Video: Types of body movements

Hello everyone! Welcome to another Kenhub anatomy tutorial. Today, we're going to be talking about types of body movements.

Body movements are important for allowing us to move through space and interact with the world around us. In this tutorial, we’re going to discuss different types of body movements, and their technical names. Before we talk about these types of body movements in detail, however, let’s begin by discussing some core concepts of movement.

First, when discussing anatomy, all movements are described relative to the anatomical position, which is like the blueprint for describing our body parts regardless of how the body is positioned in real life.

In the anatomical position, a person is standing upright, looking forward, with arms relaxed at the sides. The palms face forward, and the thumbs point away from the body. Similarly, the feet are slightly apart and parallel to each other, with the toes pointing forward.

Movement is a change in position relative to a fixed point. In the body, most movements are rotational, occurring around a fulcrum—usually a synovial joint, which is characterised by having a joint, or articular cavity.

Each movement also happens within a specific plane of motion, which is a flat surface that divides the body into two halves. There are four main planes of motion in the human body: the sagittal plane, which divides the body into unequal left and right halves; the median plane is a sagittal plane that passes through the midline of the body, dividing it into equal left and right halves. We also have the coronal plane, which divides the body into anterior and posterior halves, and the transverse plane, which divides the body into superior and inferior halves.

Within these planes of motion, we have the axes, which are straight, imaginary lines that run through the body along three directions.

The three axes of the human body are the horizontal axis, which runs medial to lateral through a joint, the vertical axis, which runs inferior to superior, and the sagittal axis, which runs anterior to posterior.

Putting it altogether, we can see how planes and axes work in a synovial hinge joint, such as the elbow. The socket, which is the arm, remains fixed, while the lever, or the moving part, which in your forearm, rotates around the fulcrum, which in this case is the elbow joint. It does so in the sagittal plane, around the horizontal axis.

It’s important to remember that all movements are described in relation to the anatomical position. So, even if you rotate your arm and forearm outward and then bend the elbow, the movement is still considered flexion, because the joint angle is decreasing in the sagittal plane.

Understanding these basics helps explain antagonistic movements—pairs of opposing actions where one muscle contracts to move a limb, and the opposing muscle returns it. An example of this is elbow flexion. When you flex your forearm at the elbow, the biceps, the agonist, contracts, while the triceps, the antagonist, relaxes.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s explore the different types of movement. The body’s motions are complex (such as dance moves!), but they can be grouped into clear patterns.

We’ll start with the major gross movements: flexion and extension, lateral flexion, abduction and adduction, rotation (first of the limbs, then the head and trunk). Then, we’ll explore more specific joint movements, including: elevation and depression, protrusion and retrusion, circumduction, supination and pronation, deviation, opposition and reposition, plantarflexion and dorsiflexion, and inversion and eversion.

Let’s start with flexion and extension, a pair of movements that are antagonistic, meaning they work in opposite directions. You’ll often see them written together like this: flexion/extension. One of the most common movements of flexion and extension is the bending of your arm at the elbow joint, as we saw earlier.

As we mentioned before, these two movements always occur in the sagittal plane—a vertical plane that divides the body into unequal left and right halves—and occurs in the horizontal, or medial to lateral axis.

We’ve seen this image of the elbow earlier when explaining movements in a plane of motion, but let’s look at it again with respect to the movements of flexion and extension. Flexion is a movement that decreases the angle between two bones at a joint, within the sagittal plane, such as when the forearm bends at the elbow joint. Extension, on the other hand, is a movement that increases the joint angle in the sagittal plane, such as when the forearm extends at the elbow joint.

The joints that perform flexion and extension can be loosely categorized into two types. The first type are simple joints, which primarily allow one type of movement.

An example of a simple joint is a hinge joint. Hinge joints have very limited movement in any direction other than in the sagittal plane, and include: the knees, the elbows, and the interphalangeal joints of the fingers, thumbs, and toes.

The second type of joint that performs flexion and extension are compound joints. Compound joints are those that can perform multiple major movements, not just flexion and extension. In the spine, whose joint angle is observed from the anterior part of the body, these include the intervertebral joints of the neck, shown here demonstrating flexion; and the joints of the vertebral column, shown here performing extension.

