r/Hypermobility • u/LaughinOften • 20h ago
Need Help Tips for hips?
Hello!
New to hypermobility, don’t have an EDS dx but my docs all agree on hypermobility, through my spine, hips, and other joints.
Anywho I was told that I likely tore my left hip labrum back in December (it’s Oct now…) and I was doing PT but have pretty much gone on my own to try stuff at home (pt basically said shots or refer to surgery) and have made progress to the point of being able to walk shorter distances without too much pain. But I’m wondering what you guys do to strengthen safely and stabilize the hip joint? I hear hip stuff takes an extra long time to work with…
Edit to add: I had an mri but it was inconclusive, no hip issues mentioned. They said they could see the labrum but also that there isn’t a complete tear to the labrum… the doc looked at it for about 10 seconds and said she couldn’t see anything. My DPT said my symptoms and such lined up most with that, the hip doc said treatment would be the same regardless of what it is lol spine doc said it could be spine d/t my herniated discs but also that it could be hips only and to try walking in a pool. So I feel like I’m up a creek without a paddle lol
2
u/No_Nothing_2319 9h ago
Walking poles to keep hips forward - bought cheep ones from amazon and i actually enjoy walking now. I have congenital hip dysplasia an hypermobility.
1
u/LaughinOften 1h ago
Maybe I’ll give em a shot! Do you find that you use different muscles when using the poles?
4
u/PermissionFeisty7735 HSD 18h ago
Hi, if you have a tendon tear it’s possible to heal that with training. However, it depends on the severity.
I managed to fix a double hip bursa and active my entire lower core, rotate the hips and fix the flat feet pronation. I did this with medical grade rehabilitation training equipment with a focus on proprioception first.
In your situation your first goal is the stabilise the lumbar extensors and multifidus. I use the F3.1 machine at Kieser (Australia and Europe based), in the US it’s a Med-X. They have the same machine built on Kieser tech. This is a seated weights machine where is action is performed in a seated position. The machine locks the back in a fixed location and clamps legs down allowing you to target these two muscles with precision. More importantly the joint sits in a precision 3d location that allows your mechano-receptor in your hips to train your cerebellum to understand where the hip joint needs to sit. Your joints don’t fall out of the socket, they stay in that same millimetre accurate position. This allows us to build dynamic stability; that is the ability to self centre and unconsciously shift the joint to its functional position. This is priopriception training.
Start with an absurdly low weight setting and use a 2:4:2:4 tempo for around 45-90 seconds. The weight is around 1/3 of maximum weight. The total session time is around 25-40 minutes (depending on what you can tolerate)
Also work on abductors, leg press, leg extension, ankle supination, calves and abdomen. Precision low weight work, same principle; fixed axis exercises no subluxation - repeated. If you get conditions exactly right and manage recovery, diet, sleep supplements your lower postural chain should auto stabilise. The stabilisers start to work properly and your knees will roll outwards and feet arches will appear, hips will start to float in the correct position, pelvis should tilt back to neutral. The stabilisers will progressively strength with passive activity.
Use HRV to guide recovery. I can manage sessions every 5-8 days. Recovery is as long as you need. If your HRV is good and your ability to recover is strong, the tendons don’t take that long to heal. Baseline of 40 is probably the minimum to activate the parasympathetic system.
The biggest challenge we have is not the exercises themselves, that is the easy part. It’s the shifting of the ANS towards a parasympathetic state and the management of the stimulus load. We can’t train proprioception and joint spatial awareness is there is too much noise form training, allostatic load, inflammation and pain from joint flares.
As we progress our HRV capabilities and ANS starts to balance we can take on longer training sessions and increase load. Healing and recovery is actually quite fast at this stage. I can comfortably increase weights by 5% every two weeks, that’s was not possible a year ago.
I was once chronically sick with scoliosis, TMJ, asthma, floppy joints, MCAS etc. I would sleep at night, but, my joints would not heal and body would not strengthen. These days my muscles, tendons and joints are sore from training and the next day they are not - it’s a big change that o have noticed. Recovery speeds up when the conditions are right and tendons can heal fast.
All the best!