Skip to main content

Are You Using ALL 3 Planes of Motion?



 3 PLANES... WORKING IN HARMONY

When you have problems with one, you'll compensate with the others. For example, if you are missing strength, stability, balance, mobility or coordination in your ability to shift weight side to side (Frontal Plane), you will call on your Extensors (Sagittal) and/or Rotators (Transverse) to "Pseudo Shift". 🤯 1) Sagittal Plane (Forward & Backward, i.e. Situps) 2) Frontal Plane (Side to Side/Abduction & Adduction, i.e. Jumping Jacks, Side Planks) 3) Transverse Plane (Rotation, i.e. Russian Twist) All natural human movements require at least 2 of these planes to work together. Not all movements are grand and obvious... often it's quite subtle and acts as stability ... but man, are they important and overlooked.
When they all work in harmony, we are fine-tuned athletes. However, the Sagittal Plane is quite dominant. When we don't have good control of the other 2 planes, we use the Sagittal plane to compensate... making it even MORE challenging to move in the Frontal & Transverse Planes.

It's a vicious cycle.
This is one of the many Pre-Learning topics I'll discuss in my "Running Longevity" online course!

I will also be teaching exercises to "undo" the Sagittal dominance & tap into the Frontal & Transverse Planes.


"Set Yourself Up for Running Until Your LAST Days by What You Do TOday"

💗, Kristen

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How are Airway and Posture Related?

HOW ARE AIRWAY & POSTURE RELATED? When we think of "airway, we think of life-and-death situations and sleep apnea.  But, there is so much more to our ability to pull air into our lungs freely and evenly and to expel carbon dioxide.  Our alignment and muscle tone play a pivotal role in our ability to maintain a symmetrical, un-restricted airflow.  You see, the respiratory system is a bo dy-wide, interconnected and closed system. There are often clues our body is giving us that there is a restriction somewhere to free, full airflow. Often times, the restrictions are located quite a distance from our nose and mouth! Key Points First of all, it is not common knowledge, but we actually have 4 diaphragms (some even say 5) that all influence each other.  They act as one closed, pressurized system.  If there is an issue with the function of one of the diaphragms, it will influence the others. Another key concept is that our main diaphra...

Those "Tricky" Hamstrings (Part 3)

So far, we have discussed the consequences of OVER STRETCHING and the role of the NERVOUS SYSTEM in treating and preventing hamstring injuries.  Now it's time to dive in to the ROTATIONAL component of our hamstrings.   We cannot treat the hamstring group in just one plane of motion.  Look at the diagram and notice that there are some hamstring muscles that attach to the inside (medial) side of the knee, and others that attach to the outside (lateral) side of the knee. When working together, the medial and lateral hamstrings will act in a coordinated manner to bend the knee and extend the hip.   Individually, the medial hamstrings turn the thigh inward (Internal Rotation or IR) and the lateral hamstrings turn the thigh outward (External Rotation or ER).  This means that the hamstrings are also a crucial player in side-to-side and rotational movements.  On the same lines, the hamstrings will act at the upper attachment at the pelvis.  The med...

Those "Tricky" Hamstrings - Part 2

THE ROLE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM This "epidemic" of recurring hamstring injuries is, in part, due to the under-valued role of the nervous system.  There is often too much focus on the structural "damage" and isolated limitations vs the overall dysfunction. I'm not saying that treating the damaged tissue is not important. But, in order to minimize recurrence, we must look beyond the isolated injury and seek to understand the integrated, "big picture" of the problem. IS IT ACTUAL DAMAGE OR SOMETHING ELSE? One interesting concept to understand is that the tension of our muscles are completely under the control of our nervous system.  Your brain is in constant awareness of the tension of all your muscles.  Unless you change your nervous system, you will continue to sense tightness.  As mentioned in Part 1, stretching isn't necessarily the answer to resolving tension. The relief felt by isolated muscle stretching only lasts for about 20 minutes.   ...