My joint mobility and overall flexibility have always been on the low end. I swam a lot in my early teens, but I hated backstroke because I couldn’t get my left arm back behind me easily. My left hip area has been tight for so long I’d just accepted it as a thing. 

Then early last year my running habit got sidelined due to low back issues (disc degeneration at L5-S1).

Yeah, no thanks to that. I started looking hard at where and how I needed to get stronger/more mobile/more flexible.

[Side note: disc degeneration is surprisingly normal. More than a third of **20-year-olds** have some disc degeneration. And some people with disc degeneration experience pain, while others don’t. The technical explanation for this is that the body is weird.]

Enter CARs

One of the practices that’s been especially helpful is Functional Range Conditioning (#FRC) controlled articular rotation mobility drills, or CARs.

In a nutshell, CARs are about taking each joint through its available range of motion in a controlled way and slowly unlocking more mobility by testing the limits of that range. With CARs, you’re isolating each joint as you move through it, which requires a level of bracing/tension in the rest of the body to prevent movement elsewhere.

When I started the drills, I was especially hopeful that better *hip mobility* could take some of the strain off my lumbar discs.

Four Feldenkrais-ian Observations on CARs

After a couple weeks of doing a daily CAR sequence, I have a few Feldenkrais-in observations on these drills.

1. CARs have been a great opportunity to play with the question of what to do at the end range or edge of what’s easy and controllable. In Feldenkrais, there’s admittedly a de-emphasis on pushing through tension or tightness. But is there value in playing on the “edge” in a safe way for the nervous system, staying out of pain and always maintaining control? Heck yeah. The mobility gains after 2 weeks of practice have been slow but noticeable and appreciated.

2. As I’m moving through each joint, I’m inevitably going to find spots where thing are especially tight or sticky. Instead of pushing through a full 360-degree circle, I’ll sometimes hang out and go back and forth within these mini-ranges for a bit. If you’ve ever done a Feldenkrais “pelvic clock” lesson, you’ll know what I’m talking about. (And if you haven’t, look it up. It’s a fantastic one.)

3. Maybe my favorite “lens” to train on the CAR drills is to mix in variations in the amounts and types of movement happening in the rest of my body as I move each joint. Basically, I’m doing it “wrong” in various ways in order to get the nervous system a little more involved and execute the drills more intelligently. Essentially, do it multiple ways, so you can do it better. A sequence for one joint could look like:

a. “Right”: Classic CARs, with full joint isolation. The way the doctor ordered. 

b. “Medium Wrong”: Inviting a little bit of rest-of-body involvement.

c. “Full Wrong”: Full spinal mobility; no holds barred.

d. “Right” one more time.

You could play with other nuances here, like turning on or off one plane of movement in the rest of your body as you perform the drill (e.g., try the hip CARs on all fours while allowing flexion/extension but no side bending or rotation).

I’ll do something similar with clients who come in with exercises their PT gave them: have them do the movements more slowly, or only do a small part of the movement, or notice what’s happening somewhere in their body away from the center of focus of the movement, or some other variation that occurs spontaneously to us.

Probably the biggest meta-point here: Don’t be afraid to deconstruct your regimen. Take the movements apart then put them back together. Novelty can be a wonderful thing, and the effect can be additive if you go about it in a way that simultaneously respects the intention of the movements/drills and the well-being of your nervous system.