To Flexible? What to do for squats/presses?

CoderGal · February 2013

I'd appreciate some advice. Alright this is going to sound like I'm either gross or bragging for a second but hear me out.

I'm pretty sure my legs are hypermobile (unusually bendable in ways I shouldn't be). I can put my foot behind my head and touch my foot off my chest with my legs behind me. It'a making me concerned with weights since I'm not sure being ultra bendy is good for me given the videos I've watched and things I've read about being hypermobile.

So I was watching some videos and descriptions of 'proper' squats and there seems to be conflicting reports. Some videos say don't go past 90 degrees (usually mentioning that your weight shouldn't be on your toes, so your knees shouldn't be over your toes, makes sense unless you want to kill your calves). Others (like stronglifts) suggest you do if you are flexible enough and can plant your heals on the ground and are not on your toes. Well I think I am definitely doing something wrong because I can get significantly below all the videos I have seen of the 'low' squats. At first my problem was I was on my heals more then I thought. I corrected that...I can lift my toes up off the ground perfectly balanced without shifting the weight when I'm fully down so I don't think that's it. So I concentrated on making sure my back didn't curl...I don't think that's a problem either but I try to concentrate on it more. Is there such thing as leaning to forward if you're still on your heals and your back is arched if you're flexible? Is that good or bad? Maybe because my legs are weird I'm doing that? Is that bad? Or I just don't know what I'm doing? My back always feels fine after my squats, so as far as form goes I don't think I'm damaging that part but I'm not a pro so tell me if I'm wrong. My legs get an incredible burn when I squat low. I also feel incredibly weak at the bottom...but I'm incredibly pathetically weak so I'm not sure if it's just me. I thought about it and it seems to make sense that the farther you get towards sitting down the harder it is to come up with weight on you. But I go from having power to having almost nill. And after thinking about it, working those muscles if they're feeling weak should be a good thing? What do you think? But I can't lift nearly as much weight as I can if I go low. When I don't go down so far I usually lift 40 lbs and feel best kind. If I do the lower squats I can lift about half of what I normally do...yeah...half...and my legs kill the next day. But not in a I pulled something kind of way but in a I exercised allot and now my legs no longer want to move kind of way (like they do after a long hike).

Also, I knew my legs were wonky but I told one of the staff members at the gym that I have no idea what I'm doing and if he could correct me on forum (it's a university gym, there's no trainers). Well, he gave me advice on what to do, then I tried to mimic what was said by doing a few standing overhead presses. The first thing he said was "Wow, you are super flexible". I don't understand this, what is flexible about a overhead press? It didn't hit me to ask at the time because I always get those comments but never when I'm just standing there moving my arms up and down lol. What could be flexible about a overhead press?

TL;DR:

hypermobile people or those who are flexible enough should or should not squat farther then 90 degrees? Why is this 90degree thing seemingly key? What could be 'super flexible' about overhead presses? I didn't think of asking at the time and have no idea what that means or if it's good or bad or if I should stop?

Thank you for your time!

DopeItUp · February 2013

You've asked a boatload of questions and I will try to give my opinions. I'm not an expert, but I do like to research good form all the time and I am also hypermobile. I will note that I'm not totally hypermobile, I'm a mixed bag. I can almost touch my fingers to the back of my hand, but I can't even come halfway to touching my thumb to my wrist. I can put my palms to the floor from a standing position without bending my knees, but my hamstrings are so tight I can't even do a good morning to 45*. Anyway.

First off, not everyone's body is the same so form will vary a bit. As far as squat form goes.

