The top-rated Exploring Anatomy Programme is now live on Physiopedia Plus (Plus), comprising 13 short courses on different body areas. Whatever your level of experience, we guarantee you can learn something – check out our favourite surprising anatomy facts below!

The new Exploring Anatomy Programme supports rehabilitation professionals to get confident with their anatomical knowledge and key skills. Via interactive anatomy models each course focusses on a different body area and will help you to:

name and identify the bones and bony points of each joint
learn about the types of joints, including joint classification, articular surfaces and the available movements according to planes of motion, and open and closed-packed positions
be able to describe soft tissue structures
get to grips with individual muscle’s origin, insertion and actions as well as  joint nerve and vascular supply
be confident discussing joint function
learn bony landmarks, improve your palpation skills, revise passive movement testing of the joint and understand patient positioning for optimal handling

The programme was created with an emphasis on facilitating learning, whatever your learning style. Through interactive anatomy models, whether a student or an experienced practitioner, you can gain detailed knowledge about the human structure, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, vascular supply, and innervation. 

Did you know? Clinical pearls from the Exploring Anatomy Programme

Physical activity may influence gender- and age-related differences in the foot’s range of motion (Exploring Foot Anatomy)
Underdevelopment or complete absence of one vessel can occur in the vascular supply of the ankle, and it usually leads to increased development of the other artery (Exploring Ankle Anatomy)
The knees withstand large compressive loads of up to 3–4 times the body weight during running (Exploring Knee Anatomy)
Palpation of the anterior inferior iliac spine is a simple bony landmark (Exploring Hip Anatomy)
16–30% of chronic mechanical lower back pain incidences are related to sacroiliac joint pain (Exploring Pelvis Anatomy course)
Diastasis recti are extremely frequent (Exploring Lumbar Spine and Abdominal Wall Anatomy course)
An inclinometer has criterion validity when measuring thoracic kyphosis, comparable to the lateral thoracic spine radiograph, the gold standard (Exploring Thoracic Spine and Rib Cage course)
The muscle responsible for the vertical lines above the nose bridge is called Corrugator Supercilii (Head and Jaw Anatomy course)
The position of the thoracic spine must be considered when assessing shoulder range of motion as it significantly affects scapular kinematics during scapular plane abduction. A slouched posture is associated with decreased shoulder range of motion and muscle force (Exploring Shoulder Anatomy course)
When assessing elbow function, most daily activities can be completed with 30–130 degrees elbow flexion, 50 degrees of forearm pronation, and 50 degrees of forearm supination ( Exploring Elbow Anatomy course)
When managing rehabilitation of the wrist, the functional range required to perform basic activities of daily living is 30 degrees extension, 5 degrees flexion, 10 degrees radial deviation and 15 degrees ulnar deviation (Exploring Wrist Anatomy course)
Hand innervation can be highly variable due to anatomical variations within the ulnar and median nerves (Exploring Hand Anatomy course)

Did you learn something new?

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