This episode is about CARs, controlled articular rotations, and it's a conversation between Pieter Schönfeldt of Peak Mobility and FRC mobility coach, Akil Bilal. Most people still call them joint circles. The question the episode keeps coming back to is whether CARs are just daily maintenance or a badly underrated tool, and the answer is plain: they're underrated, because a CAR isn't a circle, it's a slow, controlled way of showing your brain what a joint can actually do.

Pieter and Akil cover why CARs are done slowly and never fast, why the joint needs movement to feed itself, how a CAR doubles as a quick assessment that shows range without control, and how to fit them into a day: at the desk, making coffee, in the car, between sets of squats or deadlifts. Then they go further than most people do with Kinstretch and FRC: irradiation, level 2 with the other joints blocked out, level 3 with load, half and quarter CARs, and Akil's habit of doing them in a swimming pool.

It ends on the days you can't train: after a knee surgery, through a low patch, or when you just don't feel like it. If you do nothing else, do your CARs.

In this episode

• Why CARs are done slowly, explained with the Google Maps car: the slower it drives, the better the map.

• CARs as an assessment: people with lots of range on the table test can have no control of it, and a CAR shows that straight away.

• How to make CARs a daily non-negotiable, like brushing your teeth, and how to do almost all of them sitting at a desk.

• The levels: irradiation to send one clean signal from one joint, level 2 with the other joints blocked out, level 3 with load, plus half and quarter CARs for one sticky zone.

• Finishing a session with CARs to keep what you just gained, and using them to keep the rest of the body going while an injured knee heals.

Guest

Akil Bilal, Mobility Coach

Akil Bilal is a mobility coach who travels a lot and coaches wherever he lands. He recorded this one from Brisbane, after teaching a hip and spine Kinstretch class at a friend's gym, and he uses CARs with his clients for assessment, training and rehab.

Host

Pieter Schönfeldt, Mobility coach, Peak Mobility DXB

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:35 Cold open

01:11 Akil's Kinstretch class in Brisbane

03:09 Why everybody should do CARs

05:14 Why slow is always better

11:34 CARs every damn day

15:46 Joint nutrition and quick assessments

25:44 Warm-ups, supersets and leg day

32:30 The 3 Levels of CARs

51:52 Understanding Level 3 CARs

59:38 CARs when you can't train

Links

Peak Mobility: https://peakmobilitydxb.com

The PEAK Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zJ51jmGQJdw

Book a free Mobility Screen. peakmobilitydxb.com