Hypermobility SyndromeAnd General Joint Hypermobility or HyperextensionNot to freak you out or anything, but being naturally flexible to an extreme degree could be a sign of Hypermobility Syndrome. I am not a medical person, and cannot and will not give medical advice on this website, or anywhere else. But as a yoga teacher, I feel it is my duty to advise you not to be too cavalier with a natural openness in the poses. Hypermobility Syndrome is usually benign, and usually requires no treatment beyond moving in your body with awareness and care. However, if you are naturally very flexible, your joints may lack sufficient resistance to hyperextension, leaving the bones and connective tissues prey to the wear and tear of over stretching. Moving too far into yoga poses over and over again without properly engaging the muscles first can cause pain and suffering in the long term. Yoga Poses and FlexibilityI feel that flexibility has been misunderstood by the western yoga world - sought after to the point of being over emphasized, to the detriment of many well meaning practitioners. Remember that yoga is about balance, and happy muscles are strong muscles, too. Hypermobile myself, I did plenty of unnecessary damage to my knees and low back in my early astanga practice by moving too deeply and too quickly without first developing the strength and self awareness to move wisely.Especially if you tend toward hypermobility, but even if you don't, please read about strengthening, and about hugging in. If you think you may have Hypermobility Syndrome, or a related condition such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or rheumatoid arthritis, see a doctor before performing any type of yoga exercises.
Am I Too Flexible?When my mother was in school studying Chinese medicine, she shared with me the following truism - you can never have too much health or life force. If a patient in the learning clinic she worked in during her training had an imbalance of yin energy to yang energy, the teacher doctors were sure to point out that there can never be "too much yang" or "too much yin." Rather, the compliment energy (yin as the compliment to yang, and vice versa) may need to be boosted, or enhanced, and balance therefore achieved. So it is with the contrasting compliments of strength and flexibility in your body structure.You might think of knee hyperextension, for example, as a dominance of flexibility, and a message from your body to please strengthen the muscles around the knee joint. You may find that in time, with strong, stable joints and good alignment, your overall flexibility improves. Oddly, one of the common experiences of really bendy, hypermobile people, is that they are constantly craving a good stretch. If this sounds like you, consider the possibility that that all the movement in your tendons and ligaments is disallowing any lengthening in the belly of the muscles themselves. Please understand, I'm not suggesting that everyone who has a naturally fluid body has hypermobility syndrome. But as it turns out, what's true in our hearts is reflected in our bodies - true openness requires strength, and vice versa. The Secret Life of the Floppy YogiThis balance of stability and freedom is described in one of the most studied of the ancient yoga texts, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It says, shtiram, sukham, asanam, or your position should be stable and free.Think of what we mean when talk about flexibility, or a lack of it, to describe someone's personality. In every day life, a lack of flexibility, such as adhering very rigidly to a schedule, or to an idea, or opinion, or even a life path, can narrow your horizons and rob you of the rich offerings of life. This tendency creates lots of stability, but little freedom. On the other hand, being too quick to meet every situation in your life with "sure, whatever," flowing randomly from one point of view to another, at the whim of life's circumstances or the needs of others, can leave you feeling burned out, and confused, and pulled away from a sense of yourself. In either case, the imbalance is a deficit. With a lack of flexibility, or ease of movement, we have few experiences and therefore a limited amount of information to learn and grow from in our lives. Without sufficient stability to provide the consistent reference point of a solid core, experiences are many, but they often remain at the level of mere stimulation. And again, no true expansion happens. The SignsJoint hypermobility, or even hypermobility syndrome, may be present if you• easily lay your palms flat on the floor with your knees fully extended in uttanasana (standing forward bend) • slip into full hanumanasana (the yoga splits) with ease • possess the ability to press the thumb all the way back to the wrist, or other special talents often called double jointedness. You may also feel tired all the time, or have chronic pain in your knees, hips, back or other joints. If you love the feeling of stretching during your yoga practice, but afterward feel tired and depleted or have joint pain, or pain where the muscles connect to the bones, It might be wise to back off in your yoga stretches. Even better, find a well trained teacher to guide you in your practice. back from Hypermobility Syndrome to Yoga Stretches
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