We've Found a Major Flaw in Most Downloadable Home Workout Apps

• Updated on: 2019-08-01
• Read original article here

Once upon a time, effective workouts used to involve lacing up our trainers and meeting a PT at the gym. But the rise in tech has corresponded with an onslaught of savvy fitness apps and detailed online plans to guide you through exercise as though you had a trainer beside you IRL.

And we've been signing up and downloading them like there's no tomorrow. A study published earlier this year found that the global fitness app market alone is anticipated to reach £11.8bn by 2026.

But, while making exercise regimes accessible at the click of a button has made sticking to fitness more affordable and easier to fit round busy lifestyles - they often come with a major flaw. And, nope, it's not the lack of a real life human motivating you to finish.

Without naming and shaming, many online plans miss two key groups of moves - lateral and rotational exercises. Never heard of them? Well, that's exercises which see you move side to side (hello, side lunge) or twist and turn, like a lunge with rotation.

Before you dismiss them as no big deal, and return to your beloved jumping lunge, they're actually pretty crucial. Both types of movement not only help with injury prevention and make you stronger, but they're also important for functional and emotional health too (now you're listening).

What's more, a standard netball training session naturally incorporates them. So why not be inspired by our World Cup bronze medal-winning England team in Liverpool at the weekend and sign up to your local club.

Read on for your need-to-know on lateral and rotational exercises, and what you should be looking for in any fitness plan (online or otherwise). You won't regret it.

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Ok, so to understand what makes a well-rounded (read: effective) sweat session you need to know about the three planes of movement you should be hitting during exercise. Here's your 101...

'The human body is designed - and needs - to do all three planes of movement,' explains Luke Worthington, PT, fitness coach and Nike Trainer. 'But the vast majority of exercises people tend to do are two-dimensional.' That's the forwards and backwards movement on the sagittal plane.

The qualified sports scientist says that while any movement is better than nothing, we're failing to give our body the mobility it deserves by missing out two-thirds of its plane-targeting potential.

'To maintain health in all aspects - including everything from our muscles to digestion and emotional wellbeing - we must move in all three planes, just like when we would have been running wild in the woods centuries ago,' he explains, noting that there are scores of studies on how our bodies require three-dimensional movement. This isn't about aesthetics.

'Moving forwards, backwards, side to side, and twisting as well as turning is how we keep our circulatory, lymphatic and digestive systems working optimally. It's also boosts our brain function, drives airflow and boosts cell regeneration.

'On the inside our bodies are deliberately not symmetrical - for example one lung is bigger than the other - because planes of movement are intended to help them function.

'We've gone from a movement-based animal to a very sedentary one - and the fitness industry is trying to counteract that, but it's not followed it all the way through.

'So we've got lots of people going from their desks to running on treadmills, cycling on spin bikes and squatting on squat racks. But this kind of stuff is all more of the same sagittal plane movements.'

And if we don't move in tri-planal activity (AKA, move freely across all three planes)? Stuff starts to go wrong.

Sticking to two-dimensional moves raises your risk of injury because you're using the same dominant muscles - like hamstrings, calves and quads - all the time. You also miss out on working the smaller, stabiliser muscles that can even out imbalances which protect you from hurting yourself as you train.

Worthington explains two ways to upgrade your gym programme to hit that tri-plane sweet spot.

We're sure you're a smooth operator when it comes to your single leg deadlift. But allow WH editor Amy Lane show you how to change it up using a kettlebell.

Instead of holding the weight in your hand on the same side as your standing leg, challenge yourself by switching it to so that they're opposites.

'This means that she's holding the weight in one hand, but she's supporting her weight with the leg on the opposite side,' says Worthington. 'She's working through all three planes at once.' Note: it's an advanced move, and can take months to build up to, but don't let that put you off.

Worthington says you should look for fitness plans that include all three planes of movement: sagittal, frontal and transverse. Try and get an even balance of all three into your gym, home or park training session.

These apps and online plans do include lateral and rotational movements...

But if talk of planes has got your head in a spin (just us?) there's an even easier solution: get reacquainted with team sports.

Hear us out. 'If I'm working with an individual who needs to get more active for whatever reason, I'll encourage them to go join a netball team much more readily than I would a spin class, for example,' says Worthington. Check out Netbusters to find a club in London near you, or England Netball for rest of UK.

All that pivoting and ball throwing is blitzing those planes like a ninja. And it's more fun, so you'll probably stick at it.

Now you've realised that your go-to workout is lacking both lateral and rotational movements, here are the deadlift variations you're probably missing out on too.