Joint Flexibility Score Calculator

The Beighton Score is the standard clinical screen for joint hypermobility, meaning joints that move beyond their normal range. It dates to 1973 and is still what rheumatologists, physiotherapists, and sports medicine doctors reach for first when looking at hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) and related conditions.

The 9-point Beighton scoring system:

Five tests, nine points:

1. Little finger extension (each hand): with the hand flat and the forearm supported, can the little finger be bent back past 90°? 1 point per side, 2 maximum.

2. Thumb to forearm (each hand): with the wrist bent, can the thumb be pressed down to touch the inside of the forearm? 1 point per side, 2 maximum.

3. Elbow hyperextension (each arm): with the arm straight out, does the elbow bend backwards past straight by more than 10°? 1 point per side, 2 maximum.

4. Knee hyperextension (each leg): standing with the leg locked, does the knee bend backwards by more than 10° (genu recurvatum)? 1 point per side, 2 maximum.

5. Forward trunk bend: standing with knees straight, can both palms be placed flat on the floor? 1 point, 1 maximum.

The 10° threshold on the elbows and knees is the part people get wrong. A joint that reaches exactly straight, or a degree or two past it, does not score. Without a goniometer, the practical test is whether the hyperextension is visible from across the room. If you have to look closely, it is not 10°.

Interpretation:

• 0-2: normal range, typical flexibility
• 3-4: borderline, some laxity in specific joints
• 5-6: hypermobile, notable laxity across several joints
• 7-9: marked generalized hypermobility, worth a rheumatology opinion

The cutoff moves with age, which most online versions of this test ignore. The 2017 international criteria set the threshold for generalized joint hypermobility at 6 or more before puberty, 5 or more from puberty to 50, and 4 or more after 50. Connective tissue stiffens over a lifetime, so the same person can score 6 at 20 and 3 at 60 while nothing about them has changed. The calculator applies the right cutoff for the age you enter.

Hypermobility is not a disease. Plenty of dancers, gymnasts, swimmers and string players are hypermobile and it is an advantage in all four. What matters is whether it comes with symptoms: recurring joint pain, dislocations or subluxations, unusual fatigue, poor balance, stretchy or fragile skin, or slow wound healing. A high score plus any of those is the combination worth taking to a doctor, and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is diagnosed on that whole picture, never on the Beighton number alone.