Not Just Bendy
A Guide to understanding Hypermobility - By a Women’s Health Exercise Physiologist
Quick Summary on hypermobility - that makes sense.
If your joints move easily but feel unreliable, your body often creates extra tension to feel safe. That tension is called guarding (a protective reflex in your muscle–fascia network). Guarding drives compensation—the body borrows stability from somewhere else—so you feel tight, achy, or like you “can’t find” your muscles.
The fix isn’t endless stretching. It’s joint-variability training: teach your body more options in mid-range, then add slow, well-dosed load. Result: less guarding, more control, fewer flare-ups.
Quick definitions (in human speak)
Hypermobility: Your joints have more movement than average. It’s a spectrum—from “bendy and fine” to symptomatic (HSD) to hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos (hEDS).
Myofascia: The body-wide web that wraps your muscles and organs. Think of it like a stretchy, connected suit under your skin that helps transmit force and sensation.
Guarding: Automatic “brace” from muscles/fascia when the nervous system doesn’t feel safe. It’s protective tone, not necessarily true stiffness.
Compensation: When one area does extra work because another area isn’t giving good support.
Joint variability: Having multiple good movement options (not just big range). Options calm guarding.
Mid-range: The middle of a joint’s motion—where most daily life happens and control is easiest.
Eccentric: The slow-lower part of a movement (e.g., lowering from a squat). Great for control.
Why you can feel “tight” when you’re actually bendy
Often seen in hypermobile bodies: feet that stay pronated. Pronation itself is normal; the issue is when the arch doesn’t ‘recoil.’ Without that spring, force leaks up the chain—tibias drift in, knees cave, hips and pelvic floor overwork—so the system doesn’t respond well to load.
Plain English: Your system is smart. If a joint feels wobbly, it turns up tension elsewhere to keep you safe.
That tension (guarding) can make hamstrings, hips, or back feel tight—even if the tissues aren’t short. Long, passive stretching may briefly “soften” the sensation but doesn’t teach control, so the system often snaps back to guarding.
What helps instead:
Setup: Neboso heel wedge, big-toe extension, toe spreaders. Outcome: grounded first ray, quieter grip, and a responsive tripod
Find mid-range positions where the joint feels centred.
Add small, controlled loads and slow tempos.
Let your nervous system trust the new option.
The compensation map (how one area borrows from another)
From the ground up:
Feet: Some pronation is normal (rolling in). When it lingers and doesn’t spring back, the tibia (shin) drifts inward, the knee caves, the hip grips, and the pelvis/ribs do weird things to keep you upright.
Ribs & breath: If ribs flare up or you brace down hard, pressure has to go somewhere—often the pelvic floor, neck, or lower back.
Pelvic floor: It can be both “too on” (urgency, pain, constipation) and “not on enough” (leaks), depending on the global strategy—not just the pelvic floor itself.
Check-in cues:
Do your arches collapse and never “bounce back”?
Do you feel like no shoes support your ‘over pronation?”
Do your knees drift in when you squat or step down?
Do you hold your breath or clench your jaw when things get hard?
If yes, you’re seeing compensation in action.
Our method: Joint-Variability Training (5 steps)
Goal: reduce guarding by giving your system options it trusts, then making those options stronger. We understand that the below example seems complicated, but our Women’s Health Exercise Physiologists are experts are being able to describe and communicate movement.
1) Anchor
Tripod foot (big toe, little toe, heel). Soft knee. (as seen in the image above)
Ribs stacked over pelvis (not flared, not tucked hard).
Three slow nasal breaths: long exhale to dial down bracing.
Everything we do, we will orientate your ribcage to be stacked over your pelvis. Understanding the mechanics of your feet, ribcage and pelvis is the key to unlock new/better strategies for movement.
2) Orient (find options)
Tiny hip IR/ER holds in 90/90 (the “windshield wiper” position) without spine hitching.
Shoulder blade upward rotation + slight posterior tilt (arm raises without rib flare).
Pelvis can tip slightly forward/back—not locked. Think “available,” not “fixed.”
3) Load (slow beats heavy)
Start with isometrics (20–30s holds) in mid-range.
Add tempo (3–4s slow lowers), then grow the range a little.
Progress two legs → split stance → single leg → add a gentle wobble.
4) Integrate (make it useful)
Carries, hinges, step-downs, split squats.
Cue the force path: foot → hip → rib without losing your anchors.
We help women with hypermobile bodies, manage symptoms by helping them understand how their body behaves under load and map compensations, then rebuild with joint-variability so the pelvic floor, hips, and feet share the work
5) Down-regulate (tell the system it’s safe)
60–120s nasal breathing, long exhale.
Pelvic floor cue: “soft… then gather” (never max clench).
Pelvic floor: train the system, not just the muscle
Big idea: Your pelvic floor is the base of a pressure system (diaphragm on top, abs/back as the walls). Most symptoms come from how the whole canister manages pressure and load—not from one weak muscle.
Hypermobility & guarding: With bendy tissues, the nervous system often adds extra tension (“guarding”) to feel safe. A floor can be tight at rest yet under-recruit under load—so you might feel both “too on” and “not enough” in the same day.
Why “just do Kegels” can miss it: More squeezing raises pressure without fixing timing and coordination. We care more about when the floor yields/gathers than how hard it squeezes.
It’s a chain: Feet that stay pronated, hips that grip, or ribs that flare push pressure downward and ask the floor to “hold the fort.” Improve the foot-hip-rib strategy, and the floor stops overworking.
Nervous system & hormones: Stress, poor sleep, POTS, and cycle shifts change tone. Calmer, predictable loading makes tissues more available (able to yield and gather).
What “better” looks like: The floor yields on inhale/receiving load and gathers on effort—sharing the job with ribs, abs, and hips.
When to loop others in: Ongoing pain, heaviness/prolapse concerns, recurrent bladder/bowel issues, dizziness/faints → involve GP/specialist + pelvic health physio.
Condition snapshots (plain-language)
HSD vs hEDS: Both are on the hypermobility spectrum. hEDS has stricter criteria; HSD is “symptomatic but not hEDS.” Training principles overlap; pacing and personalization matter.
POTS: Your heart rate rises a lot when upright, and you feel dizzy/washed out. We start more horizontal (bike/row/Mat work), then gradually train more upright positions, with generous rest and steady tempos.
MCAS: Your immune cells are extra reactive (rashes, flushing, gut upset, etc.). We avoid triggers (heat, friction, sudden intensity spikes) and use predictable, interval-style loading.
How we can help at any.BODY
Clinical 1:1: map your guarding/compensation pattern and build a personal plan.
Strength Performance: small-group strength with joint-variability baked in.
Exercise Physiology 1;1: help you understand your compensation patterns, layer in education and help you connect with your body and movement.
Book a session and let’s build stability you can feel.
Mini-glossary (keep this handy)
Guarding: protective tension; your body’s “seatbelt.”
Compensation: a backup plan your body uses when the main plan isn’t stable.
Joint variability: having choices; more choices = calmer system.
Mid-range: the sweet spot where control is easiest.
Eccentric: slow-lower—gold for control and tendon health.
Proprioception: your body’s internal GPS—where you are in space.