1) Always go past parallel. Always, always always. This takes pressure off of your knees and is also the only "legal" squat in competition. The real question is: how far past parallel? That depends on the person. If you go fully *kitten*-to-grass, you're getting higher range of motion BUT you will not be able to do as much weight. Simple. It becomes a matter of personal preference at that point. Do you want to train less weight in a larger range of motion? Or more weight with less range of motion? For example, people who want to be powerlifters will generally shoot for just below parallel to maximize the weight they can handle - which is the whole point of powerlifting. There's no right or wrong here, IMO, it's a matter of personal preference. If you can keep your back flat all the way down and handle the weight safely, then there's no reason you shouldn't go *kitten*-to-grass if you WANT to. It's normal to feel weaker here, it's just the way it is.
2) The whole knees over toes, knees past toes things, blah blah blah. If you're going all the way down on a squat, chances your knees are gonna go over your toes. There's no real way around this. In order to stay balanced they pretty much have to (assuming normal body type). The point is, you want to keep the bar over your midfoot to optimize balance and power. An illustration from Mark Rippetoe's book:

3) As to your question about leaning too far forward, again reference the above illustration. Depending on the bar position and depending on how low you go, it's possible to lean quite a bit. The whole point is to keep the bar balanced over your mid-foot. The degree of leaning depends then on how low your hips go, and where the bar is on your back. As you can see in the low-bar illustration, you can end up leaning quite a bit.
4) Your question about flexibility and OHP. To do OHP optimally you will be standing up but your upper body will lean backwards a bit. This is to allow for the most optimal movement of the bar (straight up and down) without smacking into your chin. That's all I can think of regarding flexibility. No need to lean any further than to allow the bar to clear your chin, IMO. You basically want to push the bar straight up, not up and out - that's much harder and will screw with your balance and subsequently, the amount of weight you can do.

Hope this helps answer some questions at least. Take video of yourself and post it up for your friends (or a knowledgeable select few) if you're really worried about your form (or just use for your own reference). Hell I took vid of my DL and BP form tonight for that very reason.

jayche · February 2013

Flexibility will only help your squat.
Personally I go *kitten* to grass on squats with high bar placement and while I can't go as heavy when I do them (relative to low bar) like this I definitely feel more quad and glute involvement vs. a low bar.

tross0924 · February 2013

TL;DR:

hypermobile people or those who are flexible enough should or should not squat farther then 90 degrees? Why is this 90degree thing seemingly key? What could be 'super flexible' about overhead presses? I didn't think of asking at the time and have no idea what that means or if it's good or bad or if I should stop?

Thank you for your time!

There comes a point past 90 degrees where the "meat" of your calf and the "meat" of your hamstring meet and begin to direct pressure into spreading the bones connected by your knee apart. This is bad. This is very very bad with a lot of weight helping to do the spreading. Don't do this. You can squat to a point that just breaks 90 and do just fine, but your shouldn't be touching your heels to your butt, or be anywhere close to this.

Your arms were probably drifting behind your head on more of an angle than normal people. Ideally they go straight up and down and not backwards on a 10 degree angle because that stress some of the supporting muscles more than is necessarily good for them.

EvgeniZyntx · February 2013

Flexibility will only help your squat.
Personally I go *kitten* to grass on squats with high bar placement and while I can't go as heavy when I do them (relative to low bar) like this I definitely feel more quad and glute involvement vs. a low bar.

This is incorrect.

There are issues with being too flexible in weight lifting but are such that they can be corrected.

First off, given that you have other medical complaints I would suggest that this too is an item to include and discuss with your doc. Hypermobility Syndrome is what you are describing and is a marker for a few other condititions. They are worth mentioning as they can have cardiovascular health impact that you should look into. Posting that so others that might have high flex can also consider this, if you want to specifically discuss the tableau we can take to PMs.

In terms of weight lifting or exercise Hypermobility does lead to higher rate of injury due to unstable joints - sprains and tears are not uncommon.

For squats, you need to build back and core strength and progress more slowly to assure you are not over dependent on a too S curved position which can lead to lower back injury. From memory, Riptoe mentions this in his book - i'll find the reference.

Squats do not place a specific risk in the knee if you are hypermobile, they will actually help create stability and protect from dynamic injury.

EvgeniZyntx · February 2013

Here:
Recommended reading chapter 4 of starting strength on lumbar overextension

And these links: http://saptstrength.com/2012/12/13/an-overreaction-to-the-arch-your-back-cue-and-how-to-create-better-positioning-during-your-lifts/ (nice Jedi reference too)
http://saptstrength.com/2013/02/06/for-the-overextended-part-ii/

BinaryPulsar · February 2013

These are helpful responses. I'm just here to read them.

