Normal Range of Motion of the Joints of the Upper Extremity in Male Subjects, with Special Reference to Side*

We measured, with a universal full-circle manual goniometer, the active and passive arcs of motion of the shoulder, elbow, forearm, and wrist in 1000 healthy male subjects who were right-hand dominant and who ranged in age from eighteen to twenty-two years. The ranges of motion on the right side were significantly smaller than those on the left. We concluded that the contralateral, normal side may not always be a reliable control in the evaluation of restriction of motion of a joint.