Human Anatomical Terms - Types of Movement

Types of Movement

The body has a wide variety of movements available to it, depending on the joint where the movement occurs. Movement occurs when a muscle or muscles contract over joints and is dependent on the joint’s mobility and the location of the muscle in relation to the joint. The different types of movement have specific terms, often in pairs to describe opposite movements.

Flexion occurs in the sagittal plane, when the angle of a joint decreased. It occurs in hinge joints and ball-and-socket joints. When the knee is bent, this is a form of flexion. Conversely, extension occurs when the angle is increased along the same plane. Straightening of the leg is extension. Hyperextension occurs when the extension is beyond 180°. The neck is hyperextended when the chin tilts up toward the ceiling. Some people with flexible ligaments and tendons can hyperextend the elbows and knees, which can cause injury in these joints. Flexion and extension of the ankle are dorsiflexion and plantar flexion, respectively.

Abduction is the movement of a limb away from the median plane of the body. This occurs when someone jumps the arms legs apart, as in jumping jacks, and also when fanning the fingers and toes. Adduction is the reversal of this movement, bringing the limb back to the median plane.

Circumduction is a circular movement of the joint, such as drawing a circle with the arm and wrist straight. It is a combination of abduction, adduction, flexion and extension in a ball-and-socket joint.

A movement of the vertebrae in the coronal plane away from the midline is lateral flexion. The cervical and thoracic regions of the spine are most capable of this movement. It occurs when one moves the ear toward the shoulder with the nose facing forward.

Rotation is movement of a bone around the longitudinal axis of that bone. Lateral (or external) rotation occurs when the anterior aspect rotates outward and medial rotation occurs when it rotates inward. Turning the head to look to the side is lateral rotation, and bringing it back to the center is medial rotation. These movements occur across all ball-and-socket joints. Pronation and supination occur at the elbow to rotate the wrist. Pronation is the turning of the palm from the anatomical position to face backward. Turning the palm forward is supination.

Inversion is a movement of the foot to turn the sole medially while eversion turns it laterally.

Gliding is the motion in any direction of two articulating surfaces sliding past one another. This minimum movement occurs in the carpal bones of the hands and tarsal bones of the feet and also between the clavicles and sternum.

Protraction is movement anteriorly in the transverse plane. Biting the upper lip with the lower teeth is protraction of the jaw, and moving the jaw back to its normal position is retraction.

Elevation is the motion of a limb superiorly, such as lifting the shoulders toward the ears. Depression is the opposite, inferior movement as in opening the mouth.

Opposition is a movement unique to the thumb when it moves toward a finger or the palm to grasp something