DavPul · February 2013

Dafuq is this so long?!?!

Edited to add: okay, I managed to wade thru these walls of texts. I concur with pretty much everything Dope said. Squat to 90 or below but there's no real reason you have to go super low. And the knees over toes thing is decent as a rule of thumb but in practice different body structures may go over and it's perfectly fine. Experiment a bit with the bar to determine the foot placement and depth that feels natural. You'll have an advantage because lack of hamstring flexibility is a limiting factor for most newbies.

thing you can do if you want us to help is take video so we can check out your *kitten*, ahem, I mean check out your form on the squats and OHP on a strictly professional basis.

yeah, no idea how doing a light OHP rep can exhibit extreme flexibility, unless you stepped thru the bar between each rep or something

taso42 · February 2013

Dude, you need to read Starting Strength.

upgetupgetup · February 2013

The 90 degree thing is a hangover from the 80s and 90s. Now, most people agree that going deeper is safer for most, because just stopping at 90 puts pressure on the knees.

It is worth pursuing a diagnosis to exclude the connective tissue and autoimmune disorders that do affect the CV system - but note that not all do; sometimes, it's just orthopaedic stuff to deal with. I'm in the middle of figuring out what's going on myself. For lots of these things, I gather, it's a matter of patching things up as and when, and walking a fine line between injury prevention and maintaining function and health through exercise. Moderation, basically, and listening to your body.

Right now I have more restrictions than this, and a little more complicated story, but about hypermobility, I have been told that when not injured I should aim to stabilize and strengthen muscles around the hypermobile joints. Moderate strength training - that is, staying within a 10-20 rep range, and staying in the middle of the range of motion for movements involving affected joints. No heavy heavy lifting (fewer than 8 reps) (too much strain on the whole shebang), and no crazy repetitions, like doing a hundred pushups, because that could leave you open to overuse injuries.

- exposing ligaments etc to risk is considered not great. No to yoga, yes to Pilates, I was told. Big yes to Pilates, actually, it's kind of perfect for this sort of thing.

- varied, medium duration, moderate intensity cardio, with low or minimal impact. It's not great to do too much of cardio that involves doing the same movements over and over, so switching things up is good. Biking is low impact but repetitive. Swimming is ok if you switch between strokes and avoid butterfly.

(Did your shoulders pop out of joint when you were doing the OHP?)

Sarauk2sf · February 2013

This is a good reference:

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Lifts

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Squat_Videos

Nataliaho · February 2013

I am hypermobile as well, it does come with its unique challenges, but they can be dealt with. You really have to concentrate on keeping tight the whole way down. I also adopt a slightly narrower stance than normal. So while I do maintain knees over feet, my feet are only slightly pointed out. This gives me more resistance through my hamstrings and glutes so I don't dive-bomb. If I take too wide stance/angle I am more prone to just bottom out. If your shoulders are flexible too (like mine), you could also try a low and narrow rack, this helps me stay upright rather than leaning forward.

Because I am so flexible, parallel for me feels like I am hardly squatting. So somthing else that's helped is have my spotter or buddy call it for me at just below parallel.

All that aside, its really about concentration. Keep saying to yourself, "tight, tight, tight, tight.... then chest up, chest up, chest up".

Hope this helps, it's really hard to explain online, but I've worked with my strength coaches on my form so much for exactly this issue

On the OHP, he could have also been talking about hyperextending your legs backwards?? Mine do that unless I pay attention. Or you might be over extending your back..

ETA - just to add, I've never had injuries because of my mobility, nor do I think it stops you lifting heavy (my squat is just under 100kg)...

_SABOTEUR_ · February 2013

TL:DR

But, isn't the strength excursion in the push up from the bottom of the squat as that's the bit where your working against gravity (and the weight across your back) and your flexibility won't effect this. It only effects how low you can go.

