The main types of joint movements are:
- Flexion: decreases the angle between two body parts, such as bending the elbow.
- Extension: increases the angle between body parts, such as straightening the knee.
- Abduction: moves a limb away from the body’s midline.
- Adduction: moves a limb toward the body’s midline.
- Rotation: turns a bone or body part around its axis.
- Circumduction: combines flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction to create a circular movement.
Other specialized movements include pronation and supination of the forearm and dorsiflexion and plantar flexion of the foot.