Can I Be Too Bendy? Learn 3 Top Secrets Of Controlling Hypermobile Joints.

Oct 12, 2017

 

Struggling with a stiff painful body part is tough right? Well yes it is. We’ve all had that body part that is chugging along nicely in life and then pow pain strikes and it starts to give us grief.

 

Well in case you didn’t know, there are people who struggle at the other end of the spectrum, those whose body parts move too much! This is called hypermobility also commonly known to the general public as being double jointed. Now let me tell you now you cannot have double joints. What does happen is the joints have more movement in them than the person who doesn’t have hypermobility.

 

You may be sitting there thinking, I’d love to have a bendy body that moves wherever I want it to, you know just like the gymnasts and dancers you see on tv but too much movement comes at a price.

 

I am a fellow sufferer of hypermobility. I thought it was great when I was young showing off my party trick of wiggling my elbows in ways others couldn’t or bending my thumb so far it touched my forearm. As I’ve got older I’ve come to realise being bendy isn’t always as good as it’s cracked up to be.

 

People who suffer with joint hypermobility have ligaments that are more flexible than those who don’t have the condition.

 

Obviously there are other symptoms hypermobile people suffer with but I won’t go in to this now during this blog. What I want to concentrate on is how hypermobility affects our joints and what we can do to help ease the suffering.

 

People with hypermobility will often move in bad ways and instead of using our muscles to control our joint ranges of movement or postures we rely on our ligaments to support our joints, meaning that often our joints hang out at our end of range (a range which is far more dangerous than a person with normal ligament stiffness) and then wonder why we have aches, pains and sometimes swelling.

 

Having too much movement means we are more susceptible to joint dislocations or subluxations (partial dislocation) as our ligaments do not stop the joints moving past the danger zone as it were. We also have a higher chance of developing tendonitis, bursitis and suffering sprains and strains.

 

So if we cannot change the flexibility of our ligaments what can we do to help ourselves???

 

Below are three top secrets I will share with you that have helped me and hundreds of our clients.

 

1. Improve your awareness of how far your joints are moving.

 

When doing normal every day activities take a look at the joints that are hurting and when they are hurting.

 

If your knees, hips or back hurt when you stand for too long check your posture in the mirror. I’ve caught myself with my hips slung forward which means I am relying on my hip and low back ligaments to hold me upright and then wonder why my back is hurting.

 

For knee pain make sure your knees are not bending back too far. Soften those knees slightly do not lock them out.

 

If your hands or wrists hurt when using a computer check the position they are in. Make sure your wrists are not resting on the table or keyboard as this means they will be too extended. Check your mouse position. Make sure the mouse is close to you, don’t over reach and lower your mouse use where possible as too much clicking can play havoc with your wrists and hands.

 

If you have to use a computer in your work my advice to you is get a proper work station assessment by a trained medical professional.

 

Being aware of where your joints are takes practice over and over again until your brain picks up what is a safe position and what isn’t.

 

2. Check your sitting posture

 

IF you sit with your legs crossed on a chair then stop this now. Sitting with your legs crossed causes your spine to twist. Sitting crossed legged also puts unnecessary stress on your knees and hips.

 

Try sitting with equal weight through your buttocks and both feet flat on the floor.

 

3. Check the body parts above and below the area of pain.

 

I’ll give you an example of what I mean by this. I have a chronic low back problem. I have too much movement at one of my spinal levels which has meant damage to one of my discs. Why did this happen in the first place? Well, as I have got older I developed a stiff mid back and stiff hips. My low back is in the middle of these two areas and has taken the brunt of my hips and mid back being stiff.

 

So doing just stretching exercises for my low back is one of the worst things I can do as it is already unstable. What I focus on is reducing the stiffness in my mid back and hips and this helps ease my low back pain by making sure the areas above and below my low back move as they should.

 

If you have sore knees check your hip and ankle movements and if they feel stiff work on these.

 

Now I hear you shout but you said being hypermobile means all joints have too much movement. If this is the case why do I have stiff areas in my body that need work? Our bodies have to get some stability from somewhere, so what happens is the muscles start to tighten up to create this stability but this isn’t always a good thing as if the wrong muscles tighten (which is often the case) then we start to move badly and this results in pain.

 

What I would say is if you are struggling with hypermobility and joint pains and you are unsure what to do for the best then my advice to you is get seen by a specialist physiotherapist asap! Don’t put it off thinking there is no hope. There is help out there you just need to find out where to go to get it.

If you want some more tips on how to avoid joint pain click on one of our free reports. We have them for various body parts.

If you are struggling with knee pain click the link below where you can download a completely free report on ways to ease chronic knee pain naturally: http://www.wdcphysiotherapy.co.uk/physiotherapy/knee-pain/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For even more tips to help ease back pain, visit here where you can download your free copy of my back pain report: http://www.wdcphysiotherapy.co.uk/physiotherapy/back-pain/

 

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[ebs_iconheading type=”h4″ style=”glyphicon-user” icontype=”glyphicon”][/ebs_iconheading] About the Author
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About Wendy McCloud

Wendy is the founder of The South East’s Leading Specialist Private Physiotherapy Practice for People in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, who want to keep healthy and active.

Wendy’s background includes working as an Extended Scope Practitioner Physiotherapist working as part of Mr. Ali Al-Sabti’s Orthopaedic Consultant’s team specialising in Shoulder Pain.

Wendy has treated royalty for Shoulder pain through referrals from her close links with a top Orthopaedic Shoulder Surgeons. More recently Wendy has been the sole choice physiotherapist for all Essex based referrals from London Shoulder surgeon Mr. Matthew Sala.

Wendy worked in National Level Rugby Union for 11 years, working with players who achieved county honours and representative honours for various countries such as England, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. Wendy resigned from her position as Head Physiotherapist at Southend RFC in June 2011 to open WDC which has become the fastest growing clinic in the South East of England.

WDC is now a large multi-therapist speciality practice in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

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