Hypermobile, injury-prone & over 30? Talk to me

anemoneprose
anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey, just looking for people who fit the above description & are trying to stay fit & motivated etc, despite ongoing setbacks. Right now I'm rehabbing, so hello! to anyone also doing that. Also interested in hearing from people who successfully manage prehab, & have more conservative fitness goals than is typical for mfp. :)

Replies

  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    Hey, you are talking about me! I also have a debilitating upper back problem from a nerve disease. I have to modify everything, and that's the key to success! It has been so, so hard to figure out, but I'm proud to say that I can do so much more than I thought I could when I first became disabled.

    You can do it! You might not be able to do things you see that you'd like to, but no matter. There's always something else to try :)
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    Sorry about your back :( Glad to hear you're keeping focused! Thank you for the encouragement :)

    It is *totally* hard to figure it out, in all kinds of ways. I'm working with a PT right now, so have help in terms of setting reasonable but challenging limits. That is something I have NOT been able to figure out by myself; often the limits have sort of announced themselves via injuries.

    I feel ok and positive, but thought I'd explain some of the things that have been bothering me; maybe you can relate?

    Limits: Even with exercise you'd logically think should be fine, or was no problem in the past, you can get hurt - risk changes with age/time. Swimming's supposed to be gentle; hurt my shoulder that way with *very little* stimulus. Last year had no issues at all going for 1 hr several times a week; this year, a few shorter sessions of easy breaststroke got me tendinosis it will take til Xmas to heal (maybe sooner, fingers crossed).

    Weight loss/maintenance: In retrospect, vigorous exercise was important in a) adding a bit of burn and b) decreasing appetite (worked for me, some are different). Without it, I've been eating the same or slightly less than I have for most of maintenance, but am slowly gaining because there's no burn. I am going to play around with menus to see how little I can get away with (I get cranky on less than 2100), but that will be a lifestyle change that will take adjusting. This is a prob for me sort of right now, bc I fit into my clothes until like yesterday, when all of a sudden all my pants were enemies. I can't afford a whole new wardrobe right now, so, it's on!

    Motivation: rehab is great, but honestly, boring and does not lead to muscle gains. Not so motivating. I want longevity more than anything so am happy to focus on rehab, *intellectually*, but frankly, especially with the weight gain, wall sits are not really that exciting.

    Today, I tried out stationary cycling with my PT, to get her input on form. I showed her how I'd been doing it in the past. She corrected a few things, and warned 'you can't push that hard right away. You *have* to take it easier, at least to start'. I accept that and agree but it's just, well, boring. Key question, then: How do you get excited about your modified activities?

    Taking it easy: It's hard to restrain yourself from going as hard or fast as you did before (not that I'm some kind of athlete or anything). I think part of that is about motivation, maybe some of it to do with learned habits around movement patterns. I am having to consciously tell myself to take it easy. One way I'm going to do that with cycling is combining objective criteria (like RPM on the bike - eg not going over 90 rpm, or level 1 resistance; also time) with monitoring pain signals (sharp pains are not good, muscle awareness is ok).

    Energy/mood: will start regularly cycling soon, so will see how that goes. Until now, have mostly had less pep, generally feel more sluggish. Getting going (not just with exercise, sort of most daily activities) is a little harder. I really feel like vigorous cardio specifically made a huge difference here in the past; will see how I get on with the bike.

    Despite all the above, I am committed to making this work. PT and EASY cycling for now, pilates after that.
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    also if anyone has ideas for activities that are not too repetitive (like most machine cardio), would be great to hear them!
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    It's the repetition that does my tendons/ligaments in, so I only do repetitious things that don't cause problems. That means I did try them and get hurt! It sucks that that's the way to figure it out, but it is what it is. Don't keep doing it once you get the tendonitis strangely easily. At very least, get a brace for the part and have your PT see whether body mechanics other than hypermobility causes it. If it does involve more or just needs a lot of support, it might be doable. A PT might tell you to build up one set of muscles because of an imbalance, for instance. After getting them strong, you might not be putting as much stress on the tendons when you do the activity.

    I can totally see not being able to swim certain strokes, or even at all for long sessions since it's so repetitive. It sucks! But once you get the injury, focus on healing that part and move on to a totally different body part to see if you can use it nicely (for a while, at least).

    If you pick up on the tendonitis or bursitis quickly, you'll fare the best!

