Why you might be genetically hypermobile — and not know!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to let you all on a pretty big observation I’ve made, the more I’ve been coaching and running my blog.

That is, I now believe there is a significant overlap between the people who tend to develop SI joint dysfunction, and people with genetic hypermobility conditions.

As I’ve written about previously, I didn’t know I was genetically hypermobile until I was in my 30’s. I’ve learned this is actually not uncommon — in fact, many people don’t seem to find out until much later in life.

When you’re genetically hypermobile, it means the way your body codes to make connective tissue is a bit different. It comes out “stretchier” than it’s intended to be.

While these conditions can affect many different connective tissue types within the body, in the case of the SI joints, of course, we are talking about the ligaments that are meant to hold the joint together.

Some of you may have heard of hypermobility conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, one of the more well-known conditions. However, hypermobility runs along a spectrum. Just as there is a more severe end, there is also a more mild end.

Now, I know that it’s possible to be on the “milder” end of this spectrum, and not know. You may not perceive of your joints as being hypermobile, because your muscles might be compensating by keeping your muscles tight.

For most of my life, I actually considered myself less flexible than the average person. In gym class, or at cross-country practice, I’d always be the person who couldn’t reach my toes.

Now, I realize that this was actually my body’s way of trying to protect my joints, by compensating. When your muscles are super tight, it limits the amount that your joints can move, which is why you will feel less flexible.

I talk to many, many people who exhibit signs of hypermobility, but have never gotten a diagnosis.

Despite affecting up to 20% of the population, genetic hypermobility conditions are incredibly under-recognized.

Often, I’ll be talking with a client and when I dig deeper into their story, I’ll find a lot of “clues”– some of the exact same issues I had from hypermobility throughout much of my life, but they’d never gotten an explanation.

For many of my other clients, sometimes they may have heard of hypermobility –perhaps a PT mentioned it once to them, in passing — but there was never any follow through or further evaluation. Unfortunately, sometimes even when a medical professional is aware that hypermobility exists, they might just see it as a “trait” rather than an important area to explore.

If you are hypermobile, it holds so many implications for how you can best manage your body.

Hypermobile people can be very functional, and even very athletic! But a lot of strategy needs to go into it.

You have to build up your muscles, and move your body in a way that protects your ligaments. This includes exercises, stretches, and general movement patterns — you want to emphasize functionality within your normal range of motion, and actually avoid anything extreme. (Pushing yourself as far as you can in yoga is not what you want to be doing!).

In the case of the SI joint, this also holds a lot of ramifications. You definitely don’t want to be pushing yourself through pain — that actually backfires, as it increases the inflammation in your ligaments.

You also want to use the minimum level of adjustment to realign the joint. In my own journey, a huge turning point came when I stopped going for chiropractic adjustments and switched to using only the most gentle readjustment techniques.

Essentially, when you know you’re hypermobile, there’s so much you can do.

Many of the people I talk to feel a huge sense of relief when they get an answer for the symptoms they’ve had– whether it’s been for their whole life, or for why their SI joint dysfunction seems to be so “extreme” compared to what their PT was expecting.

Moving forward, you can also optimize your SI joint recovery and lifestyle routine to best fit what you’re working with.

I’ll be sharing more on this, moving forward!