BEFORE we begin with this week's workout, here's a bit of scientific context. The body has three planes of movement:
Sagittal, which cuts the body into half into the left and right sides. Movements along this plane go from front to back.
Frontal, which cuts the body in half into the front and back sides. Movements along this plane go from side to side.
Transverse, which cuts the body in half into the top half and bottom half. Movements along this plane are twists.
Sagittal plane exercises in the gym are most common. Bench presses, rows, situps, pushups, bicep curls, triceps presses — basically anything where we're pushing to the front or pulling to the rear. Meanwhile, exercises like lateral lunges or side shuffles take care of the frontal plane.
Transverse movements are usually what gets lost in the programming, because these involve rotation and resisting rotation (or what we call anti-rotation). These movements help build your core. Think about the muscles of the core and how they are supposed to brace your trunk and anchor your position. You can't do that if your core is weak. So it makes sense to train and build your capacity with transverse moves.
Here's a few rotational and anti-rotation exercises that you can try. Make sure that when you are doing the anti-rotation exercises, brace your core as you extend and really resist that rotation going back to the weight stack. Also, pick a weight that allows you to do this and increase gradually.
Here's the Rotation/Anti-Rotation Workout.
Pallof Press (anti-rotation), 10 reps, 3 sets.
Standing Cable Rotations, 10 reps, 3 sets.
Half-kneeling Diagonal Cable Chops, 10 reps, 3 sets.
Standing Diagonal Cable Lifts, 10 reps, 3 sets.
Side Plank with Row, 10 reps, 3 sets.
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