Hi, I’m Andrew from Sydney Sports Podiatry – Experienced Podiatrists for Runners.
Today we’re going to talk about Hypermobility.
What’s Hypermobility?
Basically, it’s a significant factor for many of our patients who present with foot concerns.
Hypermobility means your ligaments are more elastic and they don’t provide as much structural tension as they could.
At Sydney Sports Podiatry, we see a high proportion of females with foot and leg issues associated with hypermobility.
I can only push my pinky finger up in the air a small amount. Though as you can see, some people like Alexa are able to bend their pinkies up to 90 degrees.
This is a sign of Hypermobility.
Test it for yourself – Place your hand up vertically like this, bend your hand forward, grab your thumb, then see if you can touch your thumb back to your wrist.
Some people like Alexa can touch their thumb against their wrist or get very close to it as well.
The next test is to place your arm straight out front. As you can see, Alexa’s arm goes backwards.
So these are all signs of hypermobility in your ligaments, and the same thing applies not just to your hands and elbows but also to your feet.
What it means is your ligaments provide less passive stability to those joints and if you’re running, you’re more likely to pronate (collapse arch) and your muscles are going to work harder to compensate.
If you think you’ve got hypermobility—if your fingers and thumbs bend backwards, your elbows hyper-extend (over-straighten), if anyone’s ever called you double-jointed and your feet look a bit flat—there’s a strong chance that it’s because your ligaments are more stretchy and you have a degree of hypermobility.
This is a common clinical finding in our practice.
We can assess and measure you with a biomechanical examination, and then we’ll formulate a diagnosis and a management plan to assist you in returning to the exercise you want to do.
