Any movement you perform that\u2019s broadly parallel to any of those body planes is considered to occur in that plane of motion.<\/p>\n
Confused? Stick with us.<\/p>\n
1. The sagittal (longitudinal) plane: forward, march<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n
The plane we encounter most often in life \u2014 and probably the one that\u2019s easiest to understand \u2014 is the sagittal, or longitudinal plane. This is the plane that cuts you in half vertically at your center line, separating the left and right sides of your body.<\/p>\n
Any movement where your limbs or spine move along this line \u2014 or parallel to it \u2014 is considered sagittal, or longitudinal. (Sagittal derives from a Latin word meaning \u201carcher.\u201d Picture shooting an arrow from a bow at a faraway target, and you get the idea.)<\/p>\n
Movements in the sagittal plane:<\/strong><\/p>\n Many classic gym moves are considered sagittal-plane-dominant: lunges, squats, curls, crunches, sit-ups, and push-ups. In these exercises, your arms, legs, or spine all move parallel to that central, sagittal plane. (Front and back flips are also sagittal.)<\/p>\n Day-to-day moves like walking \u2014 where your arms and legs swing forward and back \u2014 are also mostly sagittal. It\u2019s the plane most of us are most comfortable in.<\/p>\n From a therapeutic, or anatomical perspective, flexion and extension \u2014 curling the spine forward or bending backward \u2014 are classic examples of sagittal movement.<\/p>\n Tougher to picture but equally important is the frontal or coronal plane. This is the plane that runs vertically through the body, one side to the other, and separates the front and back sides of your body.<\/p>\n Picture yourself standing on a narrow ledge with the entire back side of your body \u2014 heels, calves, glutes, upper back, elbows, the backs of your hands and the back of your head \u2014 pressed against a wall. Any move you can make while maintaining those contact points is a frontal plane move.<\/p>\n Movements in the frontal plane:<\/strong><\/p>\n Frontal plane movements include the side-step, or side shuffle, extending your arms out to the sides, tilting your head left and right, or side-bending your entire torso one way or the other. If you\u2019re agile and brave, cartwheels also occur in the frontal plane.<\/p>\n The lateral-shuffle movements in sports like basketball and tennis, are all frontal. Side-lunging is also a frontal movement.<\/p>\n Anatomically, abduction \u2014 or raising your arm or leg away from your center line \u2014 is a frontal plane move.<\/p>\n The final plane of motion is one we don\u2019t think about much, even though we move through it all the time. It\u2019s the plane that runs parallel to the floor, also known as the transverse or axial plane.<\/p>\n This plane encompasses rotation around your vertical axis. A ballet dancer\u2019s pirouette is a classic example: Her entire body is turning around a single, still point.<\/p>\n Movements in the transverse plane:<\/strong><\/p>\n We often see transverse plane movement in warmups \u2014 hip circles, neck rolls, ankle circles, and trunk rotations are all good examples. Some core movements \u2014 such as Russian twists or bicycle crunches \u2014 are transverse-plane dominant, as are many of the rotating stretches in yoga.<\/p>\n Many of the most powerful athletic moves you can do, such as swinging a bat or a racquet, throwing a discus, or executing a roundhouse kick or a hook punch in MMA, are transverse plane moves; if you want to generate power, the transverse plane is your ticket.<\/p>\n Anatomically, rotating any joint along an axis is a transverse plane move.<\/p>\n Jargon alert: The following terms \u2014 usually used in medical or therapeutic settings \u2014 describe various locations, directions, and types of movement on the body. In all cases, assume that you\u2019re referencing a person standing upright with their palms rotated forward, thumbs pointing outwards:<\/p>\n When you\u2019re designing a workout program for yourself \u2014 particularly if your goals include athletic performance, pain reduction, and longevity \u2014 it\u2019s beneficial to consider the planes of motion in which your exercises occur, not just about the muscles you\u2019re training.<\/p>\n By now you know that most gym movements \u2014 and workout programs \u2014 are sagittally dominant (just stroll by the cardio area in any gym and the proof is right there). This isn\u2019t bad \u2014 running, stair climbing, squatting, lunging, and cycling are all great exercises.<\/p>\n But such sagittal movements don\u2019t fully stimulate your stabilizing muscles, particularly in your lower body. Over time this can lead to injury. So you\u2019ll likely extend your healthspan in the fitness trenches by including some frontal and transverse plane movements in every workout as well.<\/p>\n Workout programs on BODi are all designed to move you through the three planes of motion while emphasizing compound (multi-joint) exercises, helping you feel fit and strong in everyday life.