I’m hypermobile.
Cool- you might say. What’s that?
The old phrase was double jointed. The Medical Dictionary defines it as: n condition in which ligaments are loose.
My ligaments have more stretch than normal. (Ligaments are the ‘joining parts’ from bone to bone.)
According to the Beighton Laxity Test, I scored a 6/9. (Just), but it doesn’t assess hypermobility in hips, and boy are mine hyper mobile!
The Beighton Laxity Test tests 5 areas:
1: Can your thumb touch your wrist? (1 point for each side)
2: Can you bend your baby finger to 90° past the hand (1 point for each side)
3: When you lock your elbow, is it straight (neutral) or does it go past 10° or more (past neutral) (1 point for each side)?
4: Can you touch your palms of your hands onto floor without bending your knees?
5: When you lock your knees, are they straight (neutral) or do they go past 10° or more (past neutral) (1 point for each side)?
As I said, it doesn’t test the hips. I can comfortably sit in the W position. I can comfortable tuck my foot under my corresponding armpit. (I’ll spare you a photo!) in fact, when I was a child my Mum said I used to stand like a stork, while watching tv!
There are some perks to being hypermobile. But I’m not a world class gymnast, a ballet dancer or an acrobat at Cirque du Soleil or the Chinese State Circus.
As interesting as it would be if I was an acrobat- I’m not. I’m just a wife and mother trying to get on with my little life and being hypermobile has made me very inflexible.
Since being pregnant, my core muscles have got weaker. The relaxin hormone relaxed my already flexible hips and joints, I developed Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction (Where my pubic bone didn’t rejoin after labour) and in my final pregnancy Plantar Fasciitis (severe pain in my feet as I walked- especially after resting, making the middle of the night feeds a rather painful experience.) The Plantar Fasciitus only cleared up in the last 18 months, but I am extremely wary of shoes that I buy. I have also had persistent recurring back pain for the last 4 years and then last Easter I got a Hip Labral Impingement (where the movement of my hip joint is trapping cartilage or tendons).
I am very fortunate to have an amazing Physio who has patiently worked with me and given me various exercises to strengthen myself. Last October she discharged me. Yay! I’m on the mend.
Well, I would have been had I actually been doing my exercises.
Then in February I developed another Hip Labral Impingement. The other side. My strong side.
This time the impingement was when I’m lifted my leg. (Getting out of the car, moving my foot from the accelerator to the brake.) With sitting being the most painful thing that I could do, bending being impossible and walking relieving the discomfort and pain, I found I was quite limited in what I could do and was rather tired as a constant dull ache and discomfort is a drain on energy.
So yeah!- being hypermobile is completely inflexible. Especially when injuries plague us. (And we are more prone to them thanks to the reduced support our muscles get from our bones.)
But who knows… maybe if I do my exercises I could become like the ballerina in the clip!
(Yes- my girls are hypermobile too!)
Somedays by C 