Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Training in Planes of Body Movement

The body can move essentially in 3 planes - sagittal, coronal, and transverse (see image).  There are exercises that can be executed in each of the 3 planes to target different major muscle groups. For example, an exercise that targets the sagittal plane might be the squat, snatch, lunge, or shoulder press (i.e. exercises that move up and down and/or front to back). Exercises that hit the coronal plane might be dumbbell lateral raises or side lunges, or alternatively plyometric side lunges. And, exercises that might hit the transverse plane would typically involve twisting motions such dumbbell axes, rotational shoulder exercises, ball twists, or wall balls.  



I am trying to incorporate this type of science into my body weight training by incorporating multiple move exercises that not only cross planes, but also tap the isometric holds associated with gymnastics style training. I am going to try to execute 3 sets of 2-4 supersets that will hit each of the 3 planes in a different manner. For example hitting the sagittal plane by executing handstand pushups or snatch and jumps. You could superset that with wall balls and side lunge plyometrics. You might also superset pull / chin ups (sagittal) with hanging twist leg raises (end of video) and star jumps. By combining exercises like this I hope to increase strength, agility, endurance and general fitness. 

You could also incorporate suspension training into this metric for training. For example, do suspended chest press or row. Super set with rotational raise and hanging side plank. Killer. 

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