Swedish massage for hypermobility syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos hypermobility type

I used to think it was only old people who complained that cold weather made their joints ache and seize up, but I stand corrected. Since the colder weather set it my joints have been extremely painful, to the point where I have been standing at my desk covered in heat patches and wearing as much deep heat as clothes. There isn't one clear and concise explanation behind the link between the cold and joint pain that I can find, but it seems to be a widespread thing, particularly in the hypermobile community. Apparently, air pressure is the culprit behind these wintry aches, causing knees, shoulders, backs and in my case lately, every single part of the body to hurt more.

When it gets colder and dreaded winter sets in, air pressure drops and there is less atmospheric pressure, this causes the soft tissue and ligaments that surround our joints to become inflamed as they expand. This swelling stimulates the many nerves that dwell within the tissue, leading to the pain. How very scientific.

There are countless articles online that target joint pain in winter offering hints and tips such as ‘dress up warm’ or ‘use heating to warm rooms.’ Ground breaking stuff. What would we do without the internet? In any case, I have been covering my shoulders with a monstrously big scarf as they have been so painful lately that even the sight of my work bag sends them into panic. Back pain has also come hurtling along with the cold weather, arriving just in time to enjoy some festive fun. Swimming has helped this a bit. Breastroke in particular seems to make my shoulders and back feel less tense, but overdoing it even a tiny bit can cause more pain. I felt better after about 10 lengths last Friday, so that is probably enough to start with.

Swedish massage

I have looked into massage with hypermobility syndrome a lot since being diagnosed. There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer as to which kind, if any, are the most suitable. It is obviously a very individual thing. Deep tissue or ‘sports’ massage has a lot of mixed reviews on forums for hypermobility syndrome, with a lot of people experiencing even more pain afterwards. I was recommended to stay away from this by one of my physiotherapists as she said too much stimulation can simply move areas of pain around rather than easing pressure and helping pain to subside.

 Swedish massage, from the holistic family, is a gentle form of massage often performed by beauty therapists. I am lucky enough to have beauty therapist trained in massage as one of my best friends, so I decided it was time to indulge. My back pain has been the worst ever the last few weeks, the knots around my shoulders and in my lower back have felt huge. Deep heat and heat patches help to ease the pain for a while but after having them massaged and worked out, my shoulders feel almost brand new. (Well as new as hypermobile shoulders can feel.) It did hurt, especially down the middle of my back and underneath my right shoulder, which is where the worst of my pain has always been. The crunching and clicking was quite special and I did begin to worry that it would do more harm than good, but I cannot recommend enough. My hypermobility issues mainly reside in my shoulders and hips and these areas both feel tons better since massage day. My shoulder has felt knot free and some light swimming the next day helped to make it feel steady. My hips have felt almost entirely pain free since. I was told that wearing shoes that absorb shock well, with a small heel, will help my hips in the long run too. The next day does come with a bruised feeling and you have to drink lots of water immediately after and make sure you keep active, but for me it has been worth it. Also on a completely unrelated note, it is lovely when you are nursing a slight hangover, as I found out. Swedish massage definitely gets a place on my pain-easing list.  

Swimming with Hypermobility

Having hypermobility means having muscles that are too flexible as opposed to too tight, which means exercise choice is really important. As much as I try to kid myself that walking up the escalators at tube stations is a substitute for the gym, in reality exercise needs to happen regularly. The best exercises for hypermobility sufferers are those that strengthen the muscles. This doesn’t mean you need to start inhaling spinach and channelling Pop-Eye, it just means try to avoid increasing flexibility.

People who are referred to physio will receive a tension band in a shocking shade of yellow or red, which for some reason always smell absolutely vile. They should really make them smell divine or come up with a way of making money fall out of them to increase usage, but until then, keep them away from your nose. While the band exercises helped my shoulder a bit, no amount of stretching or wall leaning or thrusting (horrible, horrible word) ever helped my hip.

Against the odds, one of my best friends who I also live with suffers with hypermobility too. She took up swimming about 6 months ago and eventually I jumped on board too. Front crawl I can’t do well because it hurts my shoulder a lot, backstroke I can’t do because I’m terrified of hitting the wall or another person (and it hurts), so breaststroke became the one. Starting gently, even if it means only staying in the water for fifteen minutes, is definitely the right way to go about things. After three trips my hip felt like I had actually done it some good. It usually clicks with practically every step I take, but this definitely lessened post-swimming. It’s also nice gentle exercise for my shoulders and they didn’t hurt any more than usual after. My friend has been advised to invest in a float to lean on to work on her legs more, so we are both going to try this next, much to the delight of the Olympic swimmers who insist on getting in the slow lane at our local pool.

The last time we went swimming we swam for 35 minutes straight, which was the most I have done since my problems started. The next time I go I will aim for this, but no longer. Hypermobility really is about patience.  It took some working up to and apart from two daring lengths of terrifying backstroke, it was all breaststroke. Nice and calm and gentle and resulting in eating a dinner that would feed a family of five. Hungry work, swimming.