In the rest of the body, the compound joints include the shoulder, which can perform flexion, that is, raising the arm forward and overhead. Shoulder extension, on the other hand, is more limited; the hip, which functions similarly to the shoulder in its ability to flex and extend; the metacarpophalangeal joints—these are the joints at the base of each finger. Here we can see flexion of the thumb at its base; and the metatarsophalangeal joints, found at the base of each toe. In this image we can see the extension of the toes at the metatarsophalangeal joints.

There’s one other related motion I want to talk about before moving on from flexion and extension, and that’s lateral flexion.

Lateral flexion occurs along the coronal plane. This is the vertical plane that runs through the body, dividing it into anterior and posterior sections. Lateral flexion occurs along the sagittal, or anterior posterior axis.

Lateral flexion refers to a side-bending motion: a decrease in joint angle along the side of a midline structure, such as the spine.

As when describing other movements, the direction must be specified. For example, "right lateral flexion" describes bending to the right side. The direction is always described from the perspective of the person performing the movement.

In this animation, we can see the man’s lumbar spine bending to the right, decreasing the angle on the right side of the spine. Lateral flexion can also occur in the cervical spine, but is limited in the thoracic spine.

Let’s move on to the next pair of movements: abduction and adduction.

Like lateral flexion, these actions occur in the coronal plane, in relation to the midline of the body. And like flexion and extension, abduction and adduction are antagonistic movements.

Abduction is the movement of moving a limb away from the midline. An easy way to remember this is that you’re AB-ducting a limb away from the body, like a thief!

On the other hand, adduction (or “AD-duction”) is movement towards the midline. An easy way to remember this is that you're "adding" the limb back to the body!

Abduction and adduction happen at several joints, the shoulder, the hip, where the leg moves away from or toward the midline, the wrist, and the metacarpophalangeal joints of the fingers, and metatarsophalangeal joints of the toes, where fingers and toes move apart, abduction, or together, adduction.

For the fingers and toes, the midline is taken as the middle digit rather than the midline of the entire body. In the thumb, abduction and adduction occur at the carpometacarpal joint, not the metacarpophalangeal joint. This joint allows for a broader range of thumb motion.

Let’s move on to talk about rotation.

First, let’s focus on limb rotation. Limb rotation occurs in the transverse plane, which divides the body into superior and inferior halves, and occurs in the vertical axis of the limb.

The vertical axis of the limb is otherwise known as the long axis. Imagine a line running from your shoulder down the center of your arm to the tip of your middle finger – that’s your long axis!

Usually, a joint provides the fulcrums for these movements, with the axis passing through the center of the joint and the movement occurring in the transverse plane.

There are two types of rotation. In external, or lateral rotation, the front of the limb turns away from the midline. And in internal, or medial rotation, the front of the limb turns toward the midline.

We just saw this movement in the elbow bent 90 degrees, but rotation also occurs in the hip joint.

Next is rotation of the head and trunk, which also takes place in the transverse plane, around the vertical axis of the vertebral column.

Since the head and trunk are along the midline, the terms "medial" and "lateral" are not used here. Instead, the direction of movement is described as left or right rotation.

For example, turning your head to the left is described as “rotation of the head to the left.” This rotation happens at the cervical spine, or the neck, and the thoracic spine. The lumbar spine only has minimal rotation because it supports the body’s weight.

Now we’ll cover some joint-specific movements, starting with elevation and depression of the mandible, otherwise known as the lower jaw. Elevation and depression of the mandible occurs in the sagittal plane, around the horizontal, or medial to lateral axis.

These movements occur at the temporomandibular joint, otherwise known as the TMJ. Elevation is the movement of the lower jaw upward, closing the mouth, while depression is the movement of the jaw downward, opening the mouth, which is helpful for eating large bites.

Next are protraction and retraction, which are sometimes also called protrusion and retrusion. Protraction and retraction occur along the transverse plane, as it refers to the anterior and posterior translation of an object, without rotation, respectively. Since they’re translational movements, they don’t occur around an axis.

