Why exercises for hypermobility are important
Ever feel too tired to exercise? Maybe every day?! But you’d really like the energy to not only complete chores but also have fun.
Are you worried that because of your bendy body, you’ll get hurt when you exercise? But you really want to be able to move and play with your family and friends?
Want to develop a consistent movement practice but just end up feeling so tired, so worried and so overwhelmed with life stuff that your movement session is the first thing that gets dropped?
You CAN do build a movement practice that will support your hypermobility. But how?
Joint Hypermobility and Exercise
My sweetheart and my clients are hypermobile and I have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (common with hypermobile bodies). I have lots of experience supporting those who have hypermobility syndromes. It IS possible to have more good days than bad, to feel energetic, to accomplish your dreams and not just your chores.
The big question is how, of course. Well, same way we learn anything – taking baby steps and building from the ground up. Doesn’t sound like fun, you might think, but you’d be wrong. The key is to find the fun, to create the fun, and my job as your movement educator is to help you with that!
Because it’s different for everyone, right? You might like the community of group classes while another person prefers the accountability of private lessons. Or maybe your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend live session but you have time here and there to move to a video series.
But a consistent, DAILY – yup, I said daily, don’t freak out! – practice is not only the how, more importantly it’s the what. Did you know that breathing counts as a movement session? So if you lay your back and did 5 minutes of breathing exercises, you’d be getting more oxygen to the brain, you’d be moving muscles and joints, lowering blood pressure, and you’d be calming down your nervous system which reduces stress and, just maybe, all this recharges you.
So, to do this consistent exercise of breathing you don’t even have to get out of bed or off the couch! Boom! Workout done for the day and maybe you can squeeze in another breathing workout later in the day. Doesn’t matter if you can’t.
But some days you start the day with a little more energy and feel that you can do more than your breathing exercise. This where a trained movement educator (that’s ME!) comes in.
Your breath may be moving the muscles and organs and joints in your torso very gently. But next we begin to find your baseline movements by adding simple but focused movements for your pelvis and shoulder joints. Together we safely explore small movements to find your baseline while continuing to create strength in those hypermobile joints.
And then, we continue. Like a leaf floating down a river, sometimes you are in an eddy and you continue to do your breath and your baseline movements. Then one day something changes and you continue down the river, exploring new movement, new progressions, new loads.
They key is realizing that there is no pressure or stress on you to do more than your body is capable of at any one point. And the challenge is taking the time to fully discover exactly what your body is capable of each day (because it will be different!) then listening and supporting that need.
Curious and ready to move more? Book a free consult with me to chat about a movement strategy to support your hypermobile body!
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