Three Dimensions of Movement

The body is capable of moving through three planes of motion – forward to back, side to side and turning right and left.  Any functional movement is going to be a composite of these planes, yet stretches or exercises are typically performed through just one plane or uni-planar.  Although everyone could benefit from multi-planar (or movement through more than one plane) stretching and training, people who play rotational sports such as golf, tennis, or baseball should pay close attention to exercising in functional movements rather than traditional single plane training.

An important aspect of life is the ability to rotate hips, lumbar spine, thoracic spine, and cervical spine all independent of each other.  If you notice when you walk, your opposite arm and leg should be moving forward with each step.  This creates rotation of the thoracic spine and hips that goes unnoticed most of the time.  The body is incredible at compensating and will ‘make up’ for a loss of rotation by creating extra movement in another area such as the knees or lumbar spine.  As you can imagine, years of additional stress placed on body parts that are not supposed to endure that force, will result in degenerative changes (i.e. arthritis), disc herniations, or other medical problems.

When exercising, think about the four main functional muscle groups – the push muscles, the pull muscles, the chop muscles, and the lift muscles.  Rarely in life do we push or pull while sitting down and moving just our arms.  Rather, the movement should be a combination of using the muscles in the arms, back/chest, and legs to create the desired motion.  The summative movement will occur through all three planes – forward and back, side to side, and rotating.

Rarely will someone stretch through the three planes of movement because we have always been taught the “easy” way to simply bend down and touch our toes.  The intimidating cage looking apparatus in Medford is a wonderful way to combine your arms, legs, and body to create a more efficient stretch that will elongate all muscle fibers.  Now, rather than simply bend down, we can combine rotation and side bending to create a three dimensional movement that will better prepare the body for any functional activities such as walking, gardening or even getting up from a chair.

The personal trainers and physical therapists at Breakthru are all experts in tri-planar exercises and movements.  By investing in one personal training session, you can usually walk away with a more knowledgeable and more effective training program that will keep you healthier.  Any athletes or parents of athletes would be wise to make an appointment with an expert to find ways to use sport specific functional training to minimize risk of injury as well as maximize performance and efficiency.

I know that winter just began, but I already cannot wait to get back out in the sun and run, play golf or have a catch.  Until then, I will be training and stretching through the three dimensions of movement to improve my efficiency and function while biding my time until spring.