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Balancing Planes of Motion

Started by Josh Schmitter, September 9, 2012 · 3 Replies · 45 Views

Josh Schmitter

I figured I'd just 'keep the question ball rolling' as Sisyphus would say...I mean really, what else does he got going on?

I have read several places about keeping a balance on planes of motion, usually emphasizing Horizontal/Vertical pulling for shoulder health. Following the template from the seminar, you wouldn't end up working pull ups until after all your row variations...dips after all pushup variations, etc. That is potentially 7 cycles before ever doing a standard pullup.

So is the plane of motion balance not really an issue in the beginning stages...as in only once you go through all the row variations and make it to pulls(and more advanced) that it becomes more of a problem(i.e should I be doing some band assisted pullup work to balance out all the rowing). Side question, is this more of an issue with pulling rather than pushing? Just trying to understand how it all comes together. Thanks in advance.

Cole Dano

There are a couple of things going on there.

I'm sure you've noticed that with body weight exercise, very often the horizontal plane movements take less strength. A push up is easier than a dip, and a row is easier than a pull up. But being able to do the push up variations will contribute to your ability to do dips etc.

So for the most part the progressions are lain out according to how much strength they take to perform.

Now once you move on to doing dips, you can still maintain your push ups simply by doing some as a warm up or finisher, and thereby keep the balance, while increasing your strength.

Nic Branson

Cole's got it down. You're building patterns as you move up. A well designed warm up or finishing cool down can shore up concerns.

Josh Schmitter

That is basically what I had originally thought, but as per usual, I assumed it must be much more complex :). Many thanks.