By Tim Jones

This month we are going to dive back into the discussion of human function and hopefully go one step further into helping you understand the definition of ‘function’ in relation to your fitness.To do this, in the next few issues we are going to talk in more detail about what are known as the litmus tests of function.

The litmus tests are what a true function coach will use to help them ‘step back’ and constantly assess what is going on in order to help them accurately create an exercise programme that facilitates the coach/patients desired function – whether it be improved performance in a certain sport (such as golf or tennis), rehabilitate an injury that is inhibiting them in some way, or even lose weight.

Therefore it is important that an exercise should not be termed functional unless it passes all of these litmus tests.

One of the most vital litmus tests for function is whether or not an exercise is utilising all three planes of movement. The three planes of movement are explained below:

When I was first learning about human movement my university lecturer always used to say that if you imagine the body being cut open with a circular saw then it could be cut in one of three ways -sagittal, frontal or transverse.

If you cut the body front to back so you had a left and a right side, the cutting movement would be ‘sagittal’. If it was cut the from one side to the other so you had a front and a back, the cutting movement would be ‘frontal’ and if the saw cut the body across your trunk so there was a top and a bottom half it would have been a ‘transverse’ cutting movement.

At all joints in the body and in all muscles, these three planes of movement are utilised to create a specific function such as gait. This is explained below:

When you observe the movement of the body during gait (walking) it appears as if the movement is predominantly sagittal based, since you move in a forward direction when you walk. But if you could tear off the skin and look a little closer at the hips and pelvis, you would realise very quickly that the hips move in the frontal and transverse planes to create the sagittal movement of walking. This realisation will help you to understand that if the other two planes of movement are so important in walking or running, then why do we not focus on these planes of movement more in our exercise programmes?

If you consider that 90% of all knee injuries occur in the frontal and transverse planes, as an external force is applied to the knee, it is therefore apparant that a prehabilitation programme that works in all three planes of movement to stress the knee would be very wise!

An exercise programme that is solely saggital based (such as your average gym workout) is relatively limited. Why not try including some frontal and transverse based movements into your normal exercises to stress the body in all three planes? If you think about it, when working this way you are applying forces in three different ways. Your muscles will have to recruit 3 times more fibres to stabilise the joints under stress, or create the movement that you desire – and this will mean that you will have a much greater physiological response of muscle hypertrophy. In laymans terms, you will get results much faster!

Example: Try a walking lunge exercise with a dumb bell. Swing it from your left hip over your right shoulder as you lunge and repeat on both sides. Not only will you be working within the three planes of movement you will be stressing the body through the forces of gravity, ground reaction force and momentum.

Visit www.tjfpersonaltraining.com for more information on functional training.This month we are going to dive back into the discussion of human function and hopefully go one step further into helping you understand the definition of ‘function’ in relation to your fitness.To do this, in the next few issues we are going to talk in more detail about what are known as the litmus tests of function.

The litmus tests are what a true function coach will use to help them ‘step back’ and constantly assess what is going on in order to help them accurately create an exercise programme that facilitates the coach/patients desired function – whether it be improved performance in a certain sport (such as golf or tennis), rehabilitate an injury that is inhibiting them in some way, or even lose weight.

Therefore it is important that an exercise should not be termed functional unless it passes all of these litmus tests.

One of the most vital litmus tests for function is whether or not an exercise is utilising all three planes of movement. The three planes of movement are explained below:

When I was first learning about human movement my university lecturer always used to say that if you imagine the body being cut open with a circular saw then it could be cut in one of three ways -sagittal, frontal or transverse.

If you cut the body front to back so you had a left and a right side, the cutting movement would be ‘sagittal’. If it was cut the from one side to the other so you had a front and a back, the cutting movement would be ‘frontal’ and if the saw cut the body across your trunk so there was a top and a bottom half it would have been a ‘transverse’ cutting movement.

At all joints in the body and in all muscles, these three planes of movement are utilised to create a specific function such as gait. This is explained below:

When you observe the movement of the body during gait (walking) it appears as if the movement is predominantly sagittal based, since you move in a forward direction when you walk. But if you could tear off the skin and look a little closer at the hips and pelvis, you would realise very quickly that the hips move in the frontal and transverse planes to create the sagittal movement of walking. This realisation will help you to understand that if the other two planes of movement are so important in walking or running, then why do we not focus on these planes of movement more in our exercise programmes?

If you consider that 90% of all knee injuries occur in the frontal and transverse planes, as an external force is applied to the knee, it is therefore apparant that a prehabilitation programme that works in all three planes of movement to stress the knee would be very wise!

An exercise programme that is solely saggital based (such as your average gym workout) is relatively limited. Why not try including some frontal and transverse based movements into your normal exercises to stress the body in all three planes? If you think about it, when working this way you are applying forces in three different ways. Your muscles will have to recruit 3 times more fibres to stabilise the joints under stress, or create the movement that you desire – and this will mean that you will have a much greater physiological response of muscle hypertrophy. In laymans terms, you will get results much faster!

Example: Try a walking lunge exercise with a dumb bell. Swing it from your left hip over your right shoulder as you lunge and repeat on both sides. Not only will you be working within the three planes of movement you will be stressing the body through the forces of gravity, ground reaction force and momentum.

About the Author: Visit

tjfpersonaltraining.com

for more information on functional training.

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