Hypermobility Syndrome
February 10, 2025
What is joint hypermobility?
Joint hypermobility is when you have very flexible joints. It is when some or all your joints bend beyond the typical range of movement. The increased flexibility is due to the ligaments around your joints being more flexible/looser than most people. You might have heard of the term double jointed. It is believed that joint hypermobility is influenced by age, sex, and ethnicity. It usually affects children and young people and often improves as they get older.
What is joint hypermobility syndrome?
In most people, joint hypermobility doesn’t cause any pain or medical problems. You may have hypermobility syndrome if your joints are more flexible than normal and are experiencing joint pain, joint and ligament injuries, tiredness, bowel issues and other symptoms.
Symptomatic hypermobility can be associated with:
- Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: A condition that affects your cartilage, bone, fat, and blood.
- Marfan syndrome: A condition that affects your connective tissue.
- Down syndrome: A genetic disorder that affects the way your brain and body develop.
Common symptoms of joint hypermobility syndrome?
- Pain and stiffness in joints
- Regular soft tissue injuries – sprains and strains
- Joint subluxations (partial dislocation) or dislocations
- Poor balance and co-ordination
- Stomach and digestive problems
- Bladder and bowel problems
- Easy bruising
- Poor wound healing
- Stretchy or soft skin
- Tiredness (fatigue)
- Dizziness and fainting
Treatment for joint hypermobility:
There is no cure for joint hypermobility syndrome. Treatment will involve how to manage your symptoms and strengthen the muscles around the joints to protect them. You can improve strength around the joints by:
- Regular exercise
- Taking regular breaks while exercising
- Eating a healthy diet
- Wearing supportive shoes
- Not overextending your joints on purpose
- Maintain good posture
A Physiotherapist can help with advice and prescribing exercises to improve muscle strength, balance, and fitness to protect your joints and to reduce the risk of dislocations.
At Physiotherapy Matters we are all trained to support people with hypermobility. We also offer Pilates, which is a great choice of exercise for people with hypermobility. Pilates is a low intensity, low impact form of exercise. Pilates can be a good starting point to provide management and to build strength progressively. We offer 1:1 session which can be beneficial to work closely with a physiotherapist trained in Pilates as well as small Pilates classes.