Anatomy in Motion
During open-chain terminal knee extension, the screw-home mechanism is completed by this motion of the tibia.
What is external rotation?
A patient with right lower-extremity pain is learning to use a cane. To reduce demand on the involved side, the cane should be held in this hand.
What is the left hand?
During the cervical flexion-rotation test, markedly limited rotation reproduces the patient’s familiar headache. Dysfunction at this spinal level is suspected.
What is C1–C2?
Following a knee injury, extension remains limited despite improving pain. The limitation disappears after repeated quadriceps activation and gait retraining. This makes this explanation more likely than a fixed mechanical block.
What is an active extension deficit or quadriceps inhibition?
Shoulder elevation in the frontal plane is uncomfortable, so the therapist moves the arm approximately 30–45° anterior to that plane. This position is known as this.
What is scaption or the scapular plane?
During open-chain glenohumeral abduction, the convex humeral head performs these two accessory motions.
What are a superior roll and inferior glide?
A patient with neck pain sleeps on their side with their head tilted toward the mattress. This change should be made to the pillow setup.
What is adjusting the pillow height to keep the cervical spine neutral?
Ankle dorsiflexion measures 4° with the knee extended and 15° with it flexed. This muscle accounts for the position-dependent difference.
What is the gastrocnemius?
A patient referred for shoulder pain has full shoulder testing, but familiar symptoms are reproduced with cervical compression and altered with distraction. This region becomes the primary examination focus.
What is the cervical spine?
A patient cannot tolerate heavy quadriceps loading after surgery. This intervention can produce a strengthening stimulus using substantially lower external loads.
What is blood-flow restriction training?
During single-leg stance, the ground-reaction force creates an external hip-adduction moment. These muscles must generate the opposing internal moment to maintain pelvic control.
What are the stance-limb hip abductors?
A patient’s leg symptoms increase while driving with the seat too far from the pedals. This adjustment reduces sustained knee extension and neural loading without preventing them from driving.
What is moving the seat closer to the pedals?
During a straight-leg raise, ankle dorsiflexion reproduces the patient’s familiar calf symptoms, while plantarflexion reduces them. This finding strengthens the hypothesis of involvement from this system.
What is the neural system?
A runner’s apparent dynamic knee valgus improves immediately when cadence is increased without any measurable change in strength. This variable—not weakness—best explains the immediate improvement.
What is movement strategy or motor control?
An Achilles patient can perform bilateral heel raises but cannot yet raise the body through full range on one leg. This variation increases unilateral tendon loading without requiring a full single-leg concentric contraction.
What is a two-up, one-down eccentric heel raise?
In the lower cervical spine, side-bending is normally coupled with rotation in this direction.
What is the same direction / ipsilateral?
A flexion-sensitive patient cannot finish washing the dishes without increasing their back pain. This positioning strategy allows them to complete the task in a more extension-favored position.
What is standing close and resting the hips against the sink or counter?
A patient’s anterior knee pain during a step-down disappears when the step height is reduced, despite no change in alignment or technique. This mechanical demand was reduced.
What is the knee-extensor moment?
Following knee trauma, a patient develops foot drop with weak dorsiflexion and eversion, sensory loss over the dorsum of the foot, but preserved inversion and plantarflexion. Injury to this nerve best explains the pattern.
What is the common fibular/peroneal nerve?
Peak quadriceps torque is nearly symmetrical, but the involved limb takes substantially longer to generate that force during a rapid contraction. Rehabilitation should emphasize this performance quality.
What is rate of force development?
Closed-chain pronation combines these three foot motions and is accompanied by internal rotation of the tibia.
What are dorsiflexion, eversion, and abduction?
A patient with shoulder pain cannot tolerate sleeping supine because the unsupported arm falls into extension and pulls the shoulder anteriorly. This positioning modification supports the arm and reduces stress on the anterior shoulder.
What is placing a pillow under the elbow and forearm?
Left cervical rotation is limited but becomes full when the right shoulder girdle is passively elevated, reducing tension on this muscle.
What is the right levator scapulae?
A patient’s grip is weak with the wrist flexed but becomes substantially stronger when the wrist is positioned in slight extension. This change demonstrates this biomechanical principle.
What is the length-tension relationship?
Strength and hop distance are symmetrical, but the patient continues to favor the uninvolved limb during landing. This should be addressed before return to sport.
What is asymmetrical loading?