Spatial Awareness

Have you ever been walking down the sidewalk - when there is plenty of room - and the person walking towards you just *$%#& crashes right into you?? 😠

Or maybe you have been on line at the grocery store and the person waiting behind you is just a teeeeeny tiny bit too close? (ew) 🤢

Or if you're working out in the gym [minding your own business] and someone *boop* just stands right in front of you in the mirror and blocks your view? 😡

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The examples I am giving refer to "Spatial Awareness". In my last blog, I spoke about body awareness, now this is your body ~ i n  s p a c e ~ 👽 While body-awareness (in this context) refers to awareness of what's going on inside of your body, spatial awareness (in this context) refers to awareness of what's going on outside of your body. When we talk about spatial awareness, we want to talk about the "Planes of Movement". The planes of movement are:

Sagittal plane of movement occurs in front or behind us. Examples of moving through the sagittal plane include walking, bicep curls, and typing on the computer.

Frontal plane of movement refer to side-to-side movements. Examples of moving include a lateral lunge, doing the arm wave dance move, and reaching for your coffee on the side of the desk.

Transverse plane then involves rotation of the body. Examples of moving through the transverse plane include turning your head to look behind you, reaching across your body to turn a doorknob, or swinging a bat.

Picture someone that mainly moves through the sagittal plane - they might operate in a directional manner, in a focused line, up front type of person. Seems like it may be in opposition to someone that mainly moves in the transverse plane, maybe someone who is looser, a little more "flimsy", maybe clumsy eve.

While of course this isn't an exact science (as I am sure someone that's super clumsy could mainly move in the sagittal plane), you may start to notice a pattern in what types of personalities use which dominating plane of movement. 

Now that you know this, you can make a conscious choice of how you move in space. 

Someone about to bump into you on the sidewalk? You could practice spatial awareness and see them coming, so you move through the frontal plane to avoid the collision. Someone behind you a bit too close? You could access your transverse plane of movement to turn around to give them the stink eye 😆. That gym bro that's in your way? Assert your sagittal plane of movement, step forward and tap them on the shoulder "Excuse me, could you move over? I was here."

There are many more layers to spatial awareness we could go over and get into how it correlates to health and fitness. 

Please let me know if this topic interests you! I would love to know your thoughts and if I should continue on this type of subject.