Women should do full body strength workouts in all planes of motion. This will give you a great looking, toned, 3 dimensional body!
You should train planes of motion (or movements) and not just muscles. If you move like a strong robot, you have probably just built up your muscles without training movements. If your movements are not fluid, your body won’t look natural and you will end up with injuries.
You need your body parts to be “in tune” with each other. This way, you function as a “smooth-operating” woman with little or no wasted motion.
Your kinetic chain (human movement system) consists of the muscular system, skeletal system and neural system. Postural problems and muscle imbalances cause these systems to “malfunction” and you will end up injured.
You need your body to be operating smoothly in all 3 planes of motion:
1. Frontal Plane – imaginary bisector that divides the body into equal front and back halves. The motions primarily involve abduction and adduction (side-to-side motions). Abduction takes a limb away from the midline of the body and adduction takes the limb closer to the midline of the body. Examples include hip abductor and hip adductor exercises. Other frontal plane motions would be side lunges, dumbbell lateral shoulder raises and lateral spinal flexion. Quickness and agility movements require adequate frontal plane stability, strength, power, flexibility and balance.
2. Sagittal Plane – imaginary bisector that divides the body into left and right halves. The motions involve forward-backward and up-down movements relative to the body and/or joint. Examples would be walking, running, bicep curls, leg curls and seated back rows. Traditional training techniques (such as training with machine weights) have focused on the sagittal plane of motion. This is not an effective training technique if the other planes of motion are ignored during training.
3. Transverse Plane – imaginary bisector that divides the body into top and bottom halves. The motions are primarily rotational. You will do many turning, twisting and rotating movements during the day. You should train your body during exercise to perform these movements with strength and ease.
Are you making the progress you should be with your fat loss, weight loss and body toning? If not, do something about it now! Your exercise program should be designed and directed by a professional.
Be sure and download your Free 5-Day Fat Loss Course from Precision Nutrition:
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