By helen sunshine on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 05:45 am:

I started cycling on flat roads only about a year ago and it has helped me enormously.

I do about 20 minutes a day. I hardly notice that ive done any excercise and I think that this has been the key to SLOWLY developing strength.

Im also doing some gentle inner leg excersises with very small weights to balance the development of the muscle on both sides.

Also I now sleep on a futon and my shoulders are much much better too.

Ive suffered from hypermobility all my life and as a result I have always avoided going to the gym because my joints are always painful. so its impossible to wait until the pain has passed.

Now Ifeel that I can do it as long as I keep it gentle, very gentle.

Also dry heat helps a lot, I ve found that an electric blanket, if used carefully can eleviate knee pains.

So now my knees are almost sorted and my shoulders are better, what about my finger joints????????

Its getting cold now and Im struggling....any suggestions?

By Michelle Castle on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 08:33 pm:

The best thing I have for strengthening my fingers if a TheraBand Ball. It's a soft, squishy material that you can do different exercises with - squeezing it, moving it between fingers, and so forth. You can even microwave it to make it warm.

If your fingers hyperextend at the distal joints (not the ones that attach to the hand), you might look into Sliver Ring Splints. They'll keep your fingers from hyperextending. They are intended to be used for extended periods of time, and you can convince yourself they look like funky jewlery. Visit http://www.silverringsplint.com/ to learn more. Their website appears to be down at the moment; hopefully it'll be available when you look.

Michelle

By Linda Gibson on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 08:41 am:

I have two children, a son aged 20 and a daughter aged 14, who suffer from hypermobile joints. Both of them have recently injured their knee for no apparent reason, other than it "went", ie moved out of place and caused excruciating pain, couldn't be straightenend or bear any weight.
Doctors suggest rest, a physiotherapist suggested an exercise programme to strenthen the muscles surrounding the joints but the pain is still too bad to attempt this.
Any suggestions or ideas would be most welcom.

By Natalie DeAngelo on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 05:52 pm:

Dear Linda,
Unfortunately i can not help much but i can relate to your daughter. I am 14 too and i hurt my knee doing a field hockey game. now because of my knee and other recent hms problems, i wont be able to play anything again. but thats life my suggestion would be to rest on it. I had to use crutches for around a week. as much as u can to help it to heal. I found electrical stimulation to be alot of help to ease the pain also. after that, try going to a physical therapyst just to get some very basic excercises to work on. basic as in nothing that will cause enough pain that it will be worse for their knees and hurt them more in the long run. simple things like just lifting the knee a little or slowly bending it. those helped me a lot just so i could get to teh point of actual physical therapy. im sorry if i could not have helped you more but i hope that something i said can help to get your kids better. best wishes...
Natalie