Today’s post is one that relates to personal experiences I’ve had. I suffer from joint hypermobility in nearly every joint. Those that have caused me the most issues are my shoulder (rotator cuff), my hips (SI joints), my knees, and my wrists. Over the years I’ve owned a brace for each of these joints because it was often the only way I could immobilize the joint and stop the pain. Now if you don’t know what subluxation is thank your lucky starts. It’s when the joint partially dislocates, it causes pain and mobility issues, but it doesn’t usually require medical intervention to get the joint back where it belongs. The problem for people who suffer from subluxations is that it can happen very frequently, and affects their daily living. At one point in my life I had to wear an SI belt around my hips all day, just to keep my hips moving properly and to allow me to walk. Eventually I met a physician who helped me see how strengthening the muscles around my joints would be my best long term solution. By strengthening glutes and hip flexors the SI belt can become a things of the past. By strengthening shoulder muscles and doing rotator cuff rehab exercises you can say good bye to shoulders dislocations. By strengthening your core and back you can reduce spinal hypermobility and reduce pain. By strengthening the upper back such as the Rhomboids you can reduce cervical vertebrae subluxations, which reduces neck pain, can reduce migraines and tension headaches, and can improved your quality of sleep.
While it’s hard to be told that you need to work out when you feel like you can barely move some days, it’s advice anyone with Hypermobility really needs to give deep consideration to. Learn about why subluxations and dislocations occur, and then read about how to avoid them. All your research will bring you back to the same advice, strengthen muscles surrounding the joints. If you wait too long to build up the muscles then damage can occur within the joints and the ligaments. You may even begin to develop arthritis from repeated wear, which unfortunately is not reversible. That said if you are already at the arthritis point it’s not to say that muscle development wont help, cause it will. It will still provide more protection to the joints, and increase your stability.
Developing muscles in a person with joint Hypermobility can’t be done the same way as with someone that doesn’t have Hypermobility. More care and consideration is required by the trainer to ensure they develop a program with slow progression, minimal weight involvement, full range of motion exercises, and appropriate instructions on warm up and cool down as that can make all the difference to someone who struggles with pain and/or has inflammatory reactions to muscle demand.
I’m a great trainer for someone with Hypermobility because not only do I have a vast knowledge about how it affects the body but, I live with it, I understand it, and I’ve proven you can get stronger despite it.
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