Has this ever happened to you? You’re pulling the groceries in your car, just doing what you’ve always done, and all of a sudden your back spasms up. Or perhaps you’ve reached into the back seat of your car from the front seat and you feel like a knife just shot through your chest or maybe your back. Maybe you’ve been standing in line, someone calls your name, and when you turn you get a searing pain through the front of your hips, perhaps your hip flexor.

It happens. Versions of that have happened to me in the past, so I am not shaking my finger at you if this has happened to you. Today’s episode goes describes what is happening when this happens, and how to prevent tweaks like that in the future. It all starts with your transverse plane and doing transverse exercises. 

We are in part six of a series called B.COMPLETE, which focuses on all the ways we want to take care of our body as we age. So far we’ve covered balance, core, mini muscles, pause, and lengthening. If you missed any of those, make sure you go back and listen.

Today’s B.COMPLETE focus is TE in the acronym for “Transverse Exercises.” Let’s dig into what I mean by that..

What are transverse exercises?

Our body has three different planes of motions: sagittal, frontal, and transverse.

The sagittal plane is an imaginary line that runs through the middle of the body and divides the body into the left and the right side. It is also the plane that we spend a lot of our time in while we work out (think squats, push-ups, standing rows). If we think about our daily activities, this is also where we spend a lot of our time, as it includes walking and sitting.

The frontal plane is an imaginary line that goes through the middle of the body sideways and divides the body into the front and back, or the anterior and the posterior side. If you’ve ever done a side lunge, you’ve performed a frontal plane.

The transverse plane divides the body into top and bottom planes. It runs perpendicular to both the frontal and sagittal plane. This plane is responsible for rotation movements and exercises. We often use the transverse abdominus and gluteus muscles when we are doing a transverse movement.

Transverse exercises are those that utilize the transverse plane. Often they are rotational but basically they take one side of your body to the other side.

Why do we need to do transverse exercises as we age?

The purpose of this B.COMPLETE series is to discuss the various areas we should focus on as we get older. In each episode I’m giving you some simple and actionable ways to do this, and if you want more, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase an online on-demand class called B.COMPLETE where you can integrate all of these elements. 

Here are three reasons to incorporate transverse movements for women over 40:

1. Often will strengthen the transverse abdominals, which help with stability and balance. As we discussed in episode one of this series, balance is one of those things that naturally declines with age. We see age-related declines in the vestibular (inner ear), visual, somatosensory, musculoskeletal and central nervous system, as well as orthopedic issues and cognitive impairments, all contribute to a deterioration in balance. If you haven’t listened to the balance episode, go back and tune in for some applicable ways to focus on your balance.
2. When we repeatedly move in the same direction (most often in that frontal plane when we walk, bike, sit, run, etc), our muscles become overused, then tight, and can restrict their ability to move properly while recruiting all the other right muscles. This is a very simplified explanation of something called altered reciprocal inhibition but the result is injury.
3. Our connective tissue can lose the ability to effectively store and release mechanical energy over the course of the normal biological aging process. That’s a mouthful, I know. Basically, failure to train in different directions prohibits your muscle, fascia and connective tissues from remaining pliable and elastic, which allows your joints to move in their full capacity. When we can’t move in our full range of motion, you guessed it: injury. And it’s not crazy gym workouts that cause the injury. It’s bringing in  the groceries, picking up little kids, or even getting out of the car. If you’ve ever tweaked your back and thought “but I wasn’t doing anything!” chances are it was connective tissue related. We haven’t talked much about connective tissue on this podcast YET, but I mentioned it some in last week’s lengthening episode. I’ve also already recorded an outstanding interview with Sue Hitzman, who is a connective tissue expert, founder of the Fascial Research Society, and will blow your mind with her knowledge about connective tissue. Stay tuned and make sure you subscribe to this show to hear that episode this fall.

How to integrate transverse movements into your daily living and workouts

If you’re thinking, my goodness Amy, I thought you tried to make things simple for me but now this is jut one more thing for me to think about. With a little intentionality, you can incorporate transverse movements into your workouts. Here are some ideas:

• Remember last week’s episode about walking lunges with a rotational twist? That not only qualifies as dynamic stretching, it also moves across the transverse plane. I’ve shared this is one of my go-to warm-up movements when I do a track workout.
• Been sitting a while? Do some standing knee circles (bonus: you’ll get some balance work in as well)
• Add some upper body rotations to your planks (like a T-stand)
• Clamshells (pro tip: also good for those mini muscles, which was this season 14 episode 3.)
• Perform a plank with knee to elbow.
• Attend a boxing or kickboxing class.
• Practice yoga.
• Do the mobility workout that accompanied my book, Your Worthy Body. In Your Worthy Body I provide a free resource library of workouts, movements, recipes, journals, and more. Included in that is a mobility workout. I have the workout in the book, but if you want more, you can scan the QR code in the book and go do a full length 30-minute mobility workout with me.
• Gentle movements that rotate the spine, like on your hands and knees, bring your right hand behind your right ear and gently rotate your right elbow up then down toward your left wrist.
• Get your copy of my online, on-demand class called B.COMPLETE. This is comprehensive workout to help you age with confidence and grace and covers all the elements we’ve discussed this season. In it you’re strengthen your balance, core, and mini muscles as well as adding pause, lengthening (or stretching) and of course incorporating transverse exercises. Sign up here and I promise you’ll receive an incredible value.

B.COMPLETE is a 40(ish)-minute class covering all the things we want to be focusing on as we age, including feeling balanced, centered, strong and limber. I’m including two phases, or levels, so you can do the one that works for you. This class is offered at $20, which is quite a deal since you can do it as many times as you want and when you want. You’ll get an on demand class for $20 to do as many times as you want. sign up now.

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My hope is community members receive recipe inspiration, pride in their accomplishments, and more educated in their movement. Come join us!

Have a graced day,

Amy