    PT is incredibly boring. I make up my own motivators instead. I can use my lower body much better than my upper (that back problem), so I use it the most for workouts. I have to watch certain tendons in my hips and my hypermobile kneecaps. I found that most of my inspiration comes from dance and yoga. I do the training exercises (only certain ones) for dance much more than actually dancing full-out. Does that make sense? I still enjoy it! They have lots of floor training, so it works best for me.

    I do weightlift, but I have to do isolation moves mostly. I had to get creative to find some moves for certain muscles! But by doing isolation moves I can see which exact move is causing too many flare-ups and scrap it. After healing the area, I moved onto to another possibility to try. It takes a long time, but there really are enough exercises under the sun that I found my niches.

    Good luck!
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    Oh, and movement patterns are so important. I think the first few years after my disability the biggest thing I learned was how to use each body part the most separately. I used to not be able to do ab exercises at all because of my upper back problem, because I could not disconnect my upper back from the move. Now I'm able to relax certain muscles while I work others. That helps so much in exercising and even just going about daily activities.

    I rely on my forearms due to my back problem, for another example. I use my lower back instead of my upper in day-to-day life (it's strong as a bull). It works great when you learn how to use other parts to avoid over-stressing your injured ones.
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    It's really good to hear from someone with experience. Thank you for taking the time to break down your approach, as you have! Your insights are so appreciated :)
    It's the repetition that does my tendons/ligaments in, so I only do repetitious things that don't cause problems. That means I did try them and get hurt! It sucks that that's the way to figure it out, but it is what it is. Don't keep doing it once you get the tendonitis strangely easily. At very least, get a brace for the part and have your PT see whether body mechanics other than hypermobility causes it. If it does involve more or just needs a lot of support, it might be doable. A PT might tell you to build up one set of muscles because of an imbalance, for instance. After getting them strong, you might not be putting as much stress on the tendons when you do the activity.
    I can totally see not being able to swim certain strokes, or even at all for long sessions since it's so repetitive. It sucks! But once you get the injury, focus on healing that part and move on to a totally different body part to see if you can use it nicely (for a while, at least).

    If you pick up on the tendonitis or bursitis quickly, you'll fare the best!

    This is *exactly* what my PT says - avoid injured areas for now, work on others. She's on-board with showing me proper biomechanics for exercises (& very patient with my questions, am lucky :)

    I am not great at reading pain signals, unfortunately - though am better than I was, that's for sure! I'm pretty out of shape right now, so most things are kind of challenging, but have been given body 'watch-words' to attend to, and am trusting that gentle progression.

    Yeah, it's a pretty punitive learning process, lol.
    PT is incredibly boring. I make up my own motivators instead. I can use my lower body much better than my upper (that back problem), so I use it the most for workouts. I have to watch certain tendons in my hips and my hypermobile kneecaps. I found that most of my inspiration comes from dance and yoga. I do the training exercises (only certain ones) for dance much more than actually dancing full-out. Does that make sense? I still enjoy it! They have lots of floor training, so it works best for me.

    It does, for sure :) Sounds like you are finding a kind of aesthetic in the movements? I like that idea a lot. (I love dance too :) Carefully chosen floor movements - that sounds ideal, not a lot of repetition there.
    I do weightlift, but I have to do isolation moves mostly. I had to get creative to find some moves for certain muscles! But by doing isolation moves I can see which exact move is causing too many flare-ups and scrap it. After healing the area, I moved onto to another possibility to try. It takes a long time, but there really are enough exercises under the sun that I found my niches.

    This is so clever! Takes patience, I imagine, but worth the experimentation.. No compound movements then, no squats or dead lifts? Makes total sense.
    Good luck!

    Thank you :)
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    Oh, and movement patterns are so important. I think the first few years after my disability the biggest thing I learned was how to use each body part the most separately. I used to not be able to do ab exercises at all because of my upper back problem, because I could not disconnect my upper back from the move. Now I'm able to relax certain muscles while I work others. That helps so much in exercising and even just going about daily activities.

    I rely on my forearms due to my back problem, for another example. I use my lower back instead of my upper in day-to-day life (it's strong as a bull). It works great when you learn how to use other parts to avoid over-stressing your injured ones.

