A LOOK INTO COACH BRYAN’S DAILY PRACTICE
My intention was to make a short video and write about how quick and simple it is to work daily CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations) into your daily routine. If you’ve watched CJ Potter’s (from Excelsior Bodywork) video, you know that he goes into great detail about each of the movements in this practice. This is fantastic and necessary to help you understand what to do, and why you’re doing it. For today, I wanted to show how simple (with a lot less time!) it can be to implement daily CARs in your life, even if there’s distractions and changes in our schedule that are out of our control.
First, consider the term “Lifestyle” as the culmination of our energy, rhythm, balance, and purpose in our lives. In our modern media age, some people are always portrayed as having the “perfect” lifestyle. As we view them from the outside, we find a disconnect between how we perceive our lives and our desires compared to what we believe their lives are. At times, our lives don’t feel as “perfect” as others’ media would suggest. It’s good to recognize we don’t have full control of the world we live in, not even close!
The reason I bring this up is because in our world of fitness we often have a perception of the “perfect” daily routine to care for ourselves when we’re not at the gym. Usually this is some combination of stretching, foam rolling, going for a walk, CARs, etc. But the realities of the world don’t always play out in our day like we want them to. Sometimes doing morning CARs gets interrupted or the walk you were planning to take gets washed out by the rain.
While I was recording my CARs video, my dog, Dudley, decided that he wanted some attention – a typical occurrence. So I gave him some love and got back to my CARs practice. But he wasn’t done yet! He walks over to my makeshift camera stand, starts sniffing my phone, and in the process knocks it all down! This is my lifestyle to a T! I don’t always get through the CARs in one shot. Sometimes there are more important things that need to be done (like petting my dog) before I finish my self-care.
My final points are these:
1) Nothing is perfect.
2) I spent more time trying to set up my camera for the video than it actually took to do the CARs.
3) I like petting my dog.