There is a lot of talk these days in the movement and rehab field on how to achieve optimal function in all three planes.
It is relatively easy to decipher whether or not someone is competent in individual planes through reverse engineering; using passive or sensory motor tests to determine if they can achieve the axial position that is required for each plane to be explored. However if we want to “re-engineer” that person to behave, experience, and move in a triplanar manner, we need to extrapolate our thinking. Yes, it can be beneficial in communicative terms, to categorize our exercise interventions on plane dominance.
A hinge is sagittal.
A side lunge is frontal.
A medicine ball throw is transverse.
However, a hinge is also frontal and transverse. A side lunge sagittal and transverse. And a medicine ball sagittal and frontal. Every muscle should work in an oblique manner. Every joint should experience triplanar motion. Every brain should recognize, sense, and explore 3-dimensional space.
The problem lays in getting an individual who no longer recognizes, senses, or explores those three planes of movement to actually achieve that sensory motor and mechanical experience. There is, after all, a reason a client has devolved from an organism that was born to move fluidly and efficiently, to an organism that has self-restricted its experience to a limited expression of those three cardinal planes. That discussion can take many forms, from anatomical, chemical, neurological, to psychological and beyond. However, at the end of the day, our end product is to regain an interoceptive and exteroceptive neurological awareness of reality in those three planes. Biomechanically, this means an axial skeleton that is in a position in space to achieve unrestricted movement in a triplanar manner.
In my opinion, a foundational movement pattern that can be used to bring someone into a high level of triplanar awareness and function is the cable chop. In order to execute properly, you must be able to establish positional alignment of the pelvis, thorax, and cranium, as well as establish disassociation of those three axial structures throughout the movement sequence. The only way to achieve this, is to have an axial skeleton that is in the correct position to move sequentially through all three planes at once.
In the following section I will lay out a brief overview of 4 progressions of this movement.
- Tall Kneeling
- Knees hip width apart
- Pelvis in neutral position (cue: reach back hip pockets towards the floor until hamstrings are felt)
- Rib cage stacked on top of the pelvis in space (cue: exhale until you feel your ribs rotate down, back, and in, and your internal obliques engage through that expiratory motion)
- Head stacked on top of thorax (cue: keep neck loose through pelvic and rib cage positioning)
- Grab the cable over right shoulder, with long arms, keeping the previous positions, and feeling the rib cage rotate right, right IOs engage more, and the axial skeleton stacked on top of each other (head, thorax, pelvis)
- Rotate your head left, looking over your left shoulder, without losing thorax positioning
- Inhale, and on exhale pull the rope down and across to the left hip, feeling ribcage rotate left, left IOs engage, and neck remain loose
- Remain exhaling until you return arms to the start
- Perform your desired reps, then repeat on the left.
Exercise is demonstrated in the first video above.
- ½ kneeling with AFIR (Acetabulum on Femur Internal Rotation) start
- Right leg forward, back knee down, in a ½ kneeling position with the knees hip width apart
- Pelvis in neutral position (cue: reach back hip pockets towards the floor until hamstrings are felt)
- Rib cage stacked on top of the pelvis in space (cue: exhale until you feel your ribs rotate down, back, and in, and your internal obliques engage through that expiratory motion)
- Head stacked on top of thorax (cue: keep neck loose through pelvic and rib cage positioning)
- Dig the front heel down, and leverage the floor down and backwards, engaging the hamstring
- Make the crease in the right hip deeper by keeping the femur still, and rotating the pelvis around the femur (left hip translates forward, right hip backwards). Feel right inner thigh engage. Keep back pockets down!
- Grab the cable over right shoulder, keeping the previous positions, and feeling the rib cage rotate right, right IOs engage more, and sagittal position remain the same throughout the axial skeleton
- Rotate your head left, looking over your left shoulder, without losing thorax positioning
- Inhale, and on exhale pull the rope down and across to the left hip, feeling ribcage rotate left, left IOs engage, and neck remain loose. As this occurs, reach your right knee forward, engaging your right gluteus maximus, and feeling your “zipper” rotate left, forming a crease in your left hip and losing the crease in your right hip. This should result in your right arch pronating into the floor.
- Remain exhaling until you return to the start
Exercise is demonstrated in the first video above.
- ½ kneeling with AFIR finish
- Setup in position 9 of the previous exercise, however with the cable over the left shoulder, with head rotated right. (Right glute, left abs, left rib rotation, left adductor/hamstring).
- Inhale, and on exhale pull the cable down and across the right hip, achieving step 6 from the previous exercise (right inner thigh, hamstring, heel, right rib rotation with right abs)
- Remain exhaling until your return to the start.
Exercise is demonstrated in the second video above.
- Standing rear AFIR to lead AFIR
- Standing in a bilateral stance, with feet shoulder width apart, perform a posterior pelvic tilt with complimentary exhalation to obtain anterior abs, shift your weight to your right foot, sensing your heel, outside edge, and 1st MTP (supination)
- Grab the cable over right shoulder, keeping the previous positions, and feeling the rib cage rotate right, right IOs engage more, and sagittal position remain the same throughout the axial skeleton
- Rotate your head left, looking over your left shoulder, without losing thorax positioning
- Inhale, and on exhale pull the rope down and across to the left hip, feeling ribcage rotate left, left IOs engage, and neck remain loose. As this occurs, reach your right knee forward while pushing into the floor with your right arch, and shift into your left hip, engaging your right gluteus maximus, and feelingly your “zipper” rotate left, forming a crease in your left hip (left adductor) and losing the crease in your right hip
- The weight should now be on your left heel, outside edge, and 1st MTP.
- Remain exhaling until you return to the start position.
Exercise is demonstrated in the second video above.
About Colby Mamigonian
Colby is a New Hampshire native living in New York City. He currently is an independent trainer, and a physical preparation coach for elite junior and professional tennis players. A student of all things in relation to human performance and well being, Colby works to integrate PRI teachings, neuroscience, and psychological concepts in conjunction with applied physiology and anatomy with his clients and athletes to improve their movement behavior.
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