Ty Ferrell 10/12/08
I
remember my earlier experiences in strength training and conditioning.
I would train upper body on Monday and Thursday, and lower body
on Tuesday and Friday. I would run through typical movements such
as bench press, bentover row, chinups, squats, deadlifts and of
course the notorious “olympic bar bicep curl in the squat
rack”. I would see great gains from the amount of blood
and sweat I put into the training. My muscles were full and pumped
after each session. My strength blasted past any prior personal
records. Sounds great, right? I would agree too. The only problem
with my training is I would have to bring everything to a screeching
halt about six weeks out. Happy with my gains, but aching from
nagging injuries, I was forced to pull the plug. I gained injuries
that could have been completely avoided before they proceeded
to end my glory prematurely. I am certainly not saying that I
should have dropped the intensity of my training or even lowered
the volume. What I am saying is I needed to address these injury-prone
areas as well as areas not as vulnerable. More specifically, I
needed to stretch, train and live in 3D. I will elaborate more
on the training aspect, but I challenge everyone reading this
to incorporate truly living functionally 3D.
When
I say training in 3D, I am speaking of using all three planes
of motion during training. Some coaches label this as simply “cross
training”. To many athletes reading this, I am just preaching
to the choir and to others this is all new and should be applied
immediately. Many gym-goers use a single plane of motion when
training. I usually see someone doing bench press, lat pulldown,
leg press, and leg curl. Besides the fact that this training program
is pretty miserable, the muscles are only used in one plane of
motion. This plane of motion is known as the “sagital”
plane. When in the gym, you want to make sure to have all three
planes of motion in your workout. If the workout does not call
for all three planes, then the warmup portion should certainly
have them included. The three planes of motion are sagital, frontal,
and transverse. The illustration below shows how they are divided.
Also at the end of this article I have listed examples of movements
in each plane of motion.
First,
the sagital plane will divide the body left and right. Imagine
a sheet of glass going through you from top to bottom and separating
the left side of the body from the right. The barrier would prevent
your arms and legs from crossing it. Also this glass acts as a
guide making your limbs (joints) run parallel with it.
Next
the frontal plane will divide the body anterior (front) and posterior
(back). Once again a barrier prevents movement, but this time
it divides the front and back of your body. The barrier will act
like a magnet holding your joints to it so they can not move away
from it.
Finally,
the transverse plane divides the body superior (top) and inferior
(bottom). This is the trickiest of the planes. The plane controls
rotation (twisting).
Most
movements of the human body occur in more than one plane of motion.
Many of times the body will take advantage of all three planes
of motion. When it came to my earlier training, I was very dominant
in sagital plane. I almost totally ignored the other two planes
of motion. So, the training I did caused muscles and other tissue
to over-compensate for weaker muscles. In time, this became a
nagging problem and chronic injury. The best approach would have
been to strengthen the weaker muscles and strengthen functional
patterns of movement, by using the three planes of motion. I would
have not had to terminate training and lick my wounds for weeks.
I certainly would not have created an environment for some more
serious injuries that hinder my strength today. So, a wise athlete
or fitness enthusiasts will train in 3D to keep the body healthy
in strong. This is a list in multiple planes of motions. It is
very wise to add them in to any sagital dominant training regiment.
Below
is an example of movements.
Sagital:
Pushup
Chinups
Squats
Frontal:
DB
Lateral Raises
Lateral Lunges
Crossover Lunges
Transverse:
Choplifts
Chopdowns
Torso Twist
These examples show exercises and not stretches but both should
be done in 3D. To apply this knowledge you should first train
movements over body parts. So, simply figure out what basic movements
you wish to use. In example, on Monday you may want to do upper
body pulling and full body pushing (differences are explained
in e-book). So pick a sagital movement (like chinup), frontal
movement (like dumbbell overhead lateral lunges), and a transverse
movement (like kneeling dumbbell chops), then finish it up with
your full body push (like front squats). That’s just an
example, the combination is endless.
