My almost two-year-old is obsessed with cars—the vroom-vroom kind. We live on a busy street in Boston, so it’s toddler catnip for him. It’s nearly impossible to go for a walk without him fixating on every Hyundai and Honda that whizzes by. Likewise, in every book we read, he points out every car. Car, daddy. Car, car, car, car.
I’m obsessed with CARs too. By CARs I mean Controlled Articular Rotations. And they’re something I’ve been adding more into my warm-ups lately.
CARs are active, rotational movements that explore the outer limits of joint motion. To borrow a frame of thought from Chris Cooper: “Stretching and other mobility drills are great, but if you can’t control your body in that new range, then what’s the point? Explore how your body moves, and then push its limits.” Another component of CARs is irradiation, which is just a fancy way of saying tension. When CARs are done well they involve a lot of tension so nothing else moves (spine, pelvis, etc.) so you can capture as much range of motion as possible in that one joint. To borrow another scientific word, they fucking suck donkey balls when done correctly.
Here are two of my current go-tos for how I’ve implemented CARs into my programs:
SCAPULAR CAR
This is a fantastic option on upper-body days before any heavy bench pressing. Moreover, in terms of overall shoulder health these are stellar. Many trainees have fallen into the unfortunate habit of “locking” their shoulder blades in place (scapular downward rotation syndrome), and this drill is a great way to “unglue” everything.
Key Points to Consider
This is NOT a passive position. Glutes on, abs on, make a fist with the non-working side.
Place the side you’re working in scapular plane.
Pretend as if there’s a glass of water on your arm you don’t want to spill.
Protract, shrug (elevate), retract, depress shoulder blade in a deliberate manner.
My cat is such a diva.
SEATED 90/90 HIP SWITCHES
I like this drill a lot because it trains both hip internal and external rotation simultaneously.
Note: After I posted this my boy Frank Duffy chimed in to say this: “From a hardo FRC standpoint 90/90 transitions aren’t CARs because they’re focusing just on the IR/ER component of the hips in flexion whereas CARs address all the joint motions. What’s demonstrated is technically considered an Isometric Movement Path (IsoMP).” Note to Frank: Don’t ever embarrass me on my blog again.
This is also a good choice to get the hips nice and juicy before a squat or deadlift session. I prefer to start people grounded (sitting) with hip CARs before I implement quadruped and then standing variations.
Key Points to Consider
My bad for the blatant crotch shot.
Make a fist with both hands – squeeze coal into diamonds.
Both feet must stay in contact with the floor at all times.
Try your best to stay as upright as possible.
If you need to regress, place hands on floor behind you.
THE WARM-UP BLUEPRINT FOR LIFTING
Looking for some more ideas to spruce up your warm-up? I’ve noticed most people fall into two camps:
Team “nope, I’d rather walk over broken glass.”
Team “the workout is the warm-up.”
You’re either someone who doesn’t warm up (and likely has achy joints and sub-par lifts), or someone who does warm up, but then spends 45 minutes on a laundry list of “correctives” (and still has achy joints and sub-par lifts).
I was recently given a copy of Jack Hanrahan’s The Warm-Up Blueprint For Lifting and found it very useful. It shows you how to design your own customized warm-up using the concepts above and more. It takes you through soft-tissue release, dynamic stretching, CARs, and targeted muscle activation techniques to better prepare you for squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, and overhead pressing.
What’s more, it’s all done with a British accent. Jack could read The Silmarillion or, I don’t know, the Wikipedia page for the Krebs Cycle and I’d pay to listen to it. The best part is that this is a home-study course, so you can go at your own pace. Be sure to check it out here. Not said with a Boston accent, thank God. But seriously, thanks for the correction.
