Building Stability In My Hypermobile Body- Exercise Plan

Hello! Welcome to post 3 of my free inquiry project where I am working on stabilizing my body as someone with Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). In this post I will be discussing the workout plan I have decided to follow, along with a little bit of the reasoning behind each exercise and why it is good for hEDS. For a little more context into this project please check out my first post : Building Stability In My Body- Free Inquiry Into hEDS

Okay diving in….

I briefly touched on the 3 high focus aspects of stability exercises in my second post, but lets get a little bit deeper with it…

The first high focus area is low-load workouts, meaning using little resistance while performing the exercises. This can be using body weight, very light dumbbells, or resistant bands. We want to activate the muscles with causing too much pressure or strain.

Next point is Isometric, which means activating the muscle without moving the joint. Think wall sit, plank, or glute bridge. These exercises are joint friendly and allow body to work without risking over-extending the joints.

Finally, concentric movements, which is shortening the muscle during contraction, like in a squat. Combined all these forms of exercise reduce joint strain and minimize the risk of joints slipping out of place. The joints remain stabilized while the muscles work which is key for hypermobile bodies.

The book suggests following this order for rehab… 1) Core stability, 2) Hip and pelvis girdle strengthening, 3) Shoulder girdle and scapular control, 4) Arm and leg strengthening. Basically the concept is working from the center outwards.

Before each workout I will be warming my body up following this video created by Dr. Melissa Koehl

For the first week of my plan I am going to focus on deep core and trunk stability, following the recommendations from the book.

The first exercise I will do is abdominal bracing (isometric), this is where you lay on your back with knees bent. You take a deep breath in, then as you exhale you tighten lower abdomen without moving your spine. You hold this for 5-10 seconds and repeat 10 times. Remember to breath through it! A cue to help: think of tightening yoyr stomach as if you’re zipping up tight pants. This teaches you how to engage the deep core muscles without causing damage or strain.

Now Supine Marching (concentric). Remaining in the same position as the first exercise, tighten your core and slowly life one foot a few inches off the ground, then lower the foot and switch sides. Make sure your body stays stable and doesn’t rock from side to side. A progression for this exercise is to stretch your leg out straight instead of lifting up and down.

The final exercise for the core section is dead bugs, here is a video of how to do dead bugs by the Southern California University of Health Sciences YouTube page…

The second week I will incorporation hip and pelvis girdle exercises on top of week one exercises.

The first one is a Isometric and concentric exercise, glute bridges. To perform these lay on your back and have your knees bent, next raise up your hips and hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times. Glute bridges train gluteal activation, which is often underactive in hEDS.

Next is hip abductions with a resistant band. Here is a video showing how to do this exercise. Please note the video doesn’t use a resistant band. The video is from Tom Morgan Physio Solutions on YouTube.

I am only doing 2 exercises per muscle group to avoid flair-up as I tend to have them after working out. I am going into it really slowly to avoid injury.

Next I will follow this video for shoulder stability created by Dr. Melissa Koehl

And finally, for arms and legs I will do… body weight squats and lightweight bicep curls to lightly activate the muscle without causing strain.

I am going into this program planning to go really easy and build up from there! Follow along for my progress!

This post was written by Hailey.