Protraction and retraction occur in two main places in the body. The first is in the scapula, which is the movement of the shoulder blade forward and around the rib cage, away from the spine. Retraction is the pulling of the shoulder blade back towards the spine. This movement is used when you throw a punch!

The other place it occurs is in the mandible. Protraction is the movement of the lower jaw forward so that the lower teeth are beyond the upper teeth, while retraction is the pulling back of the lower jaw toward the neck.

Let’s talk now about circumduction. Circumduction is a circular movement that occurs in the transverse plane. It’s a compound, complex movement involving flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction, and therefore moves through several axes.

Using the shoulder joint, which is a ball and sock joint, as an example, you can see how the movement is like drawing a cone with your arm, with the point of the cone being the shoulder.

Other than the shoulder joint, circumduction occurs at the hip, the wrist, and the metacarpophalangeal joints.

Circumduction provides a wide range of motion, allowing us to interact fluidly with our environment, like stirring a pot, which is hard to do using only flexion and extension.

Now let’s look at supination and pronation, which is a pair of movements found in the forearm. They occur in the transverse plane around a vertical axis.

Supination and pronation occurs at the proximal and distal radioulnar joints.

In supination, the palm faces anteriorly, or upward if lying down. A fun way to remember: when holding a bowl of soup, your hand is supinated.

In pronation, the palm faces posteriorly, or downward. In this action, the radius crosses over the ulna. This twisting motion gives us dexterity for tasks like screwing in a light bulb.

Ulnar and radial deviation are special wrist movements that occur in the coronal plane along the sagittal, or the anterior-posterior axis. Ulnar deviation is the movement of the hand toward the pinky, that is, the medial side of the body. It’s similar to adduction.

Radial deviation is the movement of the hand toward the thumb, that is, towards the lateral sides of the body. And it’s similar to abduction.

Unlike simple joint flexion, deviation at the wrist involves multiple bones: the carpals, radius, and ulna. It only normally occurs at the wrist. If it occurs in the spine, for example, it's usually a sign of disease such as kyphosis, an excessive forward curvature of the spine.

Moving down the hand, let’s look at a special movement of the thumb, opposition and reposition. Unlike the other movements, they occur in multiple planes and axes.

Opposition is the thumb movement that lets us grip by touching the thumb to another finger, a key evolutionary trait. In opposition, the thumb crosses the palm to meet the fingers, and in reposition, the thumb returns to its resting place.

This involves flexion, abduction, and rotation at the first carpometacarpal joint, a saddle joint and is the only joint of its kind in the body.

This joint structure gives us both precision and power for grasping, such as holding a pen.

Let’s move from the upper limb to the lower limb now, by looking at the ankle, where we have two unique movement pairs. The first pair is plantarflexion and dorsiflexion.

Plantarflexion and dorsiflexion occur in the sagittal plane around the horizontal axis. Like the wrist, they involve several joints. Also, although they both have flexion in their name, they’re in fact antagonistic movements. Plantarflexion is the movement of pointing the toes down, like when you’re pointing your toes when you’re on the balance beam! An easy way to remember plantarflexion is that “Plantar” means sole of the foot, so movement in the direction of the sole of the foot.

Dorsiflexion is the movement of lifting the foot up toward the shin, like when you lift your foot before pushing the gas pedal of your car! You can remember this from the fact that dorsal means back, therefore movement in the direction of the dorsum of the foot.

The second pair of movements at the ankle is inversion and eversion. These movements occur in the coronal plane along the sagittal axis. In inversion, the sole turns inward, toward the midline, and in eversion, the sole turns outward, away from the midline.

Like wrist deviation, inversion and eversion involve multiple bones, in this case, the talus, the calcaneus, the navicular, and the cuboid bones. These movements help us stay balanced on uneven ground, allowing for quick direction changes, a survival advantage whether escaping predators or avoiding traffic.

And that wraps up all the major and specific movements of the human body! Take a second to give yourself a thumbs up, and while you're at it, see how many movements you can identify in that simple gesture.

That’s it for this tutorial! Don’t forget to check more quizzes and atlas for more information about the human body at Kenhub!