Fundamental Movement Terms
The core words for joint movements: flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, and rotation.
Before this: Body Planes and Axes
You will be able to
- Define flexion and extension.
- Define abduction and adduction.
- Define internal and external rotation, pronation, and supination.
- Match each movement to its plane.
Movements come in opposite pairs
Most joint movements have an opposite. Learning them in pairs makes them easier to remember.
In the sagittal plane
- Flexion — bending a joint, decreasing the angle between bones (bending the elbow).
- Extension — straightening a joint, increasing the angle (straightening the elbow).
In the frontal plane
- Abduction — moving a limb away from the midline (raising the arm out to the side).
- Adduction — moving a limb toward the midline (lowering the arm back down).
In the transverse plane
- Internal (medial) rotation — turning a limb inward, toward the body.
- External (lateral) rotation — turning a limb outward, away from the body.
- Pronation / supination — at the forearm, turning the palm down (pronation) or up (supination).
Why this matters for training
Every exercise is a set of joint movements. When you can name them, you can predict which muscles produce the movement — for example, the middle deltoid produces shoulder abduction, so a lateral raise (abduction) trains it.
Sources for this lesson
“Flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, medial/lateral rotation, and pronation/supination are defined movements of synovial joints.”
Anatomy and Physiology 2e — OpenStax, Rice University · Ch. 9.5 Types of Body Movements
Peer-reviewed textbook · License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Last checked 2026-07-19
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