We meet again anon! Last week we went over the basics of how to write a workout plan. I gave you all my personal workout schedule and we broke it down so you understand why I do the things I do. We also created an example of a workout that you can use if you are a complete beginner to lifting! If you haven’t read that post here is link for that:
Today I wanted to talk to you about the different ways in which our bodies move. If we can understand what our body is capable of we know where to put resistance to build even MORE strength and muscle. And if you are an experienced lifter and have gotten stuck in your routine, hopefully this can give you an idea of how to break into some new gains.
Also if you are participating in @BowTiedOx’s 90 Day Fitness challenge and have run out of supplements use these links below for the products I personally use.
Our body is more than just benching, squatting and deadlifting!
Are You Training with the Most Intensity?
Let’s be honest, your legs are not where you want them to be.
So you do squats and deadlifts to try make them bigger and stronger. After a couple months of increasing the weight on the bar you notice you’ve made a noticeable difference in muscle size and strength.
And that’s great! All gains are to be celebrated.
But you might have left some on the table because squats and deadlifts work in the transverse plane. You didn’t work your legs in the sagittal or coronal plane.
If those are the only main lifts you do for your legs then soon your legs will adapt and be challenged less over time. You need to hit the other functions of the legs as well to make the best gains possible.
Let me explain more below.
The Planes of the Body
There are 3 planes of the body that we primarily move in. The transverse plane which is up and down. The sagittal plane it the forward and backwards. And the coronal plane is left to right.
For your upper body you are mostly in the sagittal plane as you push and pull weights; and some movements in the coronal plane like adduction & abduction of the arms.
The upper body working in the transverse plane is unheard to me. If you can somehow do that please let me know.
Your lower body however can move literally in ALL planes.
So when you do only squats and deadlifts for your legs, you are missing TWO MAJOR movements that they’re capable of.
What about your upper body? Its almost the same thing. If you only press for your chest muscles you are moving in the sagittal plane. But the chest is capable of adduction or pushing your arms together. Adduction starts in the coronal plane if you didn’t know.
Or doing lateral raises and band pull aparts where both are done mostly in the coronal plane.
Lets talk more about how to train your lower body in the coronal and sagittal plane below.
Lower Body Training
The Squat and Deadlift strengthen the muscles responsible for extending the knees, ankles and hips because their movements are simply just standing up with a heavy weight attached to your body.
But what about the muscles that are responsible for adduction & abduction of the legs? You move side to side, forward and backwards on the regular everyday. So why should your leg training not include those movements?
So how do we train your legs in all planes? We just put weight or a form of resistance on you and do those everyday leg movements.
The first exercise is one my favorites because it is simple yet effective. The forward dumbbell lunge. However instead of just doing it in one spot I want you to walk forward with each rep.
This hits your legs in the sagittal plane since you are moving forward. Each time you want to move forward you have to push off the back leg and extend the front leg to get back to standing up straight.
Not only will it hit your legs in a way you are not used too but it also helps with leg muscle imbalances because one leg is used at a time.
The next is also simple. It is the dumbbell farmer’s carry. What better to train the legs then to make walking harder? This is done in the sagittal plane as you can see.
This exercise involves you walking with heavy weights in your hand. This lights up your entire lower body because now it has to stay stable while moving forward with a heavy weight swinging on each side of the body. The best way to do these is to walk slowly and squeeze every muscle in the legs on every rep.
You also get the benefit of stronger hands as well from carrying weights for long periods of time.
Next are lateral band walks. If you’ve never really felt your glutes working I promise you they will after this. This is done in the coronal plane as you are moving side to side.
All you need is a resistance band wrapped around your legs in some way. The higher the band the easier it is to spread your legs and the opposite for them being lower.
So put them lower if you want a glute challenge.
You can do this in multiple ways. You can stand in one place and push one leg out to the side one at a time. Or you can walk laterally aka left or right to get the same affect.
These work out the abductors in your legs; the muscles that spread your legs apart. These along with your adductors need to be worked on if you want the most out your legs.
Another exercise I like for building those legs is the weighted sled. If your gym doesn’t have one. Get a new gym. Another one for the sagittal plane in this exercise.
But seriously if you don’t have a sled to push around you can do sprints up a hill or any steep surface. They will definitely increase the explosive strength for your legs just like a sled does.
Your legs are the strongest muscles in your body. That means they can move extremely heavy loads quickly which is exactly what pushing or pulling a heavy sled does. When pushing you have to push each leg into the ground and extend in order to move the weight.
If you are pulling the sled you are going to definitely run with a heavy weight attached to you which also builds explosive strength and great cardio.
The last one here is called the side lunge. If you dont have much hip or ankle mobiility at all then you can switch to the banded walks if these are too uncomfortable for you. Again you are hitting the legs in the coronal plane here.
Just like the banded walks these hit the muscles that are responsible for abduction of the legs like your glute medius. To do these you start with your feet much wider than your shoulders. Then on each leg squat down in that direction then stand back up.
You will feel your glutes firing up to keep your lower body stable while doing this exercise. Load these up with dumbbells if bodyweight isn’t challenging.
Well those are some exercises that you can do to increase your size and strength gains for your lower body. As well as learning the importance of moving in multiple directions like nature intended.
It can be easy to get stuck in our old ways but we need to break out of them to find the best success for our goals.
Until next week Anon. Stay safe lifting. Titan out.
FYI as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through this affiliate link. These products come at no extra cost to you. Nothing on this post is medical advice since I am not a doctor. Talk to your doctor before taking any actions. I am just a Titan who lifts a lot.