Planes of Motion Made Simple for Personal Trainers (Sagittal, Frontal, Transverse)

Struggling to understand the planes of motion for personal training?

In this episode of the Show Up Fitness Podcast, we break down the three planes of motion — sagittal, frontal and transverse — in a simple way so personal trainers can confidently assess movement and improve workout programming.

Understanding planes of motion is essential for:

• Exercise selection
 • Movement assessments
 • Injury prevention
 • Training clients with pain
 • Programming full body workouts

Whether you're studying for the NASM CPT exam or want to improve your programming skills as a personal trainer, this episode will help you apply movement science to real world coaching.

Topics covered:

• Sagittal plane exercises
 • Frontal plane exercises
 • Transverse plane exercises
 • Functional movement patterns
 • Programming for general population
 • Assessing clients with shoulder, hip and knee pain

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 sagittal frontal transverse
 planes of motion exercises
 functional movement training
 exercise science for trainers
 how to assess movement
 personal trainer education
 movement assessment
 exercise programming
 biomechanics personal training

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Planes Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hada y all, welcome back to the show for this podcast. Today we're gonna review everything planes of motion. In order to understand anatomy, you have to start with the basics. And as trainers, we need to master Spanish in order to speak English to our clients. Most trainers omit this stuff, and that is why you're investing time and energy becoming a qualified personal trainer. So if you enjoyed today's podcast, throw it into your story, leave that five-star review, and let people know about the fastest growing certification in 2026, the SUFCPT. Enjoy! Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showufffitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Really important to complement the prior video with orientation. In the anatomical position, we have a supinated grip. When I turn over and my knuckles are up, that's pronated. When I do a bench press, that's pronation. When I do a bicep curl, that's a supinated grip. In the anatomical plane of motion, any movement that allows for flexion and extension, and it's an imaginary line that dissects the body into right and left halves, is defined as the sagittal plane of motion. We are sagittal creatures. Let's take a look at some easy joints. The knee, it can extend, it can flex. The hip can flex and extend. The humerus can flex and extend. Flexion is to decrease the angle at a joint. Extension is to increase the angle at a joint. Looking at frontal. Frontal is an imaginary line bisecting the body into anterior and posterior halves, allowing for a Bduction and a deduction. Imagine if you were crushed against my big nose and the walls right on my beautiful cakes, and that's all I can do is move in this plane of motion. That is a frontal exercise. Abduction, jumping jacks, lat pull downs, pull-ups, lateral raises. Anything in this plane is going to be a frontal movement. Frontal plane stabilizing muscles will be your glute mead, not allowing for knee valgus and internal rotation. I have to stabilize in the frontal plane to not allow for my knee to drive in. And the last plane of motion is an imaginary line bisecting the body into superior and inferior halves, allowing for rotation. That's transverse. The easiest exercise to think of chest fly, reverse fly, it's transverse. We are more prone to getting injured in the frontal and transverse plane because we lack the stability. We don't have that neurological control. So then we drive in, we're not strong, and pop goes the weasel, ACL blows out. We don't want the ACL to blow out. So let's get strong sagittally and in the frontal plane and in the transverse plane. So let's go over some exercises. When in doubt, go sagittal. The definitions are important if you're ever on Jeopardy, but just understanding certain movements are more in the sagittal plane, frontal plane, transverse plane. It helps some people to think of a clock. 12 o'clock is in front of me, six behind. Whenever my foot or my hands touch six and twelve, that's going to be a sagittal exercise. Boom! Woohoo! Look at that. I should put that on YouTube. That was amazing. When I do a curl, boom, we have flexion. When I come down, that's extension. Sagittal plane exercise. When I do a contralateral lunge in my right hand, and I come forward with my left foot, that is a sagittal exercise. 