♪ How low can you go? How low can you go?
I can go low, lower than you know. ♪

Ahem...anyway...I may be wrong. Just read Starting Strength, althought tbh it is also TL:DR I just looked at the diagrams. I may get disowned for this, but life's too short.

Sqeekyjojo · February 2013

Hypermobility can lead to joint instability. Joint instability leads to things like getting bumped on the bus and feeling your humerus pop out the back of your shoulder. And popping it back in in an effort to avoid going to the hospital. I really really REALLY recommend you don't find out what that feels like. I still had to go to hospital and it took two years before I could wash my hair on that side. Because it means you heal more slowly.

It can also mean slipping and dislocating your ankle. Or fingers. Or getting a nagging pain in your hip and beginning to waddle when you're tired, meaning you put pressure on your knees, or being at high risk of neck damage in a low speed car accident.

Most of these things can be minimised by strengthening the muscles around the joints to help stabilise them with an appropriately safe range of movement. It's what I'm doing now on the instructions of my physio, who was fed up of seeing me with various injuries.

Get it checked, talk to a physio, they can explain what you need to consider and take it from there.

I'm 40. If its not dealt with properly, injuries build up and you suddenly find you're actually less flexible than anybody else. But still with unstable joints.

Oh, and if you hyperextended your arms and locked out with your elbow bending over 180, that would be flexible. Too flexible. Don't lock out.

jayche · February 2013

Flexibility will only help your squat.
Personally I go *kitten* to grass on squats with high bar placement and while I can't go as heavy when I do them (relative to low bar) like this I definitely feel more quad and glute involvement vs. a low bar.

This is incorrect.

There are issues with being too flexible in weight lifting but are such that they can be corrected.

First off, given that you have other medical complaints I would suggest that this too is an item to include and discuss with your doc. Hypermobility Syndrome is what you are describing and is a marker for a few other condititions. They are worth mentioning as they can have cardiovascular health impact that you should look into. Posting that so others that might have high flex can also consider this, if you want to specifically discuss the tableau we can take to PMs.

In terms of weight lifting or exercise Hypermobility does lead to higher rate of injury due to unstable joints - sprains and tears are not uncommon.

For squats, you need to build back and core strength and progress more slowly to assure you are not over dependent on a too S curved position which can lead to lower back injury. From memory, Riptoe mentions this in his book - i'll find the reference.

Squats do not place a specific risk in the knee if you are hypermobile, they will actually help create stability and protect from dynamic injury.

I'm more interested in this, I'm not saying joint instability/misalignment is good for squats (on the contrary it's pretty bad). But being too flexible for squats is foreign subject to me. Care to explain that aspect? You can message me your response if you believe this would sidetrack the conversation too much.

Edit-Typo

Alkirra · February 2013

While you are young hyper mobile or hyper extension will not be too great of a concern when you lift weights.

Age unfortunately does come into play as our cartilages around the joints wear thin due too excessive mobility.

Enjoy lifting and doing while you are able, I'm nearly fifty and so far the only thing that's caused me injury through hyper
Extension is twisting (legs) and over bending (feet)

Build muscle, make strength and hold correct form. You will be fine

LeslieMarshall45 · February 2013

The problem with being super flexible is that it is easy to go beyond a normal range of motion which is not necessarily a good thing when lifting weight as it can put extra stress on the joints.

With weighted squats you want to be careful of your back and knees. Going beyond 90 could cause injury if your core isn't strong.

With the overhead press, are you standing or seated? are your shoulders/arms actually going back behind you or your back is arching? That's what he could have meant by stating you are really flexible while preforming that exercise.

As a safety precaution and to recognize proper form, you may want to consider standing against a wall in a slight squat while doing an over head press with dumb bells.

You will have to be more aware of your form than the average person when lifting so that you do not hyperextend and cause injury. Think about engaging your core and what muscles you are working to focus.

Just a thought!

EvgeniZyntx · February 2013

Flexibility will only help your squat.
Personally I go *kitten* to grass on squats with high bar placement and while I can't go as heavy when I do them (relative to low bar) like this I definitely feel more quad and glute involvement vs. a low bar.

This is incorrect.

