Name ______

Range of Motion – 50 Informal Points

Introduction

You come home from school, run up the stairs and throw your backpack on your bed. This sequence of events took only minutes, but used joints in your ankles, knees, elbows, shoulders, and wrists. You realize that when you threw your bag, your cell phone slid under your dresser. You try to reach it, but you cannot seem to get your arm back far enough. Your twin sister comes in and offers to help. She bends down, stretches and twists her arm and almost instantly, you have your phone back.If we all have the same general arrangement of bones and joints, why was she able to reach the phone with ease when you did not even come close?

Range of motion (ROM) studies assess joint motion and provide a measure of overall flexibility. You may have heard of people who are “double-jointed.” This does not mean that they have twice as many joints as you do; rather, the ones they do have are unusually flexible. We often use the everyday terms such as bend andflex to describe the motion of our limbs, but scientists and doctors use specific terms to describe just how a set of bones move at a joint. These precise terms describe the direction of motion as well as the relationship of one body part to another. As you will see in the next lesson, muscles are often named using terminology that is linked to the type of motion they permit.

A device called a goniometercan be used to measure the angles resulting from the movement of various joints in the body. You will match body actions with range of motion photographs. Measurements from person to person vary and can be compared to rate overall flexibility and range of motion.

Procedure

  1. Research the following pairs of terms that describe possible movement at a joint. Describe the movement in words and give an example.
  • Depression and elevation

Depression is downward (inferior) movement. Elevation is upward (superior) movement.

Opening and closing of the jaw.

  • Rotation and circumduction

Circumduction is circular motion, such as rotating your finger around and around.

Rotation is turning around an axis such as moving the ball inside of a socket to lift arm.

  • Flexion and extension (and hyperextension)

Flexion is bending (such as curling your arm) and extension is straightening out (such as extending your arm.)

Hyperextension is when extension goes beyond normal limits.

  • Abduction and adduction

Abduction is lateral movement away from the center of the body, such as lifting arms out to the sides.

Adduction is medial movement towards the center of the body, such as bringing lifted arms but to the side of the body.

  • Plantar flexion and dorsiflexion

Dorsiflexion is lifting up, such as your toes off the ground and standing on the heal

Plantar flexion is pointing down, such as pointing your toes downward.

  1. Obtain a Student Resource Sheet from your teacher. A goniometer, like a protractor, allows a person to measure angles. One arm of the goniometer will remain stationary, while the other arm will move to measure the angle of your limbs.

The axis (fulcrum) of the goniometer is placed over the joint. The moving arm follows the motion. Neutral extension at each joint is recorded as 0 degrees. As the joint flexes, motion progresses towards 180 degrees. In the picture below, the moving arm has progressed approximately 50 degrees.

  1. To better understand how a goniometer works, view the video at and take notes in the space below.
  1. With a partner practice taking measurements using the goniometer as demonstrated in the video. Record your results in the space below:

Conclusion Questions

  1. Describe how ROM values may vary from person to person. Why might there be differences?

Body types and flexibility differ from person to person.

  1. Which type of joint do you think allows for the greatest number of different movements? Explain your reasoning.

Saddle Joints because they are in the wrist and ankle and can move in every which way.

  1. What factors influence range of motion of a joint?

Age, Body Type, Genetics, Flexibility, Activeness, Muscle mass

  1. Explain how a person can improve flexibility at the joints.

Stretch a little each day, slowing gaining flexibility. Flexibility can greatly increase over time.

  1. Your favorite team is winning the championship game. You drop to one knee, tip your head back, raise one hand over your head, clench your fist and yell, “Yes.” Use the proper terms to describe the movements undertaken by your joints.

When you drop to your knees you are using adduction to bring your knee close to the body. When you tip your head back you are using circumduction since the neck is pivot joint, then when you shoot your hand in the air you are using extension.

  1. You overhear two men at the gym talking about their extensor muscles of the forearm. Based on what you know about the motion at joints, how would you describe the movement of these muscles?

Extensor muscles increase the angle between members of a limb by straightening the elbow.