Spilling Over: Classic Movement Compensations Revealed

3 Planes of Movement 

     It is difficult for me to frequent establishments that house a great deal of people like Malls, Amusement Parks, and Sporting Events. The reason is I have an untreatable and debilitating disease called "movement watcher syndrome". I can't help watching people move, or not move better yet. Curiously though I am noticing trends that somewhat simplify the obscurity associated with objectifying human movement.

     Classically, we are trained to evaluate joint movement, muscle pliability, and if you are a movement geek, like myself, you may even assess one's fascial function as a whole unit. These are all suitable and accepted means of critically breaking down biomechanical faults to provide us with some clarity on the next step in correcting any faults. To be honest, I have been a proponent of all of the above, isolating when necessary, integrating when appropriate, and a combination of the both. Just recently, I analyzed my methodology with a wider lens and as a friend and colleague of mine often says, I took a 30,000 foot view of the problem. By doing so, I expanded my reach even more than even the generalists. Rather than looking at muscles/joints, or chains of muscles and joints, I started to move away from dissecting the body and began to dissect movement. Being the simple mind that I am, I just attempted to break movement down into its pieces and came up with a method to the madness, at least for me. Every movement has three distinct patterns, sometimes used in isolation, but most often a collaboration that produces efficient and fluid synergies. The patterns I am alluding to are the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes of movement. Breakdown walking and you will be able to identify the dominant sagittal plane pattern with a contribution of the frontal and transverse systems. You can do this with any movement you are interested in from cycling to swimming, identify the most efficient pattern to be able to use as a standard and then it to effectively and efficiently evaluate dysfunctional patterns. I typically look for dysfunctional movements that spill over into secondary and tertiary planes away from the dominant pattern. For example, a squat predominantly plays in the sagittal plane with contributions from the frontal and transverse patterns. If I assess a squat that continually spills into one or both of the latter two planes, I have a plan of action to take. First, place the individual in the most appropriate environment to be successful in acquiring the balance between establishing the dominant plane of movement while controlling the other two. In respect to the squat, I may regress them to a supported squat (using a Theraband) and coach them to keep sagittal plane control while resisting the frontal and transverse plane spillage. The cool thing is when you address the planar faults, you also effect the muscle, joint, and biomechanical dysfunctions as well. How cool is that? Granted, there may be some need for other forms of treatment/correction like flossing, rolling, and mobilizing, but movement correction is the currency the brain understands so why not start there.

Planar Dysfunction Evaluation

     At Rock Tape, we also take this approach in our movement assessment component of our FMT curriculum. We look for spillage into patterns (planes) of dysfunction associated with the respective movement and tape the nervous system to communicate the fault in order to make the appropriate and immediate adjustment. Train the brain, via the skin, and good things happen. To groove the pattern, take the sensory rich (Rock Tape) athlete into the gym and make them repeat the corrective exercise of choice with the minimally effective dose (MED). Its that simple. Well, not really.

Off to the Mall. Wish me Luck.

Capo's two pennies.