Planes of Motion + Changing Guidelines

Our next goal is to improve how we program our warm up section to make it a more comprehensive start to our class, and we believe this will make more sense for new instructors learning how to program. 

So let’s review something you might not have thought about since instructor training weekend: The Planes of Motion

What are Planes of Motion?

A plane of motion is the space in which the body moves during a specific exercise or movement. These are determined by an imaginary line drawn on the body that divides it into equal parts.

Imagine each plane as a plate of glass that cuts the body into either front/back, left/right, or top/bottom halves. Then imagine each of those plates to be a track that the body is moving on. If a movement seems to mostly track along one plate over the others, it can be classified as being predominantly in that plane of motion.

The Frontal Plane – Divides into Front/Back Halves

-The frontal plane consists of lateral and side-to-side movements (imagine two walls pressed up against the front and back sides of the body.)

-Most Common Joint Actions (muscle Movements) in the Frontal plane are Abduction and Adduction

-Warm up Posture examples include: Oblique Reaches, Plie squats with sweeps or jacks, side lunges, Side planks, Spiderman Lifts, Jumping Jacks, etc. 

The Sagittal Plane – Divides into Left/Right Sides

-The sagittal plane consists of forward and back movements. 

-Joint Actions (muscle Movements) in the sagittal plane are Flexion and Extension

-Warm up Posture examples include: Reverse Lunges, Chair and Sumo Squats with kicks or reverse lifts, Marches, Knee Drives, etc.

The Transverse Plane – Divides into Top/Bottom parts

-The transverse plane consists of rotational and twisting movements. 

-Common Joint Actions (muscle Movements) in the transverse plane are Trunk Rotation, Hip internal and external rotation

-Warm up Posture examples include: Side Steps, Any add-ons or variation with a Twist, Side Lunge w/ Opposite Diagonal Reach, etc. 

Some exercises you will find are Multiplanar, meaning they don’t just move in one plane. So as we reorganize our library of warm up postures you might see some of the exercises show up into two categories. 

This month we will move away from the “Forward and Back” + “Spinal Rotation/Lateral Bend” labels of our warm up postures and begin to organize them as “Sagittal” + “Frontal” + “Transverse” labels. Our guidelines will shift slightly in how we program but ultimately we believe it will make more sense and be more impactful (more on that next week!)

As we begin to retrain our minds to program this way, I’ll send out examples of warmups that include all planes of motion on the Instagram account, make sure you are following! By the end of November, we expect all of your warmups to be programmed this way.