Everyday actions...

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Every morning I sit and drink a cup of coffee to wake myself up and get ready for the day. My arm is already resting on the table so it is in extension. When I go to raise the cup to my mouth it is now in a flexed position. As I take a sip of the coffee my wrist is internally rotating. The motions of flexion and extension occur in the sagittal plane about a frontal axis. The motion of internal rotation occurs in the transverse plane about a vertical axis. The osteokinematics of this is an open kinematic chain because my trunk is stable but my distal ends (elbow and wrist) are moving. In terms of arthrokinematics, when I raise the cup to my mouth the radius is the convex segment which rolls posteriorly on the concave segment, which is the distal end of the humerus. The prime mover for elbow flexion is the biceps, which performs a concentric contraction.

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