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May 12, 2023
In this edition of the Health With Balance newsletter, I'm going to show you how to start a daily mobility routine.
Many of us have a vague idea that we should take care of our joints, especially when you see statistics like this: "total knee replacement surgeries are projected to grow to 3.5 million PER YEAR by 2030."
That's a shocking number, but it might feel like it's not very relevant to you...until one day you have knee pain from walking down the stairs, or your lower back is throbbing (again), or doing chest flies during your strength workout starts bugging your elbows.
What I'm going to teach you today is a daily maintenance routine for your joints that will help you avoid injury and improve your movement quality. I like to call this routine "my daily joint hygiene" because it's become as essential to me as brushing my teeth.
Unfortunately, most people either think of mobility as optional - something you might tack on to the end of a workout - or as a total mystery.
Most people who try to improve their joint health are wasting their time on mobility routines that don't work.
But what you're going to learn today is a research-backed, effective method for maintaining the health of your joints. And best of all, once you learn it, it only takes 10 minutes per day.
Here's what you need to know.
Step 1: Learn how to do C.A.R.s for each of your joints.
C.A.R.s stands for "Controlled Articular Rotations." Simply put, C.A.R.s take each major joint through its full range of motion. The point is to isolate each joint in turn and avoid compensating with other joints. So for example, if you're doing a shoulder C.A.R., you want to only move your shoulder and avoid moving your spine or elbows. Don't worry - I'll provide links for instructional videos at the end of this newsletter.
C.A.R.s are great for lubricating joints, improving communication between your skeletal system and central nervous system, and maintaining your current range of motion. They're not ideal for increasing range of motion - other techniques are used for this (just like simply brushing your teeth daily might not be enough to repair damage that's already been done).
What this ultimately does is provide you with greater control of your joints...which translates to greater control of your movement...which translates to injury prevention.
Step 2: Make it a habit.
If you learn the C.A.R.s routine but never do it - or do it only every once in a while - the benefits you get from it will be zero to none. But if you find a way to make this a daily habit, the benefits will accrue and even compound over time.
FRC practitioner Dewey Nielson puts it this way:
So how do you make this a habit?
Here's my advice:
Pick a convenient time of day. For me, it's early in the morning, before my morning walk.
Attach your new habit (joint hygiene) to an existing habit that you already do automatically, to help you remember to do it. For example: do your C.A.R.s while your morning coffee is brewing, or during a 10-minute break at work.
Step 3: Repeat and refine.
The point of doing C.A.R.s is that the more often you do them, the greater benefits will come. But you have to do them intentionally. These aren't your typical "joint circles" where you swing your body around loosely and hope something happens. Remember: the goal is to intentionally and mindfully move each joint through its full range of motion, without compensation from other joints.
So here's where you should start.
Check out the videos linked below:
All of these videos are made by FRS-certified instructors, and each one provides a different spin on the concept of C.A.R.s. You don't have to watch them all, but pick the one that appeals to you the most and commit to doing it consistently for the next week.
Initially, you'll need to follow along with the instructional video as you learn the routine. But once you know what you're doing, you can start doing the routine without following the video, which makes it much more likely that you'll do it consistently. Take at least 1 week to learn the routine, then focus on making it a habit that's incorporated into your daily regimen.
As you start to see and feel the results, tell your friends - and let's hope we see those knee replacement surgery projections go down.
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