There are issues with being too flexible in weight lifting but are such that they can be corrected.

First off, given that you have other medical complaints I would suggest that this too is an item to include and discuss with your doc. Hypermobility Syndrome is what you are describing and is a marker for a few other condititions. They are worth mentioning as they can have cardiovascular health impact that you should look into. Posting that so others that might have high flex can also consider this, if you want to specifically discuss the tableau we can take to PMs.

In terms of weight lifting or exercise Hypermobility does lead to higher rate of injury due to unstable joints - sprains and tears are not uncommon.

For squats, you need to build back and core strength and progress more slowly to assure you are not over dependent on a too S curved position which can lead to lower back injury. From memory, Riptoe mentions this in his book - i'll find the reference.

Squats do not place a specific risk in the knee if you are hypermobile, they will actually help create stability and protect from dynamic injury.

I'm more interested in this, I'm not saying joint instability/misalignment is good for squats (on the contrary it's pretty bad). But being too flexible for squats is foreign subject to me. Care to explain that aspect? You can message me your response if you believe this would sidetrack the conversation too much.

Edit-Typo

You can see the links I posted but here is another example with DL. From starting Strength:

Edit to add:

tomg33 · February 2013

You need to read Starting Strength. The book is a fantastic beginners guide on practical, science-based "form" for the big compound lifts we all know and love.

twelfty · February 2013

cba to read all the replies but i think it will depend how weak your joints are, hypermobility is fine if your joints are strong, if theyre not you might find going high in weight you'll get a knee pop out etc (done it before, hurts like a *****!) best bet imo is to start off with a modest weight, build up your joint muscles then progress in weights slowly

Tatiyanya · February 2013

I'm just ba-bump-a-rumping this for future read, cos its of interest but walls of text all around make it unsuitable for lunch break. One cant simply chew, read in foregin language and understand at the same time!

CoderGal · February 2013

omg just skimmed over this thank you so much everyone! I can't wait to take the time to read all this later.

CoderGal · February 2013

DopeItUp: I'm also a mixed bag. My legs are hypermobile (I can touch my elbows to the floor with my legs straight), and apparently my arms are flexible but they may be flexible to a normal level? But my hands are not at all. Bar over midfoot, thanks, that gives me a better idea of what I should be doing, not sure if I was doing that.

I think going past parallel takes pressure off the knees but after a certain point it feels wrong again. Like I go from some power to 0 power with this feeling of pressure above the knees. So I guess that comes to how far past parallel. After reading the *kitten* to grass thing I may try to do squats with light weight or no weight occasionally just to get the range of motion and maybe build up my strength in the areas that are weakest and shouldn't exist. As for how I want to train, I'd like to lift heavy. But maybe it's more important to strengthen those muscles right now. I've danced for a million years and my first exercise related injury was doing a lunge (which I've done a million times) but with weight and it still hasn't healed. I was kind of dissapointed when a staff member came in (who didn't see me lifting) and after asking for advice past me a lighter weight because it was 'to heavy for me' and the sad thing was at that point I wanted a lighter weight so I didn't say anything.

OHP: I was sure (and watching in the mirror) that the barbell was staying in the same plane. I'm not sure however if I was leaning back. I'll keep my eye on that. I am so not in the mood to take a video yet as I have to concentrate way to hard to remember what I'm suppose to be doing breathing and motion of each part wise but after I'm comfortable and movements are fluid and I think I'm doing the best I can I may do that. I was pondering if I should do that and figured I'd just get a bunch of messages saying I'm going down to far.

Flexibility will only help your squat.
Personally I go *kitten* to grass on squats with high bar placement and while I can't go as heavy when I do them (relative to low bar) like this I definitely feel more quad and glute involvement vs. a low bar.

Yeah I think flexibility well help but hyper-mobility probably won't? It seems to have me using a lot less weight then I'd like to and an uncomfortable uneasy feeling in my knees.

DavPul · February 2013

Barbell shouldn't stay in the same plane. That's why we advocate barbells over machines and hate the Smith machine so much. On many exercises your body will have a slight "S" motion to it. It should feel natural.

