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EnglandPhysical EducationSyllabus dot point

What movements can each joint produce, and which muscles cause them?

The types of movement possible at joints used in physical activity: flexion and extension, abduction and adduction, rotation, circumduction, plantar flexion and dorsiflexion, the joint type that allows each, and the antagonistic muscle action that produces the movement.

A focused answer to Eduqas GCSE PE Component 1 on the types of movement at joints: flexion and extension, abduction and adduction, rotation and circumduction, plantar flexion and dorsiflexion, the joints that allow each, and the antagonistic muscle pairs that produce them.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.810 min answer

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

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  1. What this dot point is asking
  2. The main joint movements
  3. Rotation, circumduction and the ankle movements
  4. Which joints allow which movements
  5. Antagonistic muscle action
  6. Why this matters

What this dot point is asking

Eduqas wants you to name the types of movement that happen at joints, state which joint allows each, give a sporting example, and explain that an antagonistic muscle pair produces each movement.

The main joint movements

Rotation, circumduction and the ankle movements

Which joints allow which movements

This is why a squat (a sequence of flexion and extension at hinge and ball and socket joints) is different from a bowling action (which needs the circumduction only a ball and socket joint allows). When Eduqas asks you to analyse a movement, name the joint, the joint type, and the movement it produces.

Antagonistic muscle action

Why this matters

Naming joint movements precisely is the language of movement analysis. It feeds the planes and axes topic (a movement in a plane is made of joint actions) and the analysis and evaluation of performance task, where you describe exactly what a performer's joints and muscles are doing in order to find and fix a weakness.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

Eduqas 20194 marksDescribe the movement happening at the knee and the hip during the upward (driving) phase of a squat, and name the type of movement at each joint.
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A Component 1 movement-analysis item. Award marks for the joint actions named correctly.

During the upward phase of a squat the body straightens. At the knee the joint angle increases, so this is extension. At the hip the joint angle also increases as the trunk lifts, so this is also extension.

Markers reward "extension" at both the knee and the hip with a clear description that the joint angle is increasing (the leg straightening). Naming flexion (the downward phase) for the upward phase is a common error.

Eduqas 20223 marksA swimmer moves their arm away from the midline of the body during a breaststroke pull. Identify this movement, the joint type that allows it, and one movement that returns the arm towards the body.
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A 3-mark joint-movement item. Award one mark each for the movement, the joint type and the return movement.

Moving the arm away from the midline of the body is abduction. It happens at the shoulder, which is a ball and socket joint (allowing movement in many directions). The movement that returns the arm towards the midline is adduction.

Markers want abduction named, the ball and socket shoulder identified, and adduction given as the return movement. Mixing up abduction and adduction is the usual error, so the memory hook "adduction adds the limb back to the body" helps.

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