Pronation and Supination Explained

We see so many spirals and rotations in life, but did you know our whole body rotates daily? We often hear the term pronation and supination and normally most of us think that just happens at the foot.

In this blog, I look at how we also pronate and supinate all the time in the whole body.

Why is this important? Knowledge and understanding of how your body is moving empowers you to diversify routines and achieve better results.

By understanding, you can modify and not just go through the motions but feel imbalances, identify strengths and weaknesses as well as enhance the mind-muscle connection which will help to get more efficient results.

So, let’s look at what pronation and supination is. Pronation is the inward rotation of the forearms; imagine palms down towards the ground. Supination is the outward rotations of the forms; imagine your palms up towards the sky. 

Both these movements are important for healthy arms. As the wrist rotates up or down, the elbow and the shoulder need to do the same, so it becomes a whole arm movement. But if all that moves, then the whole body must be involved. 

An example of this is walking; if you step your right foot forward, you should feel the right arm swing into pronation (rotate inwards or down) and the left arm supination (rotate up or outwards) so we are constantly pronating and supinating our hands with our feet and the rest of our bodies all day, every day. 

In this video above, we look at the very popular push up and how we can press from the palm and fingers using pronated and supinated arm to get the whole arm working together and make sure everything is doing its job, preventing injuries and creating a little more balance in the tissues, and not over working and/ or underworking others. And even in a push up, you can start seeing how the whole body is involved! 

And if you have any questions and want to know more about this and how we can get you moving the whole body pain free, contact us today.