How does Hypermobility Impact Strength training?

It comes as no surprise but often one of the most prevalent goals when starting at the gym is to build strength. For some of us, we just get started and build strength along the way.

When performing strength movements however, one of the recurring cues to take note of is to maintain tightness. When performing a squat you will hear things such as “knees out”, “shoulders back and down”, “brace the abs” or if you manage to have a child like one of our clients you may even get a “turn your six pack on dad!” from the sidelines.

These cues to maintain tightness are to maximise our performance and lifting, but to also reduce or rather minimise any risk of that looseness leading to injury.

With that in mind, hypermobility or essentially being a bit of a floppy person, it may seem that strength training isn’t for you.

I would like to suggest, that strength training or improving strength isn’t strictly limited to the world of powerlifting. To get stronger simply implies to be able to move more mass- it is just that the squat, deadlift or bench press are three of our major movements that determine overall strength.

Depending on how extreme a clients hypermobility is, with some experiencing hypermobility in one or two joints, others joints being so loose the risk of injury is much higher- initially you may start the client with a structural balance styled program.

This may look like higher reps, lower sets and targeting some of the muscle groups that protect our more vulnerable joints such as the knees, shoulders, hips and although not itself a joint, the lower back. Another programming tool that provides a lot of benefit for the hypermobile is incorporating isometrics into exercises- this means rather than performing a lift, then lowering, we would lift to the top position and hold there, further minimising the risk of injury and really maximising the time under tension for our targeted muscle group.

As good as our three core powerlifting movements are, where they are used on a clients training path will vary depending on their needs and wants. What is important when working with someone whose goal is strength, rather than competing in strength sports is to remember that we can mimic squat, push and hinge patterns without adding a significant load to the barbell.

Perhaps we regress our squats all the way back to wall sits, before moving to ring assisted squats, goblet squats, front squats, back squats and then adding load. Our hinge movement may start with glute bridges, progressing to loaded hip thrusts, RDL’s, wall assisted single leg RDL’s, trap bar deadlifts and straight bar deadlifts.

The focus here should always be on maintaining a risk v reward ratio heavily in favour of reward. In sixteen years of training clients, I’ve heard many goals as a driver to attend but not once have I heard a client have the goal to get injured.

Another factor to consider for our hypermobile clients is how they warm up- as they are already loose so to speak, the need for longer static stretching greatly diminishes in comparison to our hypomobile clients (the opposite, stiff as a board) and instead they may be better served doing more loaded mobility or activation type movements to “wake up” some of the tissue surrounding the joints to best prepare.

Let it be said, hypermobility is not a death sentence for strength gains, nor does it mean no heavy compound lifts- like anything it boils down to knowing your body and what it needs to drive performance outcomes.

If you’re super bendy and flexible to a point of problem- then starting slow and building stability should be priority number one, strength is just getting stronger, it is not limited to maximal strength and it is important to remember that the definition of strong looks very different for all of us. What does strength look like to you?