12, 6 o'clock. To my right and left, I have three and I have nine. That's gonna be a frontal exercise. Keeping your arms straight, you're gonna go to three o'clock. Frontal, working your medial or lateral deltoid. If I come forward with flexion, working the anterior deltoid, that's gonna be sagittal. If I do a military press with my elbow facing forward, that's going to be sagittal. If I bring my elbow to the side, three o'clock, that's frontal. If I tuck it in more in the scapular plane, because you see the scapula doesn't sit on the ribcage like this, it's more protracted, it comes off slightly. So the scapular plane is more transverse, it's more shoulder-friendly to do a military press like that. Most people can't own 160 degrees of flexion. If you can't get there, it's going to be hard to be pressing overhead. And what we're going to get is an anterior tilt and thoracic extension. Not necessarily the best because this canister, your core, is vulnerable. Think of a soda can. It's strongest when it's in its cylinder and there's no dents on the side. I could stand on a cup of soda, but if I just give the slightest little push and I create a dent, it will collapse down. That's why it's so important to move properly. If I do a squat, goblet, coming down, flexion, extension, sagittal exercise. I can make it another plane of motion by going wide, sumo, because now I'm more externally rotated. This is just a variation. You could do a Q-sac, which is coming to the side, getting external rotation, which would make it more transverse, but I'm going back and forth in the frontal plane. That's a multiplanar exercise. So we've mastered flexion and extension, 12 and 6, frontal AB and A deduction, 9 and 3. Any other time on the clock, it's going to be transverse. Any other time on the clock will be transverse. It's important to understand the three planes of motion. It's difficult in the beginning, but when you master the basics, when you're communicating with medical professionals, they may reference planes of motion. So then you can say, oh yeah, my client struggles in the frontal plane. They were hurt in the transverse plane. That shows that professional that you are competent with the basic vernacular. And to give you a little quiz with the eight-core movement patterns, we have a hinge pattern, which is going to be primarily sagittal. We're going to have a squat pattern, which will also be sagittal, more knee dominant, more hip dominant with the hinge. Unilateral will be more sagittal, a lunge or a step up, or if you have a band and you press down, which is a regressed unilateral pattern, that's going to be sagittal because you're extending your hip. We have transitional, depending on what you do, versus a run, a sprint, or a throw. Sagittal, throw rotation. If you do a Turkish getup, you're on the ground and you're rotating through space, that's multiplanar because the rotation, and when you come up from this lunge position, that's going to be sagittal. Multiplanar exercises are great for the brain, but also strengthening weak segments within the kinetic chain. A jump will be a sagittal exercise. Notice how I extend my arms back and then I come up with flexion. Look at those calves. Plantar flexion. This quick recoil allows for maximal force production. I do not want to see you jumping like Tinkerbell. What the hell is that? You load up and you explode and you land soft. Then we have upper body patterns. Pushing in the horizon, pulling in the horizon will be transverse. We can make it more sagittal when you work with just extension. This will be sagittal pushing, sagittal pulling. This will be transverse pulling, transverse pressing. And the frontal plane, we can come up vertically and pull down vertically. Vertical push, vertical pull. Squat, hinge, unilateral, transition, vertical push, vertical pull, horizontal push, horizontal pull. You do not have to have a certain upper body push-to-pull ratio. It's essentially working your chest, working your back, and working your shoulders. To summarize the planes of motion, sagittal. Most common exercises in the gym: squatting, lunging, leg press, leg curl, leg extensions, bicep curls, tricep extensions, sagittal plane of motion, an imaginary line bisecting the body into right and left halves, allowing for flexion and extension. Frontal plane of motion, an imaginary line bisecting the body into anterior and posterior halves, allowing for A B and A deduction, lateral raises, military press, lat pulldowns, jumping jacks, A deductions at the hip, A deductions at the hip, all frontal plane exercises. And then transverse is the imaginary line bisecting the body into superior and inferior halves, allowing for horizontal abduction, horizontal A Bduction, external rotation, internal rotation, and scaption. Think of exercises such as a chest fly, reverse fly, bench press would be multiplanar because that transverse component. Any other time on the clock would be transverse. We are most prone to injuries in the transverse and frontal planes because we do a lot of sagittal stuff. That's why it's beneficial to do bilateral, unilateral, barbell, dumbbell, body weight, functional movements to get all planes in motion and strengthen the system as a whole. Belt buckle trainer, checking out.