Your daily routine to maintain joint strength and mobility to keep your body moving well. CARs stands for Controlled Articular Rotations. When doing this routine, you want to be pain-free – especially no pinching on the closed-angle side fo the rotation (short side). To get the most out of your CARs, make any part of your body that is not doing the motion rigid and stiff.
Functional Range Conditioning
Feet and Ankles
Feet, our connection to the world around us. These 29 muscles, 33 joints, and 26 bones propel us through our lives. How they work and connect affects how everything up the chain works, from our ankles and hips, to our low backs and shoulders. Over the next few weeks, I am going to focus on our feet and how to keep them happy. Check back each week for new videos.
The best place to start, is to see if you have control of your feet. Try this video below. If you can’t get it at first, keep trying. It will come quicker than you think.
Now that we can move our toes, let’s try to gain some more range of motion. Try this big toe extension stretch with both a straight and bent knee. Hang out in both positions, but spend a little more time in the one that feels the most useful.
Moving up to the ankles with this next video. Limited range in our ankles usually means we have limited “rock”. Meaning our heel has a hard time rocking side-to-side. Try this next exercise to check on this side-to-side movement while also working on gaining more control of the movement.
Now that we have some side-to-side movement, we can work on increasing the range of our dorsiflexion (shin bone towards the top of the foot). This PAILs/RAILs exercise allows us to gain more range of motion while actively engaging that new range. This means, we are strengthening while we are gaining more flexibility.
To round out all our work, we will finish with ankle CARs. This helps upload all our new range and maintain it beyond our session.
Weekend Recovery
After a weekend of playing, our bodies can wake up Monday morning a little stiff and tired. That doesn’t mean we don’t move. It means we give our bodies a little motion to help them recover stronger and feel better. Try these 4 mobility exercises to help keep you moving well.
How are your hips?
For the last few months, we have been playing with our hip mobility. A lot of our focus has been on rotation. Why? Because no other movement can be accessed or gained without it.
The hips move in 6 ways – extension (leg moves behind you), flexion (leg drives in from of you), adduction (legs squeeze together), abduction (legs move away from each other), internal rotation (thigh spirals inward), and external rotation (thigh spirals outward).
Below are a few videos that work with hip internal and external rotation. This is a great starting point for anyone looking for more freedom in their hips. Want more? Check out my full hip mobility program featured this week on the Koa Fit Online platform.
May Mobility – Week Three
Try this introduction to hip internal and external rotation PAILs/RAILs. The goal of these exercises is to create more space in the hip capsule. More space = greater capacity of movement.
May Mobility – Week Two
This week, we are looking at hip rotation. Try this hip internal rotation exercise to gain more mobility through the hip capsule. Then, follow it up with the cross-over step-up to strengthen that new mobility.
May Mobility – Week One
Let’s get moving…better. During this first week of mobility, we are working on our ankles and shoulders. Check out the videos below, give them a try, and let us know what you think.
Hip Mobility Month – Week Four
For our last week, we have 3 new videos for you. Get your hips moving and give your low back and knees a break.
Hip Mobility Exercises – Week 1
This week we are working on our hip abduction. Hip abduction is when one leg moves towards the side, or away from the center line. The most obvious and common ways we use this movement in our daily lives is when getting in and out of bed, in and out of the car, or side-stepping out of the way.
Weakness in this area can cause the hip to “cave” to the outside which causes the knee to dip inward when walking or going up steps. These 2 motions can lead to hip and knee pain.
Functional Range Conditioning – Week Four
We are working on the rotation or our shoulders this week. Try these rotational hovers to create more workspace in the shoulder to help increase strength and function.
Brenna Backe 