Flexible but Tight

If you a) have a connective tissue disorder, b) are a healthcare provider who works with individuals with a connective tissue disorder, or c) are in a close relationship with someone with a connective tissue disorder and are therefore frequently begged for massages, you understand what "flexible but tight" means. To the rest of the world though, it seems to be an oxymoron. How can you be tight while you're so flexible? How do you say you have tight hamstrings when I see you comfortably sit in a full split? You always say your shoulders hyperextend, so what do you mean they are tight?

Here's how you can be. With a connective tissue disorder such as EDS, your ligaments do not support your joints sufficiently for daily activities. As a result, the muscles are required to "work overtime" to compensate and stabilize the joints. The proper muscles (stabilizers) become fatigued and recruit whatever "help" they can, often resulting in compensations with muscles that are not meant to fire throughout all daily activities (the bulky, outer-layer muscles). This can cause muscle spasms and large knots or "trigger points" through the overworked muscles. At the same time, within joints themselves, the body often finds a way to compensate. So whereas you may have tons of extra mobility in one direction of a joint's range of motion, the body will tighten up either in the other direction of that joint or in a nearby joint in order to provide more "stability" to the body.

So the last few times when I went to my PT, I told her how my hamstring has started feeling extra tight and borderline cramping again. She dug in and found that my whole left hamstring and gluteal muscles are completely tensed up, and my SI (sacroiliac) joint was pretty much locked out of place as a result. With some manual work, she was able to begin the relaxation process of the muscles and realign my SI joint. It's certainly a good start, and I continue to be very happy with my PT's methods.

Meanwhile, I've been crazy busy with Passover shenanigans these last few weeks, and haven't had enough time to stay on top of all my exercises (let alone sit down for a few minutes to blog). Due to my observance of the holiday, I've had limited weekdays to work with. Practically speaking, this means I've had to skip aerial to fit in PT and OT. I know it's the right decision for my body, but I miss aerial already. I find myself daydreaming about aerial silks, trying to visualize the skills I've learned so that I don't forget them while I can't practice. In theory this is great, but it's probably not ideal when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep for an hour because I'm mentally tangled in ropes. So hopefully my current flare-up of even more tightness than usual is just while I get back into my regular work and exercise schedule and will calm down once I'm back on track.

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