In medicine, the term pronation describes the movement of an extremity. The word pronation comes from Latin and means something like “to bend forward” or “to turn forward”. The opposite movement to pronation is supination. There is the pronation of the hand or forearm and the pronation of the foot. Both are presented in the following text.
Pronation of the forearm
The radius and ulna play a role in pronation of the forearm. In the pronation movement of the forearm, the arm turns “inwards”. Thus, if the arm is stretched out with the palm facing up, the arm is turned so that the palm is facing down and the thumb is facing the body.
In this movement the hand and the forearm are turned. This is caused by the movement of the muscles of the forearm, which originate from the ulna and radius. The joints involved are called Articulatio radioulnaris proximalis and Articulatio radioulnaris distalis. The following muscles are involved in the pronation of the forearm:
- Musculus pronator teres
- Musculus pronator quadratus
- Musculus brachioradialis.
Pronation of the foot
When pronating the foot, the outer side of the foot is moved up and the middle side of the foot is moved down. The heel is not moved. The foot therefore bends inwards.
The responsible muscles are called: Whereby the first two mentioned are the main muscles for this movement. In the case of foot malpositions, over- or underpronation can occur. This can lead to incorrect loading of the foot, which in turn can be harmful to tendons and muscles.
Therefore there are different shoes for different foot positions for running. The causes of the foot malposition are usually congenital, acquired through overweight or caused by severe fatigue. There are two mnemonic devices to help you remember supination and pronation: “In supination, the hand is in the shape of a bowl for soup and in pronation, the hand is like cutting bread”.
- Musculus peroneus longus
- Musculus peroneus brevis
- Musculus extensor digitorum longus.