<\/p>\n The planes-of-motion model isn\u2019t exact; no human movement occurs exclusively in a single plane of motion, and you could probably quibble with the categorization of nearly any movement.<\/p>\n An overhand-grip pull-up, for instance, could be described as a sagittal move because the elbows travel forward relative to the trunk. But if your elbows tend to travel outwards instead of forward, that makes it more of a frontal-plane move.<\/p>\n Our bodies aren\u2019t made up of right angles, straight lines, or hard edges. Every time you take a step forward or back \u2014 a sagittally-dominant movement \u2014 the joints of your knees, ankles, and hips also move subtly in the frontal and transverse planes to absorb forces traveling up through your skeleton. Every movement you perform occurs on all three planes.<\/p>\n The answer to this quandary? Don\u2019t worry about it. Planes of motion are approximate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Picture a gymnast performing a floor routine. Their options for movement are almost infinite \u2014 they can run, flip, cartwheel, leap, or twist. Any move they make, however, can be broken down into three broad categories of movement, which anatomists describe using the three planes of motion: They might move forward or backward or shuffle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4003,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. The frontal (coronal) plane: left, right, and center<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n3. The transverse (axial) plane: twist and shout<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nAnatomical Terms<\/h2>\n
Directional terms<\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n Anterior<\/strong><\/td>\n Towards the front side of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n \n\n Posterior<\/strong><\/td>\n Towards the rear of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Deep<\/strong><\/td>\n Farther from the surface of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Superficial<\/strong><\/td>\n Closer to the surface of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Distal<\/strong><\/td>\n Farther from the center of the body or the origin of a body part (i.e., The ankle is distal to the knee, while the toe is distal to the ankle.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Proximal<\/strong><\/td>\n Closer to the center of the body or the origin of a body part (i.e., The shoulder is proximal to the elbow, while the elbow is proximal to the wrist.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Inferior<\/strong><\/td>\n Towards the feet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Superior<\/strong><\/td>\n Towards the head<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Lateral<\/strong><\/td>\n Away from the center line of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Medial<\/strong><\/td>\n Towards the center line of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Median<\/strong><\/td>\n The midline of the body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Movement terms<\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n Abduction<\/strong><\/td>\n The moving of a limb away from the center line of the body (i.e., from standing, raising your arm out to the side)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n \n\n Adduction<\/strong><\/td>\n The moving of a limb towards the center line of the body (i.e., from standing, lowering your arm from an overhead position back to your waist)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Eversion<\/strong><\/td>\n The lateral rolling of your feet (i.e., towards their outside edges)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Inversion<\/strong><\/td>\n The medial rolling of your feet (i.e., towards their inside edges)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Extension<\/strong><\/td>\n The opening or straightening of a joint (i.e., straightening your arm at the elbow)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Flexion<\/strong><\/td>\n The bending or closing of a joint (i.e., bending your knee)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n External Rotation<\/strong><\/td>\n The turning of a limb away from the center line of the body (i.e., from standing, rotating your leg at the hip joint so that your foot turns outwards)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Internal Rotation<\/strong><\/td>\n The turning of a limb towards the center line of the body (i.e., from standing, rotating your leg at the hip joint so that your foot turns inwards)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Pronation<\/strong><\/td>\n The turning of a hand or foot medially, or towards the center line (i.e., turning your hands palm down or putting weight on the inside of your foot)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Supination<\/strong><\/td>\n The turning of a hand or foot laterally, or away from your center line (i.e., turning your hands palm down or putting weight on the outside of the foot)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Why Should You Learn the Planes of Motion?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nA Caveat to the Planes of Motion<\/h2>\n