Brush your Teeth and Floss your JOINTS: Daily CARs Drills for Joint Health & Function

Daily practice is essential for improvement. Whether it's skill acquisition, health related, or performance driven, we need consistency to see results.  When it comes to joint health and function, it's no different.
CARs playlist on my YouTube channel

You may have heard me preach that mobility training is fundamental to specific training for strength, speed, endurance, weight loss, etc.  Without adequate mobility, we limit our degrees of freedom to move and likely put excessive loading on our joints while increasing risk of injury.  So any other type of training modality becomes less effective when battling a mobility limitation.  I'm not saying to ignore training for goals outside of mobility altogether, however, I am suggesting to improve your limitations when it comes to mobility in order to maximize your goals across the board.

So how do you practice your mobility fundamentals daily to maintain and improve joint health and function?  The answer is CARs, or CONTROLLED ARTICULAR ROTATIONS.  CARs are essentially big controlled circles with your joints.  By putting our joints through their full range of motion, we ensure that joint health and function is at least maintained if not improved.  Just as we brush our teeth daily for dental hygiene, we practice CARs every day for joint health.
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Check out my daily CARs practice broken down for you step by step.  Keep in mind, CARs can be completed at varying levels of tension and pace for different outcomes.  I like to practice a few reps per joint in the morning (while my coffee is brewing) at a very low intensity and moderate pace to get my body moving and ensure I get a minimum amount of daily movement for joint maintenance.  Remember, (in my nagging parent voice) to brush your teeth and floss your JOINTS every day!

​About the author:
Coach Chris Campbell has been training and coaching professional athletes, adults, and youth for almost 20 years.  He is the founder and owner of Next Level Strength & Movement.