Taking a stroll back...

[dipdab]

So I was around a lot before Christmas and reached week 8, then a fall at soft play put me on the IC and bar one run attempt I havent been back since.

There are a few reasons, I discovered that im hypermobile in my hips and to a lesser extent my knees and ankles. Its why my soft play hip fall took so long to heal. I knew my wrists were bendy and a consultant had mentioned my shoulders when i was referred there as an injury wasnt being improved by physio. So thats the first thing, it took me a long time to heal, and Ive got a bit of a fear of being injured again. My advice from my GP about all this was to just walk and stop eating when ive run out of calories instead (had to bite my tongue on that one but thats another story)

I also managed to get slapped cheek and two sets of tonsillitis in a two month period so generally been not feeling my best.

Positives now, even though Ive not been exercising to any real degree for 6 months, Ive not put on any of the 2.5 stone I lost. Also, I think im feeling brave enough to get back out there again. Ill need to be careful, probably limit the number of runs, but I think Im ready but thats why im back here with you lot, I know you guys will have my back just like you did before

[Hidden]

As a martial artist, I used to envy people who had hyper mobility. I used to think there's me really having to work hard just to very slowly increase flexibility, and in comes someone else who can just do anything. But then I learned that the downside is that huge forces end up on tissues that aren't designed for it, and so pain is common.

Do those hyper mobile people still train with us? Yes they do. They've learned their safe limits just the same as those of us with less mobile joints have. And through lots of training, they've strengthened the muscles that stabilise the joints, so things are less likely to move in ways they're not supposed to.

Running on its own may not do much for the jiggly joints as I've heard it called by one individual with the condition. But lots of exercises to do at home, focusing on the often overlooked smaller muscles around the joints, might help. For example, in the hip area, running will do the quads, the two gluteus maximus muscles and the hamstrings. It will do much less for the hip adductor, flexor and extensor muscles and the smaller gluteus muscles (gluteus maximus being the biggest muscles of the bum, huge amounts of power, generating drive, but there are smaller muscles in the gluteus group that play more of a role in stabilising everything).

There's loads of good exercise tutorials on YouTube that specifically target the often overlooked muscles, and therefore help to stabilise everything.

[dipdab in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, my husband is quite into his weight training so is helping me out a bit based on what he already knows but ill have a look on youtube to find some specifics for my problem areas.

Running isn't great for jiggly joints (love that!) but it is very good for my mental wellbeing, its always so nice to just get out. Im limiting myself to twice a week though

[Hidden in reply to dipdab]

Cool. And sorry, I didn't mean to imply that running is bad. Absolutely the opposite. There's tonnes of benefits both physical and mental. Just that I think it needs to be backed up with other exercise types.

That's not just for hyper mobile folks either. I can't believe how much I read on forums from people reporting all sorts of easily avoidable or fixable niggles. You dig deeper. You find that they're really taking their training seriously, their working hard at getting the right nutrition and everything. They have all the best gear and a plan. But then they're not stretching or they're not looking at core strength or posture or they have an unaddressed muscle imbalance that's throwing everything out of alignment.

You said your husband is into weight training. In my experience, it's hard to find anyone that knows more about physical training than people who weight train a lot. Especially if they do it in a gym rather than at home, where people often share knowledge and look out for each other. I'm afraid to say I shunned weight training and dismissed it for too long, hence why I've become Mr Decrepit. A lot of the stuff I've learned happened after I'd broken various bits of myself. In hindsight, if I'd focused on strength and flexibility before or in tandem with my more high impact training, I reckon I'd be a lot fitter than I am.

[Emma_77]

Hi dipdab, good luck with getting back to running after a break. I have hypermobile hips too and an associated injury caused me to give up running 5 years ago so I know what you mean about being fearful of repeat injuries. A combined desire to reduce my stress levels and lose weight has convinced me to finally try again though. Definitely going to try exercising some of those areas mentioned by MrDecrepit with a view to creating more stability.