Six Planes of Motion.

Same images I’ve used in a prior entry. Except this time, I’m actually going to use them. This is an entry I’ve had in my head for a while. I’m going to discuss the six plains of motion. I fear this will end up being dreadfully boring, so I’ll just keep it simple. My secondary motivation is to correctly spell gastrocnemius. Yes. Gastrocnemius. I think I got it.

Let me just reiterate that I’m hardly a professional. I’m just a guy who’s discovered a hobby. As such, any information given should be taken with an open mind, and pants zipped. Or down, whatever.

When I started working out, I didn’t really understand how the body worked. I didn’t realize just how few muscles there are. You can think up a million ways to move your body, but most of these movements can be reduced into about one of six, three push and three pull.

You want to move something up over your head. Push your hands up. Congratulations, you just did a variation of a shoulder press. This works your deltoids and your triceps. (I don’t care about the different heads of the deltoids right now.)

You want to push something away from you, outward, like a lawnmower. Bench press or push-up. Pectoralis Major and triceps.

You happen to have a small child clinging to your back, and you want to stand up. You push with your legs upward. That hits your quadriceps and gluteus maximus.

You happen to be clinging to the side of a building and need to pull yourself up top. Pull-up or lat pull. If it’s hard to realize what’s happening, consider the motion of the upper arm, as it’s moving downward towards the body. This uses the latissimus dorsi and bicep.

You’re pulling a door. Some type of row. Rear deltoid and bicep.

There’s a small child on the ground in front of you. You grab the child and pull your body up. You just did a deadlift. (Relatively speaking.) Gluteus maximus, quadriceps, and the erector spinea to some degree.

That’s it. Just six exercises to cover all the major muscles. Toss in some abwork and maybe some calf raises (to hit the.. gastrocnemius), and you have a solid full-body workout that will kick your ass. Of course there are odd muscles like the hip adductors or all the wrist flexors. Our trapezoids and rhomboids. But I consider these stabilizing muscles that will most likely keep up with whatever the rest of our body is doing. This is why I don’t wear gloves when I work out, nor a belt.

Heh, I should take pictures of myself and label all the muscles. I think that would edumacate people muchly. Like I did for my penis that one time…

For these “big muscles”, compound exercises are best. Doing a bicep curls are a waste of time. Sitting in a pec fly machine is a waste of time. How often do our muscles work in isolation? They don’t. They all work as a unit. Overemphasising muscles can lead to imbalances. What good are biceps if they don’t have strong rear deltoids or latissimus dorsi to complement them? This is why I scoff at anybody in the gym doing cable/barbell/freeweight/preacher bicep curls. There are so many other muscles on the body.

To recap:

Overhead Press: deltoids, triceps
Bench Press: Pectoralis Major, triceps
Squat: quadriceps, gluteus maximus
pull-up: latissimus dorsi, bicep
row: rear deltoids, bicep
deadlift: gluteus maximus, quadriceps, erector spinea
sit-ups: rectus abdominus
calf raises: gastrocnemius

And for those that just can’t get the visuals:

Overhead Press
Bench Press
Squat
Pull-up
Row
Deadlift
Sit-up
Calf Raise

Exrx.net is awesome.

I think I’m done. Until I think of something else exermacise related to exermababble about.