Emotional Support Sisters

Having hypermobility and chronic fatigue syndrome create a conundrum when trying to get a consistent exercise routine. On the hypermobile side of life, regular and consistent exercise, especially strength training, is recommended. On the chronic fatigue side recovery time can be longer than what is normally expected. I’ve gotten pretty good at being aware of how much energy I have and when it is time to stop so that I can still do everything life requires. One of the biggest little tricks to balance the hypermobility need for exercise and the chronic fatigue need for rest is that I exercise at night and then go to bed. I recover better this way. 

Because of hypermobility, I have become what I call a  yoyo exerciser (like a yoyo dieter, but with exercise). Through the years I have done dance aerobic classes, jogging/walking, weight lifting, yoga, walking without jogging, t-tapp, and random exercise videos on youtube. I have also done my fair share of physical therapy, which always makes me feel better and I highly recommend it. Eventually, because of my competitive nature, I push myself too far, end up injured, and then have to stop whatever it was that I was doing and go back to walking, yoga, and old physical therapy exercises while I recover. By far my favorite form has been weightlifting. I loved tracking on paper my gains and the cool changes in life, like carrying my 60 lb child in my back while jogging to the bathroom. In case you’re curious why I did that, we were on a hike about 1/4 of a mile away from the potty and she refused to use natures litter box. What I didn’t like about weight training is my struggle to stretch and loosen my muscles when I was done. I am currently in the exploration stage trying to find a good balance between weight training and keeping my muscles from turning into giant knots.  

In this next little bit, I’m going to share little tricks I’ve learned about my body through the years. Now realize in no way shape or form am I a medical or exercise professional, so this is for demonstration purposes only and to help you think of good questions to ask your professional so that you can improve your workout routine.

First I have a natural turn out of my feet. When I am pregnant the turnout looks like I am waddling (my husband’s words) in ballet second position. The turnout makes it so I need to modify exercises to accommodate the structure of my body. You can also see that my knees are hyperextended. I have to make a conscious effort to stand with my knees slightly bent so I don’t lock my knees. Truthfully it probably just makes my knees look normal but feels like I am bending them.

As mentioned before I have a competitive nature. That means in things like stretching I want to look/be the most flexible. As I have aged, I have learned that I should focus more on the purpose of the stretch, as opposed to the extreme of the stretch.

For instance. This picture is me doing the stretch to the extreme. My knees are straight and my hands are on the ground. but guess what? My hamstring is not getting stretched. In fact, I don’t feel a stretch anywhere.

In this second picture, my knees are bent and I am getting an excellent hamstring stretch.

In yoga, there are a lot of positions that have wrists bearing body weight. It doesn’t matter how much strengthening I do, my wrists collapse easily, so instead I use fists. Even then you can still see my right wrist collapsing.

My shoulder pops out of place easily. It will do it while I am sleeping, exercising, or if I move my arm wrong. It can get annoying. To help it stay in place when I do overhead work I hold my elbow in and it keeps my shoulder in.

My last little tip for today is about foam rollers and massage guns. As a hypermobile person, stretching rarely helps my muscles feel better. I have found a few stretches that help, but for the most part I rely on foam rolling and my massage gun for relief. I prefer the message gun because I can control the pressure and intensity better than the foam roller. The downside to the massage gun is that I can’t reach all of my muscles with it. That’s when the foam roller comes into play. It can reach everywhere. I have a hate/love relationship with foam rollers, I hate using it because it can get intense and uncomfortable. I love how I feel when I am finished.

Speaking of my competitive nature I decided to see if I could still do a backbend even though I haven’t done one in years. I still got it. Also, this is what hypermobility looks like on me in my mid-30s. As a kid, I could get my head between my legs. That’s not going to happen now.

Also this video is a really good example of modifying exercises to fit your body. I have anterior pelvic tilt and love this video