What You Need To Know About Hypermobility And How To Treat It
If you often get tired even after rest, keep getting pain and stiffness in your joints or muscles, or keep getting sprains and strains, and amongst others, you might have joint hypermobility syndrome. It is when you have too flexible joints that cause you pain that may hinder you from performing day-to-day activities.
Hypermobility of the joints happens when the tissues holding around a joint (ligaments and joint capsule) are too loose. These can happen in joints like the shoulders, knees, elbows, wrists, and fingers. Although this is a common condition amongst children since their connective tissues aren’t completely developed yet, this can extend to adults, too.
Causes Of Hypermobility In Adults
Throughout my experience in helping clients overcome hypermobility, I’ve come to a conclusion that those who have this syndrome don’t have any underlying health conditions as one may think or assume. But I can see that they struggle because of joint and extreme rigidness of the joints.
The most common cause I found are:
Genetics, a family history of hypermobility
Lack of muscle tone or strength
A poor sense of proprioception, the ability to sense how far you’re stretching
The bone shape or the depth of the joint sockets
However, in some extreme and rare cases, hypermobility can also be caused due to an underlying condition and I think treatment for such may require additional medical attention aside from my holistic approach for hypermobility.
Treatment To Hypermobility Syndrome
Even if there’s no cure for hypermobility syndrome, the main treatment that we offer here at Evoke Wellness is improving muscle strength, flexibility, and fitness so your joints are better protected. This will allow you to enjoy activities you like such as yoga, acrobatics, weight-lifting, or even being able to simply perform better at work where longer sitting hours are required.
In the Program, we’ve introduced 3 programs that can help people who are currently experiencing hypermobility. They depend on the person’s preference where they can factor in commitment, experience, and comfortability towards treatment.
Through the treatment offered by the various programs, it can help you:
Feel energised once again since pain will be reduced
Reduction of risk of dislocations
Totally improved muscle strength and fitness
Better posture and balance
I personally have experienced where I injured myself due to poor posture, balance, which often lead to more serious sprains or strains if my hypermobility has not to be treated or I did not invest my time and attention to it.
Through low-impact exercises like swimming (as basking in the sun in the ocean is a good thing for you!), cycling and starting at a slower pace, and just simply doing proper breathwork have helped me in many ways to overcome my hypermobility.
Tips To Overcome Hypermobility At Home
We understand that there is fear in seeking medical treatment or finding an occupational therapist like me at the moment. Although I also offer services online, I would like to give out free knowledge on some immediate things you can do when you want to overcome hypermobility:
Avoid common causes of joint injuries that include running at a faster pace (if you’re not used to it), lifting too heavyweights (no to deadlift if you’re extremely hypermobile), not doing warm-up exercises before and after a workout, and forgetting about stretching (really important!).
Remember to keep proper posture. Always work on having good posture when both standing and sitting such as keeping your knees slightly bent when standing to avoid overextending them.
Sit against a wall when you are sitting on the floor. The wall will give you something to lean on while helping you to avoid slouching or having bad posture.
Wear proper and well-fitted shoes. An orthopedist can help you get fitted for proper shoes especially if you have flat feet. Shoes to look out for are those that can have good arch support and your feet don’t slide around when you wear them.
Add yoga or Pilates into the mix for your workout regimen. These two can help you learn balance techniques that alleviate joint pain. I have personally been doing yoga or pilates whenever I can at home and even have classes on it as I know how important these two can be for treating hypermobility.
Hypermobility can be treated through proper strengthening and flexibility exercises around your joints. You can begin with the tips I’ve mentioned above, but it is also worth noting that when you are too hypermobile, you might need to seek an occupational therapist or medical attention.
If you are interested in a free assessment test or need some help, Evoke Movement is happy to serve you and your needs.
