What if the problem was never that you weren’t trying hard enough, but that your hypermobile body needed a different approach to strength training?

In this episode, I’m joined by my patient Abby to talk about what it really looks like to stop fighting your body in the gym and start working with it. Abby shares her journey from recovering from a childhood spinal fracture to realising that hypermobility was the missing piece behind years of chronic muscle and joint pain.

This is a conversation about letting go of rigid exercise rules, embracing dynamic needs, and redefining strength in a hypermobile body.

In this episode, we cover:

- Recovering from a childhood spinal fracture and how Abby navigates ongoing chronic pain

- How learning she was hypermobile made everything make sense

- How Abby uses self-treatment strategies and has worked to “become her own coach” to stay consistent with exercise

Learning to train with your body rather than against it

This episode is for anyone who is hypermobile and struggling to make exercise work in a body with changing needs.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

📚 Join the waitlist for pre-order information for the May 12th release of Help! I’m Hypermobile

(and get your free PDF companion guide in the meantime):

hypermobilityhq.com/book

📸 Follow me @hypermobilityhq on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

🎙 Learn more about the podcast:

hypermobilityhq.com/podcast

💌 Guest info, media, and resources:

hypermobilityhq.com/blog

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Medical disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your training, exercise, or healthcare plan.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Author, speaker, and chronic illness advocate Lorraine Ansell and I talk about learning to live with and love your body while living with chronic pain and complex health challenges.

Through a discussion of her book The Surrender Agenda, we explore Lorraine’s experience of living with hEDS, including navigating serious health events and profound personal loss, and how years of wondering why she wasn’t “strong enough” led to a reckoning with identity, self-worth, and the belief that pushing harder is always the answer.

This is a conversation about invisible grief, losing trust in your body, and the slow, often uncomfortable process of learning to care for yourself with kindness.

In this episode, we dig into:

• Learning to live with (and perhaps even come to love) your chronic pain

• Navigating difficult health and life experiences, including retinal detachment and miscarriage

• Why The Surrender Agenda was exactly the book I didn’t know I needed

This episode is for anyone living with chronic illness, navigating grief or medical trauma, or wondering how to stop being at war with their body while still living fully.

If you would like to learn more about Lorraine’s book visit https://www.lorraineansellauthor.com/

You can also find Lorraine online on Instagram and Tiktok

THANK YOU for watching, and remember: incurable does not mean untreatable ❣️

📚 Help! I’m Hypermobile (April 2026) join the waitlist + get your FREE PDF in the meantime: hypermobilityhq.com/book

📸 Follow me @hypermobilityhq on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

🎙 Learn more about the podcast:

hypermobilityhq.com/podcast

💌 Guest info, media, and resources:

hypermobilityhq.com/blog

Medical disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your healthcare or wellbeing plan.

Coach Sean and I discuss why strength training alone often isn’t enough for hypermobile bodies.

Drawing on my personal experience training with hEDS, we explore why learning to generate tension matters even for experienced, seemingly strong hypermobile athletes, and why cardiovascular work can support strength rather than compete with it.

We dig deep into:

• Why tactile feedback matters for hypermobile athletes

• How thinking about blood flow diversion can help manage symptoms outside the gym

• Why rigid programmes don’t work for hypermobile people

• Why you NEED to be doing cardio if you are building muscle

Sean is a highly experienced Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer (CF-L3) coach with an extensive background in Crossfit-specific gymnastics, bringing a deep understanding of strength, conditioning, and long term athletic development to this conversation. He is also my personal coach, and his own experience returning to exercise after serious health challenges has shaped an informed and strategic approach to coaching athletes and people looking to elevate their overall fitness.

This episode is for anyone training, rehabbing, or strength training while dealing with joint hypermobility and wondering why doing “everything right” still doesn’t feel like enough.

THANK YOU for watching, and remember: incurable does not mean untreatable! ❣️

📚 Join the waitlist for pre-order information for the April 2026 release of my book Help! I'm Hypermobile (and get your free PDF companion guide in the meantime): ⁠⁠hypermobilityhq.com/book⁠⁠

📸 Follow me ⁠⁠@hypermobilityhq⁠⁠ and subscribe on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tiktok⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Youtube⁠ ⁠

⭐️ Follow Sean on Instagram at ⁠@Sean_coach_tomo91

🎙️ Learn more about the podcast: ⁠⁠hypermobilityhq.com/podcast⁠⁠

💌 For guest info, media, or resources visit my blog at ⁠⁠hypermobilityhq.com/blog/

Medical disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your training, exercise, or healthcare plan.