.
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1️⃣Joint “Flossing”: What is the point of dental floss? To clean / reach areas of your teeth that are not easily assessable. CARs do the same thing for your joints. Full joint motion helps to preserve the health of the joint.
2️⃣Joint Assessment: A health joint should have full pain-free motion in whatever ranges the joint can move. If one is unable that gives you an idea that maybe you need to address your joints. If someone has “pinching” or some kind of block it is an indicator that you may need to see a healthcare professional / @functionalrangerelease as the aberrant joint motion needs more than just training. Never continue motion through a pinch or block, always move around the painful area.
3️⃣Joint training: Following manual treatment or passive stretching one may temporarily have more joint movement. If you do not begin to train that new range it will be just that, temporary. CARs are an excellent tool to start to train this new pain-free movement. Temporarily get more movement is your window to train it to start the process to keep it.
4️⃣Joint isolation: As one gets better at performing movements they will realize how they compensate with neighboring joints. People always want MORE motion even if it isn’t what the goal is. The true goal is more ISOLATED joint motion, if you make sure each joint moves well in isolation then compound movements will be much more free. When one lacks motion in one area of a compound motion it may start to lead to excessive stress somewhere down the chain.
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Taking care of your joints is the keep both for longevity and performance.
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Updated post with morning CAR routine.