Naming joint movements and their opposites
Each movement has a name and an opposite: for example, with the elbow bent, pronation (palm down) versus supination (palm up), and protraction (shoulders forwards) versus retraction (shoulders backwards).
Remember
Name each movement at the joint where it happens: for example, with the elbow bent, pronation (palm down) and supination (palm up) are forearm movements, while protraction (forwards) and retraction (backwards) are movements of the shoulder girdle (the collarbone and shoulder blade).
Memory aid
supination is the soup position, with the palm up to hold a bowl of soup
Think of the palm turned up to hold a bowl of soup; pronation is the reverse, with the palm turned down.
Take one joint at a time and name each movement at the joint where it happens. Each movement has an opposite.
At the forearm, pronation is rotating the flexed forearm (the forearm with the elbow bent) from palm up to palm down, and supination is the reverse. Both are rotations of the forearm alone, with the radius turning around the ulna, so the shoulder and elbow stay still. The names come from body positions: supine is lying face up and prone is lying face down.
At the shoulder girdle (the collarbone and shoulder blade), protraction is the forward movement, the shoulders reaching out. Retraction is the backward movement, which pushes the shoulders back and the chest out.
At the wrist, ulnar deviation is a sideways movement towards the little finger, whereas radial deviation is a sideways movement towards the thumb.
Plantarflexion increases the angle of the ankle joint, as in going up on the tiptoes, while dorsiflexion lifts the foot upwards. Inversion turns the sole to face medially, mainly at the joints between the small bones of the hindfoot rather than at the ankle joint itself, and eversion turns it to face laterally.
Pronation and supination are easily confused with medial and lateral rotation. Medial and lateral rotation turn a whole limb about its long axis at the shoulder or hip, and they are named by whether the front of the limb turns towards or away from the midline.
Key facts
- Pronation and supination
- pronation turns the flexed forearm from palm up to palm down, and supination turns it from palm down to palm up.
- Protraction and retraction
- protraction moves the shoulders forwards, and retraction moves them backwards.
- Wrist deviation
- ulnar deviation moves the hand towards the little finger, and radial deviation moves it towards the thumb.
- Ankle
- plantarflexion points the toes so the angle at the ankle increases, and dorsiflexion is the opposite.
- Foot
- inversion turns the sole to face medially, mainly at the hindfoot joints rather than at the ankle joint itself, and eversion turns it to face laterally.
- Medial and lateral rotation
- these turn a whole limb about its long axis at the shoulder or hip, unlike pronation and supination.
Exam traps
- Medial rotation does not describe turning the palm over, because it turns a whole limb towards the midline at the shoulder or hip and is not a forearm movement.
- Moving the shoulders backwards is retraction, not protraction, because protraction moves the shoulders forwards, as in reaching out.
- Moving the arm out to the side is abduction, not lateral rotation, because lateral rotation turns the arm about its long axis without moving it away from the body.
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