    This is incredible. I think it's a great achievement, to obtain that kind of in-depth proprioceptive understanding, and retrain your body to serve your function and life. So many people only sense their limits, and stick with drugs their doctors give to minimize them, rather than focus on possibilities. Thank you for sharing :)
  • chelsifina
    chelsifina Posts: 346 Member
    I am hypermobile, injury-prone, and more over 30 than i am comfortable with! Lol. I've had a host of health issues that ended up exacerbating the mobilty stuff and led to a tremendous amount of back pain and a strange thing that caused numbness in my hands when laying down (neck mobility). I've been in treatment for a year and am just about to complete a C25K, which is two months of running! NO INJURIES! I did the boring physical therapy stuff but I looked at it as brushing my teeth or something. Its not really a "workout" and its just one of those things you have to do.
    As far as what worked for me, oddly, I find that I must take tremendous amounts of vitamin D and that has helped stabilize me a lot. Most importantly, my pilates practice has changed my life. I participate in an expensive, small class that uses a reformer, and I have a highly skilled instructor that knows that I am hypermobile. There is something of the resistance that the reformer provides combined with the precision and detail involved in pilates that is absolutely perfect for me and my needs. I haven't had any back pain in 8 months, as well as zero injuries. My hand problem acted up recently when I slept on a less structured pillow that offered no neck support. Also of interest, I discovered that doing my workouts with barefoot shoes (those ugly toe shoes...google "vibram five-fingers") helped a great deal. Because my feet feel the contact with the floor/ground I am automatically more stable. When I wear regular running shoes or hiking shoes, I get hurt.
  • chelsifina
    chelsifina Posts: 346 Member
    Also, have you looked into Aston Patterning? It is one of the things my pilates instructor is trained in and uses on me frequently. The theory focuses on deeply understanding movement pattern on an individual basis and retraining the body to create more useful patterns.
  • chelsifina
    chelsifina Posts: 346 Member
    I"m off to bed, but please feel free to PM if you would find continued conversation useful. There is so little out there that is truly useful for hyper mobility that it often becomes a matter of creating your own path and creating a team for yourself. Let me know if I can help, and good luck on your journey!
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    I am hypermobile, injury-prone, and more over 30 than i am comfortable with! Lol. I've had a host of health issues that ended up exacerbating the mobilty stuff and led to a tremendous amount of back pain and a strange thing that caused numbness in my hands when laying down (neck mobility). I've been in treatment for a year and am just about to complete a C25K, which is two months of running! NO INJURIES! I did the boring physical therapy stuff but I looked at it as brushing my teeth or something. Its not really a "workout" and its just one of those things you have to do.
    As far as what worked for me, oddly, I find that I must take tremendous amounts of vitamin D and that has helped stabilize me a lot. Most importantly, my pilates practice has changed my life. I participate in an expensive, small class that uses a reformer, and I have a highly skilled instructor that knows that I am hypermobile. There is something of the resistance that the reformer provides combined with the precision and detail involved in pilates that is absolutely perfect for me and my needs. I haven't had any back pain in 8 months, as well as zero injuries. My hand problem acted up recently when I slept on a less structured pillow that offered no neck support. Also of interest, I discovered that doing my workouts with barefoot shoes (those ugly toe shoes...google "vibram five-fingers") helped a great deal. Because my feet feel the contact with the floor/ground I am automatically more stable. When I wear regular running shoes or hiking shoes, I get hurt.

    How great!! Running?! That's amazing. (It's about as possible for me as moonwalking, but if you're cleared to go, that is wonderful!)

    I've actually just started on Vit D! All over it :) I'm sure you've heard about it, but apparently, there's reason to believe high doses of Vit C can potentially help as well; I think what research has been done was with people with Ehler Danlos: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/943567-treatment

    I have heard from other members about the benefits of Reformer Pilates, really glad to hear you're seeing benefits as well! PT isn't cheap, so am just waiting to get through these sessions before starting classes at a local studio I found with a great rep.

    I like the idea of Vibrams, but have gone the orthotics route, and it's helped my knees (patellofemoral syndrome; arthritis) and ankle (tendinosis) some, so am inclined to stick with it for the time being.

    I will read up on Aston Patterning, sounds interesting, thank you!

    The toothbrushing metaphor is great, thank you :) Yes, have to see it that way. I've also printed up like a workout chart, to make it feel more 'real', & so I can tick things off day to day, to feel I'm progressing at something.

    Appreciate your thoughts and experience. So great to hear you're back to fitness! Good luck with your race :)
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    Thank you so much for the kind words, anemoneprose. My pain clinic docs are proud of me for figuring out what it takes to stay fit and active, but I do sometimes get sad that I can't kayak or rock climb anymore.

