Try CARs for Better Joint Mobility

Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs) are a series of active, rotational movements that improve joint mobility, motor control and reduces inflammation after injury.

A high percentage of men in the Greenwood Men's group have issues with joint health and joint mobility.

CARs can help with that!

It works by moving your joints through their full range of motion, often in a circular pattern. 

CARs are designed to challenge your brain and body by creating tension and isolating movement to a single joint. The goal is to improve your joint's stability and control by teaching your brain to adapt to a new range of motion. 

How CARs Can Benefit You

CARs can help:

• Maintain joint health and lubricate joints, which can help with arthritis and other joint disorders. 
• Improve your range of motion and mobility, which increases the quality of your daily activities. 
• Improves your strength, even at the extremes of your range of motion. 
• Reduce joint discomfort or pain.

This movement technique is suitable for just about everyone, including people recovering from injuries. 

When doing CARs, it's important to make sure the movements are controlled and pain-free. You're not trying to prove anything. Just do what you can and keep at it.

10-Minute Video Demonstration of CARs -- You Can Do This!

Why CARs Is Important

We all want to be more mobile as we get older, right? Or at least maintain what we have now. They way to do that is to increase both your flexibility and your strength.  CARs can help you with all these aspects.

Flexibility + Strength = Mobility

Flexibility is simply the amount of range of motion of our joints, i.e., how far you can stretch our joints, with no thought to whether you have control in that range of motion or whether your body will actually allow you to access that range of motion during a functional movement. 

Mobility refers to the amount of usable motion that you possess across a particular joint. The key word here is "usable."

An essential element of good mobility is good flexibility. The other element is good strength, which improves muscular control at the extremities of a given range of motion.

The more mobile you are, the more you're able to maximize the movement of your body parts safely, efficiently, and effectively.

It's common to have less mobility than flexibility because you lack strength or control of the joint at the extremities of their range of motion. Therefore, the nervous system will not allow them to access these extremities of range of motion, especially under load.

As you gradually expand your body’s ranges of motion, you simultaneously teach the nervous system how to control the newly acquired ranges. Basically, your passive flexibility is trained so that it’s converted into usable, functional mobility.

This is achieved by taking a joint to the outer limits of your ranges of motion and developing strength at those ranges. These ranges are then worked on daily, making the newly acquired mobility longer-lasting and more readily accessible.

Poor Mobility Risks Injury

Injuries tend to occur when a force or stress placed on the body exceeds the capacity of a particular joint or muscle. This occurs due to a lack of strength and stability at the outer limits of a joint’s motion.

An example is when a guy falls down as he runs and reaches out to chase down a fast-moving pickleball. Several guys in the men's group have had this experience. 

While you can do CARs at home, we suggest you find a professional practitioner to coach you, so you can get the maximum benefit.

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The Greenwood Men's Group's mission is to provide a supportive environment where men from diverse backgrounds can foster camaraderie, develop friendships, share wisdom, enrich one another's lives -- and contribute to the Seattle communities of Greenwood, Ballard, Crown Hill, Fremont, Green Lake, Greenwood, Licton Springs, Loyal Heights, Phinney Ridge, Ravenna, Sunset Hill, Wallingford, Wedgwood, Whittier Heights and beyond.