Flex will help your squat but hyper flex won't. Many people have trouble getting close to parallel when the start but you won't. Leave the ATG squats alone for now (possibly forever) and get to parallel/slightly below. Put a bench behind you if you have trouble figuring out where that is just from watching yourself in the mirror

MeMyCatsandI · February 2013

Bumping cuz I'm also hyperflexible and will refer back to this as needed.

CoderGal · February 2013

TL;DR:

hypermobile people or those who are flexible enough should or should not squat farther then 90 degrees? Why is this 90degree thing seemingly key? What could be 'super flexible' about overhead presses? I didn't think of asking at the time and have no idea what that means or if it's good or bad or if I should stop?

Thank you for your time!

There comes a point past 90 degrees where the "meat" of your calf and the "meat" of your hamstring meet and begin to direct pressure into spreading the bones connected by your knee apart. This is bad. This is very very bad with a lot of weight helping to do the spreading. Don't do this. You can squat to a point that just breaks 90 and do just fine, but your shouldn't be touching your heels to your butt, or be anywhere close to this.

Your arms were probably drifting behind your head on more of an angle than normal people. Ideally they go straight up and down and not backwards on a 10 degree angle because that stress some of the supporting muscles more than is necessarily good for them.

Interesting, I'd like to see a diagram lol.

You're probably right on the drifting behind my head. I was watching the bar go up and down and my head lurching back and forth but didn't really pay attention to how much my chest was moving. After reading dopes comments maybe I should have been leaning back more. Why is going behind farther then parallel bad? Why is going behind bad?

CoderGal · February 2013

In terms of weight lifting or exercise Hypermobility does lead to higher rate of injury due to unstable joints - sprains and tears are not uncommon.

For squats, you need to build back and core strength and progress more slowly to assure you are not over dependent on a too S curved position which can lead to lower back injury. From memory, Riptoe mentions this in his book - i'll find the reference.

Squats do not place a specific risk in the knee if you are hypermobile, they will actually help create stability and protect from dynamic injury.

Soooo by the sounds of it Riptoe is a popular guy and has some book somewhere I should read...Is that the starting strength thing?:

Dude, you need to read Starting Strength.

EvgeniZyntx · February 2013

In terms of weight lifting or exercise Hypermobility does lead to higher rate of injury due to unstable joints - sprains and tears are not uncommon.

For squats, you need to build back and core strength and progress more slowly to assure you are not over dependent on a too S curved position which can lead to lower back injury. From memory, Riptoe mentions this in his book - i'll find the reference.

Squats do not place a specific risk in the knee if you are hypermobile, they will actually help create stability and protect from dynamic injury.

Soooo by the sounds of it Riptoe is a popular guy and has some book somewhere I should read...Is that the starting strength thing?:

Dude, you need to read Starting Strength.

Yes. Available in Kindle version too.

CoderGal · February 2013

Dafuq is this so long?!?!

Edited to add: okay, I managed to wade thru these walls of texts. I concur with pretty much everything Dope said. Squat to 90 or below but there's no real reason you have to go super low. And the knees over toes thing is decent as a rule of thumb but in practice different body structures may go over and it's perfectly fine. Experiment a bit with the bar to determine the foot placement and depth that feels natural. You'll have an advantage because lack of hamstring flexibility is a limiting factor for most newbies.

thing you can do if you want us to help is take video so we can check out your *kitten*, ahem, I mean check out your form on the squats and OHP on a strictly professional basis.

yeah, no idea how doing a light OHP rep can exhibit extreme flexibility, unless you stepped thru the bar between each rep or something

NONE of them feel natural lol. It's like trying to do a 30 degree squat and coming back up again, it feels like there are so many muscles you're trying to avoid. And if you go farther it feels weird pausing at this somewhere below but not to much below the 'uh is this as far as I went last time which point is bad' point. It feels weird to stop before I get down all the way. I watch all these people who squat at the same distance over and over and I'm going down and thinking when do I stop? Uh, now? And I'm still not all the way.

Nope, no stepping for OHP, wasn't moving my feet.

