Infinite Endings: Beyond the planes of motion

What are the planes of motion? Sagittal, frontal, transverse…

These planes of motion help us to balance out our class in terms of what directions we are moving. When creating a class design we assume that if we have covered all the planes, we have created a balanced class (“Have we covered all three planes? OK, good class, nice and balanced.”).

But the body is not so simple and moves in many more ways.

Fascia – we could go into a whole discussion here. While there is much you could learn about fascia, just simply re-thinking your planes of motion can create big improvements in the health of the fascia.

In order to improve the health of the fascia, use NINE (9) Planes of Motion – created by Irene Dowd.

“Create postural change rather than just directional change.”

1. Lengthen the spine downward. “Exhale and draw the tailbone down. (“Lengthen the tailbone away from the crown of the head.”)
2. Shorten the distance between the pelvis and the 12th thoracic vertebrae. (“The Pilates Scoop.”)
3. Top of the sternum to the top of the spine. (“Walk as though you have a stack of books on your head.”)
4. Narrow the rib cage. (“Exhale and knit the ribs together.”)
5. Widen the back of the pelvis. Laying down… (“imagine you have jeans with pockets full of sand. Exhale and allow the sand to drift out of your pockets.”)
6. Narrow the front of the pelvis.   (“As you exhale, imagine zipping up your tight jeans.”)
7. Center of knee to center of femoral joint. (“Activate the thigh just like pressing on the accelerator of the car.”)
8. Big toe to heel. (“Short foot exercise.”)
9. Lengthen the central axis of the trunk upward.   (“Pretend you have a balloon attached to a string at the top of your head. Exhale and allow the balloon to float upward.”)

While utilizing all these planes of motion, we made adjustments to the skeleton, internally, without addressing any one muscle or muscle group (with the exception of the quads in the knee-femur activation).

Benefits of infinite endings and nine planes of motion:

• immediate improvements in alignment throughout the body, with fewer instructions.
• Clarity, providing more time to work on other things.
• Freedom for the student from so many instructions and maybe offers them a little SILENCE FROM YOU, so that they can experience class on their own.
• It’s that moment when you hit the right note, and you see the lights go on for your students, and you also get that moment of satisfaction too!

What did we use to do this?

IMAGERY.

mind.body.train.