Flexibility or Hypermobility - Find Out More
When you start exercising you may start to discover many interesting factors about physical functions of body, joins and muscles. Often people get a little confused between these
two things - Flexibility & Hypermobility, or think that they are one and the same. But there is actually
quite a difference between the two.
You can be Hypermobile and not Flexible, or
Flexible and not Hypermobile, or both together or neither!
Hypermobility relates more to the mobility in
your joints due to the tension in the ligaments supporting them, while
Flexibility is more about the total range of movement that you have in your
body, which depends on the amount of tension in your muscles, fascia and
nervous system.
Around each of our joints are strong bands of
connective tissue called ligaments that help hold our bones together. (Remember
that ligaments attach bone to bone, while tendons attach muscle to bone). In
some people these ligaments are very tight, while in others they are quite
stretchy. If a person has very stretchy or “lax” ligaments we call this
Hypermobility. This means that the amount of movement available in their joints
is more than for a person who has tight ligaments. The mobility of the
ligaments does not change very rapidly over time. However as we age, if the
joints are not moved regularly, the ligaments may stiffen a little.
Some people are mobile in just one or two
joints, while some people have excessive mobility everywhere! (There is a
special test to see how hypermobile you are called The Beighton Scale that
gives you a value out of 9).
Note that Hypermobility is very different to
Flexibility. Flexibility is more about your muscles (and other soft tissues)
and how much they can lengthen to allow you to move your body through a full
range of motion. This can change very rapidly, whereas your Hypermobility will
not. While Hypermobility is usually genetically linked, we all have the
capability to change our flexibility if we work on the right things.
You may feel tight in your muscles one day and
loose the next, due to the amount of exercise you are doing, trauma from overstretching,
changes in the temperature or hormonal change.
The one big myth that is that flexibility is all about your muscles. There are so many other systems
that contribute to the amount of flexibility you feel in your body, so it is
important that any flexibility routine that you do cover all bases. In our training classes and ballet workouts we make sure
that there are exercises that contribute to your neural mobility, fascial
tension, dynamic flexibility and strength and the power of your mind over your
body, as well as static stretches.
Join our ballet workout classes in various locations and discover the real flexibility that is inside you
today!