Function of the skeletal system:

• Support and protection of body organs.

• Form the hard core of all segments that provide
shape and form for body structures.
• Lever action and its many articulations provide
mobility.
• Acts as store for inorganic cells.
• Blood cell transformation.
• Sound transmission
 Reference Planes and Axes for Body
Motion
• The plane is an imaginary surface on which the
movement takes place.

• The axis is an imaginary straight line around which

( axial, angular,…) movements take place. (Axes =
plural of axis).
 Types of reference planes:

• Planes defined with reference to earth’s surface such as

horizontal and vertical planes.
• Planes defined with reference to the body itself. These planes
are used in kinesiological analysis.
• There are three kinesiological planes each perpendicular to each of
the other two. There are likewise three axes of motion, each
perpendicular to the plane in which the movement occurs

• The planes are called cardinal planes if it divides the body into
equal halves and they intersect at the center of gravity of the
body.
• Sagittal Plane ( antero – posterior or median) is an
imaginary vertical plane passing through the body from
front to back dividing it into right and left halves (e.g. flexion
– extension of the neck).

• Frontal (lateral or coronal) plane is an imaginary

vertical plane passing through the body from side to side
dividing it into anterior and posterior halves ( e.g. bending of
the neck).

• Horizontal (transverse) plane: is an imaginary

horizontal plane dividing the body into upper and lower
halves (e.g. rotation of the neck from side to side).
• When movements occur in a plane parallel to any of the
cardinal planes, these planes are called parallel planes ( e.g.
movements of the upper and lower limbs).

• When movements occur in any plane which is not

perpendicular to any of the cardinal or parallel planes these
planes are called diagonal planes ( e.g. raising the arm between
straight forward and straight sideward.

N.B.: Kinesiologic planes remain the same

regardless of the position of the body
with reference to the earth.
 Types of Axes:

• Sagittal axis: it is an imaginary antero-posterior

transverse axis passing horizontally from front to
back and is perpendicular to the frontal plane.

• Frontal axis: it is an imaginary transverse axis

passing from side to side and is perpendicular to the
sagittal plane.

• Longitudinal axis: it is an imaginary vertical axis

and is perpendicular to the transverse plane.
• Sagittal axis Frontal Plane

• Frontal Axis Sagittal Plane

Longitudinal Horizontal

• Vertical Transverse