Hey what's up guys it's Matt with The Movement System. Today we're going to talk about the anatomical planes of motion. We're going to give exercise examples in each plane and talk about why the planes of motion are important to learn. Let's go ahead and dive into it. Okay, so you may have seen a picture like this showing the planes of motion.
So basically there are three planes of motion, the sagittal plane, the frontal plane, and the transverse plane. And they cut the body in different ways. It's easy to get confused whenever you're thinking about a complex compound movement. what planes of motion each joint of the body is moving in.
So we're going to go ahead and try to simplify that as much as we can starting with the sagittal plane. So the way that I like to think about this is if you can do an exercise in a narrow hallway then it's a sagittal plane exercise. So for example if you had a narrow hallway where your shoulders were right up against the walls and you could for example do a forward lunge down the hallway that would be an example of a sagittal plane exercise. Another example would be something like a bicep curl or a leg extension.
So those are both exercises where your limbs are moving forward and back and not out to the side and not rotating. So in that case those are both sagittal plane movements. Another way to think about this, it's a little bit more confusing but can be helpful, is where is the axis of rotation? So in the case of a leg extension for example, the rotation is occurring at the knee joint.
The axis of rotation is lateral to medial. through the knee joint. So some of the motions involved in the sagittal plane would be something like elbow flexion extension, knee flexion extension, hip flexion extension, all occurring in that sagittal plane with the legs and arms moving forward and back. Okay, so moving on to the frontal plane. Some exercises in the frontal plane are going to be things that would hit the wall if you were in a narrow hallway.
So anything that's a lateral movement, such as a lateral lunge or a lateral raise, would be an example of a frontal plane. exercise. So as you're doing a lateral lunge you're stepping to the side the plane of motion that's cutting your body into a forward and backward half, that's the plane that your movement is going in. So in the case of a lateral lunge that would be an example of a frontal plane exercise.
By contrast, a forward or a reverse lunge would be example of a sagittal plane exercise. Now let's think about the example of the lateral raise. So the lateral raise is going to be done out to the side and again, that's in that plane of motion that's cutting your body into that forward and backward half.
the case of the lateral raise if we want to think about the axis of rotation that axis of rotation is right through the shoulder joint the glenohumeral joint here and the axis would be anterior to posterior and again the movement would occur in the frontal plane so again lateral raise is an example of frontal plane movement. If this has been helpful for you so far make sure you go ahead and hit that like button. Okay and then moving on to the transverse plane. The transverse plane is whenever a joint is going to be rotating about an axis that is superior to inferior.
So for example if we're just doing a trunk rotation exercise the axis that we're moving upon is from top to bottom through our body and we're rotating about that axis. So that's going to be an example of a transverse plane exercise. So something like a wood chop or a thoracic rotation drill of some type would be a transverse plane exercise. Importantly, when we do a fly motion, so for example a chest fly or a reverse fly, that same axis of rotation coming from superior to inferior through the shoulder joint is going to be the axis of rotation and we're going to be doing a motion in the transverse plane.
So anything that's going to be rotational. about an axis that's superior to inferior is going to be a transverse plane exercise. One thing I want to note is that these planes do move with you so as you lay down or as you get into a different position, you don't have to be standing up for these planes to be effective.
So if you're doing a chest fly laying down on a bench, or if you're doing a chest fly seated in a machine, it's still the same motion of that transverse plane. Okay, let's move on to the pop quiz here and see if we can check your knowledge. First one, what plane of motion is the lat pull down exercise?
So in the case of the lat pulldown, the axis of rotation is anterior to posterior through the shoulder joint and the plane of motion is actually going to be the frontal plane because the arm is moving out to the side, the scapula is doing upward and downward rotation. and that's going to be in the frontal plane. If you think, again, about doing it in a hallway, if you were in a narrow hallway, your elbows would move out to the side and hit the sides of the hallway.
Again, that would indicate that we're in a frontal plane movement. So something like a lat pulldown or a shoulder press would be an example of frontal plane movement. Okay, pop quiz question number two.
What about the squat exercise? So what plane of motion is that? And the answer for this one is the sagittal plane. Here's why. The squat involves a number of movements, ankle, plantar flexion, and dorsiflexion, knee flexion extension, hip flexion extension, and movement at the trunk.
But all these motions are occurring in the forward back direction. So if we think about doing this in a narrow hallway, you could squat your hips back, squat your hips forward, and you wouldn't bump out into the sides. So again this is an example of a sagittal plane exercise.
Okay and last pop quiz question, what plane of motion is the bench press exercise in? And this one's a tough one, but the answer is transverse plane. So the motion of a bench press, the primary motion is horizontal abduction and adduction.
So horizontal adduction or adduction is bringing the arms in and then horizontal. abduction is bringing the arms out. The axis of rotation here is superior to inferior through the shoulder joint.
So we're rotating about that axis and the rotation is occurring in the transverse plane similar to a chest fly, but in this case the chest press. The one caveat for that is if you were doing a really narrow grip and you tucked your elbows way in, in that case you could actually move to the sagittal plane because the axis of rotation would move to medial to lateral through the shoulder and then the motion at the elbow and the shoulder would be more in the sagittal plane. But for most people doing a bench press with a 45 degree angle or More, the main motion is going to be that horizontal AD and AB duction, and it's going to be transverse plane movement.
And why are the planes of motion important? Well, that's actually a good question. There's a principle of specificity to strength training, meaning that if we only do strength training in the sagittal plane, we really won't get stronger moving in lateral motion.
So, for example, if we're only doing exercises like squats, dead lifts and forward lunges, we're really not going to get stronger lateral hip muscles for things like lateral cutting, lateral lunging, and stuff like that. And that's why we program as personal trainers and strength coaches exercises that are in different planes of motion to optimize strength in all of those planes and optimize function. All right guys, I hope that was helpful for you.
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Thanks.