CoderGal · February 2013

The 90 degree thing is a hangover from the 80s and 90s. Now, most people agree that going deeper is safer for most, because just stopping at 90 puts pressure on the knees.

It is worth pursuing a diagnosis to exclude the connective tissue and autoimmune disorders that do affect the CV system - but note that not all do; sometimes, it's just orthopaedic stuff to deal with. I'm in the middle of figuring out what's going on myself. For lots of these things, I gather, it's a matter of patching things up as and when, and walking a fine line between injury prevention and maintaining function and health through exercise. Moderation, basically, and listening to your body.

Right now I have more restrictions than this, and a little more complicated story, but about hypermobility, I have been told that when not injured I should aim to stabilize and strengthen muscles around the hypermobile joints. Moderate strength training - that is, staying within a 10-20 rep range, and staying in the middle of the range of motion for movements involving affected joints. No heavy heavy lifting (fewer than 8 reps) (too much strain on the whole shebang), and no crazy repetitions, like doing a hundred pushups, because that could leave you open to overuse injuries.

- exposing ligaments etc to risk is considered not great. No to yoga, yes to Pilates, I was told. Big yes to Pilates, actually, it's kind of perfect for this sort of thing.

- varied, medium duration, moderate intensity cardio, with low or minimal impact. It's not great to do too much of cardio that involves doing the same movements over and over, so switching things up is good. Biking is low impact but repetitive. Swimming is ok if you switch between strokes and avoid butterfly.

(Did your shoulders pop out of joint when you were doing the OHP?)

Thank you, and nope, my shoulders felt fine.

These are helpful responses. I'm just here to read them.

Agreed! Thanks so much everyone.

Most of these things can be minimised by strengthening the muscles around the joints to help stabilise them with an appropriately safe range of movement. It's what I'm doing now on the instructions of my physio, who was fed up of seeing me with various injuries.

LOL I'm glad to hear strength training is suppose to help. I'd hate to get my hopes up for nothing.

Oh, and if you hyperextended your arms and locked out with your elbow bending over 180, that would be flexible. Too flexible. Don't lock out.

I didn't lock my elbows.

CoderGal · February 2013

I am hypermobile as well, it does come with its unique challenges, but they can be dealt with. You really have to concentrate on keeping tight the whole way down. I also adopt a slightly narrower stance than normal. So while I do maintain knees over feet, my feet are only slightly pointed out. This gives me more resistance through my hamstrings and glutes so I don't dive-bomb. If I take too wide stance/angle I am more prone to just bottom out. If your shoulders are flexible too (like mine), you could also try a low and narrow rack, this helps me stay upright rather than leaning forward.

Because I am so flexible, parallel for me feels like I am hardly squatting. So somthing else that's helped is have my spotter or buddy call it for me at just below parallel.

All that aside, its really about concentration. Keep saying to yourself, "tight, tight, tight, tight.... then chest up, chest up, chest up".

Hope this helps, it's really hard to explain online, but I've worked with my strength coaches on my form so much for exactly this issue

On the OHP, he could have also been talking about hyperextending your legs backwards?? Mine do that unless I pay attention. Or you might be over extending your back..

ETA - just to add, I've never had injuries because of my mobility, nor do I think it stops you lifting heavy (my squat is just under 100kg)...

I think I naturally have a narrower stance compared to some of the wider stances. My knees feel less wonky there. And my feet are also parallel as well, I remember wondering if that was ok (seen several make sure your feet are pointed out responses in other threads). Is there a case that parallel is bad?

dive-bomb, could you please explain? You mean collapse?

I have no spotter friends, I've been trying to drag the few new gym friends with me but we've all been busy lately and have different schedules.

" Keep saying to yourself, "tight, tight, tight, tight.... then chest up, chest up, chest up"" That is really good advice. I've been doing that and definitely find that this helps if it is not yet a continuous natural movement for someone.

And nope on the knees and back comment. I didn't have my back arched and my knees don't bend that way thankfully.

And thank you for that last comment! That is encouraging!

To Flexible? What to do for squats/presses?

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