Rotation, rotation, rotation

Simple question: how much rotation is there in your routine? Chances are, not enough.
Rotation was a neglected, almost ignored component of training many years ago. Going waaaaay back to my high school days, I can’t think of any rotational exercises that we did, excluding maybe some sit-ups with a twist. Everything we did, benching squatting, pressing, pulling – almost all of it was done in linear fashion. Although it’s addressed more nowadays, rotation still is overlooked by many, especially non-athletes, your average Joes and Janes in the gym, you know, the ones who say, “I just want to get toned.”

But the ability to rotate is critical for everyone, not just athletes. Strength coach Mike Boyle, who is one of the pioneers of the functional training movement that started about 20 years ago, says “torso training” isn’t fun and doesn’t work the mirror muscles, but it’s a key to injury reduction and improved sports performance.
“Ask yourself, how many sports involve flexion and extension of the trunk?” he wrote in his book “Functional Training for Sports.” “The answer is very few. Sports is about stabilization and rotation.”
And so is everyday life. The human body moves in three planes, frontal (which actually is out to your sides), sagittal (flexion and extension) and transverse (diagonal). Think about it. With no rotation, we’d all be walking around like mummies or tin soldiers. Rotation, however slight, is needed in something as routine as walking. Picture a decrepit, old person. As they walk, they shuffle with no rotation, right? Completely linear, one dimensional. That’s in part because of limited plantar and dorsiflexion of the ankle, but it’s also due to lack of mobility in the hips, torso and thoracic spine. So if something as simple as walking is compromised due to lack of the ability to rotate, think how much it’s magnified on the athletic field. A baseball player who can’t rotate quickly and powerfully to hit and to throw simply isn’t much of a baseball player. Same holds true for golf or any racquet sport. And the ability to turn and rotate is the essence of agility, which is needed for virtually every sport.
Gary Schofield, director of sports performance at Greater Atlanta Christian school in Norcross, is all about multi-planar movement.
“Rotational training has become an integral part of the weight room,” he said. “Rotation occurs in every fundamental movement pattern we do.”

Paradoxically, you need stability before you have mobility (or power). The body has to be able to withstand rotational force before it can produce force, Schofield said. (There’s a saying in the business, “you can’t launch a cannon from a canoe.”) Schofield, who’s one of the best in the business, uses resistance bands and twisting movements with medicine balls, kettle bells or weight plates. Schofield likes to do the movements as quickly and forcefully as possible to mimic the required speed of sport. Someone who is deconditioned, inexperienced or susceptible to back pain, should progress slowly before attempting all-out power movements. Boyle, who also likes to use medicine balls and cables, said torso training should be done at least as often as conventional abdominal training (crunches, sit-ups). Wood choppers, lunges with rotation are great exercises along with explosive medicine ball tosses to a partner or against the wall.
Both athletics trainers believe that where people go wrong is in their approach. Too many train abdominals - or any body part - to look good rather than to perform better. Yes, your abs are responsible for flexion and extension of the trunk, but far more often they act as dynamic stabilizers, absorbing and producing rotational force. So ask yourself, particularly those of you who aren’t 18 anymore: are you training for function or are you training for vanity?
Besides, crunches alone aren’t going to produce a six-pack. “Abdominal definition is the result of diet, not torso work,” Boyle wrote. Really, it’s a three-pronged approach: diet, cardio and blasting the abs with exercise. You can do 1,000 sit-ups a day, but guess what, that’s not going to get rid of the existing fat around your belly because it’s impossible to spot reduce. Fat loss boils down to one thing: burning more calories than you’re consuming. Furthermore, sit-ups and crunches, while effective, contract or shorten the abdominals (and the hip flexors), but like any other muscle, abs need to be lengthened, which can be accomplished through some rotational exercises.
The muscles involved in rotation —-the abs, obliques, transverse abdominus, glutes, hips —- all help in supporting the spinal structure, Schofield said. They also serve a powerful link from the lower body to the upper body. So get them stable and strong, start rotating, and with proper diet and cardio, other benefits - like that coveted six-pack - will surface.

Robert Haddocks, CPT, CSCS, is a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Woodstock.
Phone: 404-317-4666
Email: robhadd@hotmail.com