Do You Train Clients in All Three Planes of Movement?
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By Sal | November 4, 2009
[caption id="attachment_629" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Personal training client performing rotational training"]
[/caption]Life happens fast and in all different directions, and I don’t just mean time goes by quickly and has you dealing with diverse responsibilities. You have to run to catch the train or to catch up with your toddler (or grandkid) and bend to pick them up, you slip and regain your balance in the blink of an eye and need to carry items, walk up and down stairs, change directions and multi-task physically.
People need to prepare their bodies, train, in all three planes of movement - frontal, sagittal and transverse – at different speeds. Most people work in the sagittal plane(but usually just moving forward), fewer people work in the frontal plane and scant few do any work in the transverse plane. From my observations, the vast majority of personal trainers do not have their clients perform movements in all three planes in any kind of dynamic, real world manner.
One of the major reasons personal trainers and strength coaches should have their clients perform ground-based, compound movements is because they allow movements in all three planes. Life doesn’t happen sitting down and it doesn’t happen in one plane either.
Personal trainers need to have clients crawl, roll, sprint, jump, hop, shuffle, back pedal and rotate. Clients should lunge, bend and twist – sometimes all at the same time. These movements develop coordination and balance, two skills that everyone needs to work on, because they engage the nervous system. Machines do nothing to develop these skills because machine-based exercises train muscles.
Training should focus on movements and not individual muscles. The nervous system does not distinguish between individual muscles, but does respond to and recognize movements.
Strength coaches and personal trainers can effectively have clients train in all three planes of movement without the need for equipment. Inexpensive tools such as medicine balls, Indian clubs, a weight vest, sand bag and/or a weighted bar can be used to add difficulty and intensity to “three plane workouts” and improve clients’ fitness.
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