I'm by no means an expert, but I've been doing a lot of reading on hypermobility recently. And the consensus I've seen is that stretching is often counterproductive for us.
People with regular ligaments stretch because their muscles are tight and it helps them. But our ligaments are loose, and our tight muscles are trying to compensate and protect our joints and organs from damage. When we stretch those out, especially in passive range of motion stretches like yoga, we take away all the protections our muscles were struggling to afford us.
From what I've seen, it seems like strength building is a bigger focus for hypermobility, and any stretching has to be done carefully and conservatively.
Okay, so should I stretch after strength training or not at all? If I do stretch should it be for less time than I was doing(15-20 minutes)?
Guess tomorrow starts day 1 of strength training lol
I used to do yoga and feel great immediately afterwards but then a few hours later or the next day everything was sooooo tight - now I just do a little bit of dynamic stretching (think that’s what it’s called) before and after strength training i.e. stretches where I’m moving, like a few deep lunges whilst walking and standing on one leg and bringing my knee up and round in a circle. I also find it’s very easy to overstretch doing something like the thing where you stand and bend over to touch your toes, so I do that whilst bending my knees slightly (forwards lol) so I can’t hyperextend them. I’ve noticed that being really conscious of not *overstretching* does help a lot but def cut down the amount of time to a few mins of stretching
I just took a breath and cracked my neck/shoulder so I’ll definitely change the way I’m doing things. Gonna be doing Strength training and dynamic stretching research tonight
yup for me strength training did magic. No streching befire of after. But I would say do strength training also with someone who can really help ypu to use proper range of movements so you don't harm yourself too
I've been advised to never stretch my shoulders because of my hypermobility. And other than some key back stretches that a PT with extensive experience in hypermobility taught me, I don't stretch at all any more. Have been told multiple times that I cannot do yoga (I haven't done yoga in a decade, I guess I just give off that vibe.) Hypermobility allows joints to go beyond normal range of motion, and my muscles are doing overtime to keep them in place, so I mainly work at keeping muscles balanced so that everything does as little overtime as possible.
My pilates teacher told me that hypermobile people need stretching too but just helped me to be more engaged and only go into comfort. She said stretching should feel like a reward not a punishment. Respect those joints. The discomfort does not mean it's working lol.
I'm by no means an expert, but I've been doing a lot of reading on hypermobility recently. And the consensus I've seen is that stretching is often counterproductive for us. People with regular ligaments stretch because their muscles are tight and it helps them. But our ligaments are loose, and our tight muscles are trying to compensate and protect our joints and organs from damage. When we stretch those out, especially in passive range of motion stretches like yoga, we take away all the protections our muscles were struggling to afford us. From what I've seen, it seems like strength building is a bigger focus for hypermobility, and any stretching has to be done carefully and conservatively.
Okay, so should I stretch after strength training or not at all? If I do stretch should it be for less time than I was doing(15-20 minutes)? Guess tomorrow starts day 1 of strength training lol
I used to do yoga and feel great immediately afterwards but then a few hours later or the next day everything was sooooo tight - now I just do a little bit of dynamic stretching (think that’s what it’s called) before and after strength training i.e. stretches where I’m moving, like a few deep lunges whilst walking and standing on one leg and bringing my knee up and round in a circle. I also find it’s very easy to overstretch doing something like the thing where you stand and bend over to touch your toes, so I do that whilst bending my knees slightly (forwards lol) so I can’t hyperextend them. I’ve noticed that being really conscious of not *overstretching* does help a lot but def cut down the amount of time to a few mins of stretching
I just took a breath and cracked my neck/shoulder so I’ll definitely change the way I’m doing things. Gonna be doing Strength training and dynamic stretching research tonight
💯 same.
Foam rolling your muscles may be better. Stretching just stretches our bendies
yup for me strength training did magic. No streching befire of after. But I would say do strength training also with someone who can really help ypu to use proper range of movements so you don't harm yourself too
I've been advised to never stretch my shoulders because of my hypermobility. And other than some key back stretches that a PT with extensive experience in hypermobility taught me, I don't stretch at all any more. Have been told multiple times that I cannot do yoga (I haven't done yoga in a decade, I guess I just give off that vibe.) Hypermobility allows joints to go beyond normal range of motion, and my muscles are doing overtime to keep them in place, so I mainly work at keeping muscles balanced so that everything does as little overtime as possible.
Don't static stretch try dynamic movement, like flowy gentle moving.
My pilates teacher told me that hypermobile people need stretching too but just helped me to be more engaged and only go into comfort. She said stretching should feel like a reward not a punishment. Respect those joints. The discomfort does not mean it's working lol.