In a method and apparatus for echo planar magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequence of phase encoding gradient fields and a sequence of readout gradient fields are applied in order to produce a well-defined zigzag-type trajectory for entering raw data into k-space. Zigzag-type trajectories can be achieved that have flanks without curvature, or without significant curvature. Cartesian methods for image reconstruction of parallel MR imaging are applied to echo planar MR imaging with such zigzag-type trajectories.