When we lift our arm to the overhead position, we do not elevate it with elbow extension but we raise it with elbow flexion. Nevertheless, there have been few reports about the arm raising. On the other hand, the setting phase defined as below 30 degrees has been controversial, because some authors reported it as below 60 degrees. The purposes of this study were to compare shoulder motion between arm elevation and raising, and to identify the setting phase. 15 healthy subjects participated in this study. Reflecting markers were set up on the skin of the coracoid process, acromial angle, inferior angle, medial border of the scapular spine, elbow, and the spinous processes of T2, T7 and L5. A 3-D motion computerized analyzer (Mac 3D System) was used for collection of kinematics data. All subjects randomly elevated and raised their dominant and non-dominant arms 5 times on the scapular plane. Scapurohumeral rhythm (SHR) was calculated from GH-j motion angle / scapular motion angle. In addition, we calculated the coefficient of variation (CV) from standard deviation / average. We could not verify the static significance between elevation and raising. Values of CV varied and were below 50 degrees in elevation and below 60 degrees in raising. In addition, a similar phase was identified below 60 degrees on lowering. We could not find any static significance between the shoulder motion of arm elevation and raising according to 3-D analysis. The setting phase was identified as below 60 degrees on arm elevation, and 50 degrees on arm raising.
