Start by sitting on the floor, with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Regular Russian twisting can also help improve your posture and if you’re about to take up kayaking or canoeing with a vengeance, there is no better core exercise to prepare for life with a paddle. Rectify that by doing the Russian twist, which works in the transverse plane and strengthens muscles that you might be missing with your straight-up-and-down crunches and sit-ups, such as the obliques. Movements where you twist your upper or lower body parallel to this line are said to be done in the transverse plane, and the chances are you don’t do so many of them during your workouts. Consider another imaginary line that cuts your body in half at the waist.

These are movements done in the frontal plane.Īll of these are excellent exercises that will do you a world of good, but they do not prepare your body for another kind of movement you do regularly, especially if you play a lot of sport – twisting. Then, when you do mix it up, the chances are you’ll start moving laterally, with side lunges or skater jumps. It’s probably most of them – from classic bodyweight moves like lunges and squats to free weight exercises like presses and curls. Now consider the movements you make during your workouts and how many of them are parallel to this line. Any movement you make parallel with this line is done in the sagittal plane. Imagine a vertical line that runs through the body, neatly dividing it into halves.

Twist of my life guide