The motor examination assesses volitional movement and strength, as well as other skeletal muscle features including bulk, tone, posture, and involuntary movements. Muscles must be relaxed to assess tone, so distraction is sometimes helpful. One way to distract patients is by having them make large circles or perform fine finger movements with the contralateral arm. Strength may be tested in most muscle groups of the body, but a selection of distal and proximal limb movements is most useful for a screening examination. A normal motor examination could be communicated with: “Bulk, tone, and posture are normal; there are not fasciculations, involuntary movements, or pronator drift; and strength is 5/5 for bilateral finger flexion and extension, elbow flexion and extension, shoulder abduction, hip flexion and extension, knee flexion and extension, and foot dorsiflexion and plantarflexion”.
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Introduction to Neurology 