    Oh, one of my pet peeves is when folks -- almost especially disabled folks -- say 'you can do anything you put your mind to!'. Well, no. A blind person isn't going to see by putting their mind to it, and some injuries/other disabilities are similar. My philosophy is more about embracing how the world is filled with so many other choices :)

    I haven't tried vitamin D, y'all. That's awesome. I have also heard that us Ehlers folks need to make sure we get lots of Magnesium. I tried it and my migraines improved significantly (my blood vessels are wonky from the E-D, but not dangerously so).

    It's so great that you are thinking of these things now. Usually docs and even PTs don't really get into all that, almost as if the injury is just a fleeting thing. It's awesome if it is, but it's nice to know what you'll do if things flare up easily and don't really stop. The first few years of my disability I was putting so much of my energy on waiting until it went away. Ooops. It never did :D !!
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
    Well, you should be proud :)

    I think a lot of people feel passive about their health. Part of that's because we've implicitly been promised the moon by a pharma culture; we also expect physicians to fix things for us because of the necessarily assymetrical relationship. And between that and pain, when it's debilitating, it's easy to feel reduced.

    I admit to having been pretty peeved at the whole medical establishment (for a long while). And it's only lately that I've been able to let go of that, and feel positioned to take responsibility for my health. (That's not entirely random, though; it's only since I got a firm diagnosis, and found an excellent PT who supports getting me back to activity, and sees education as part of her role, that I felt I even had a starting point. And *that* is sheer luck.) Felt really adrift when it was just my GP telling me to take Advil and avoid everything, and I was struggling with just getting around.

    But it's all good now! :) Will check out magnesium :)
  • bluntlysally
    bluntlysally Posts: 150 Member
    also hypermobile and injury prone. general advice is listen to your body. pain is a sign to stop/modify. ice ice and more ice (and i still hate ice). focus on form of everything. build strength since your muscles need to work more bc your tendons don't stop your joints as soon as they should.
    SNIP>> I haven't had any back pain in 8 months, as well as zero injuries. My hand problem acted up recently when I slept on a less structured pillow that offered no neck support. Also of interest, I discovered that doing my workouts with barefoot shoes (those ugly toe shoes...google "vibram five-fingers") helped a great deal. Because my feet feel the contact with the floor/ground I am automatically more stable. When I wear regular running shoes or hiking shoes, I get hurt.

    re numbness. this can be in your neck (spine) or in your thoracic outlet (front lower neck) and pec (front side of armpit) where different nerves pass through and get pinched. i went through two different series of pt (different practices) last year for what i thought was something in my elbow or spine that was finally treated and improved by a ct/pt practice (with correct diagnosis). a combo of gratson technique and good pt helped me get range of motion back (yes, it was that bad - earlier in the year i lost all use of my hand/arm/shoulder) and some strength. i still need to regain strength and am very scared to get reinjured (which has happened a couple times along the way). back to listening to you body.

    someone also mentioned isolating movements and learning what works/doesn't one at a time - this is a great suggestion. be sure the trying out different movements includes another day or two to see how your body reacts after and not just during.

    re barefoot. i love shoes but at the same time love being barefoot. i by chance found barefoot sneakers for another reason and now love them! i highly recommend the new balance minimus line. >>i never thought about this working well bc of hypermobility, but it completely makes sense.<< i completely feel more stable being closer to the ground. one note about barefoot shoes is that there truly isn't much on the bottom of them, so they might wear out faster than a normal sneaker. my first pair were just general running shoes (new balance minimus) and i found that with a little wear, they lacked the traction for some outside walking (think no wet leaves). so i got a second pair that are trail (new balance minimus + vibram + trail) and they are great. just enough grip for wet grass/dew/etc and still nice and light and low to the ground. i have also read that barefoot shoes are great for working with weights - even wearing something flat like chucks works too.
  • ChubbyKazza
    ChubbyKazza Posts: 5
    Hello - Any hypermobile people still out there?

    I'd like to connect but the thread I found has 'been inactive for over 30 days'.
    I've been struggling with increasing weight particularly since I became less active following chemotherapy 6 years ago.
    I'm injury prone and have Hypermobility Syndrome / Fibromyalgia - so pain and fatigue and other evils have made losing weight very difficult. Oh and I have very little willpower!!!

    I could do with some support and can give support too.

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