There’s a good chance you’ve heard how important “getting stronger” is for bendy people. And it’s true: bendy people have been shown to generate about 30% less muscular force (i.e. be 30% weaker) at baseline than their non-bendy counterparts. And yet, the bendy body relies even more heavily on muscular support than others, thanks to the relative lack of support from connective tissues such as tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, and fascia.
But, it’s complicated. Without specific guidance that understands the unique differences in tissue tolerance, nervous system regulation, and other challenges hypermobile people face, strength training can lead to more pain, fatigue, and frustration for hypermobile humans.
This Article Will Cover:
- What is strength training?
- Common strength training pitfalls
- Tips for a sustainable approach
Common Sense Disclaimer
Strength training isn’t for everyone at every time. Always get guidance from your hypermobility-friendly physical therapist before starting strength training.
What is Strength Training?
Strength is a measure of how much load you can push, pull, squat, lift, or carry. Strength training refers to using resistance (bands, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, etc.) to train your muscles to get stronger over time, so they can move heavier loads.
Stability, on the other hand, is the ability to resist movement under a load. Think of a plank position: instead of moving against an external load, muscles are engaged to prevent movement against gravity. Stability and strength go hand in hand. For a 10-pound deadlift, your legs must be strong enough to lift 10 pounds, while your trunk must be stable enough to resist moving under a 10-pound load. Strength training is inherently also stability training.
Key Strength Training Variables to Consider
Frequency: How often do you perform strength exercises?
Volume: How many exercises do you perform in each workout, for how many sets, and for how many repetitions?
Intensity: How hard are you working? i.e., How much weight are you using for each exercise?
Rest: How long do you rest between sets of exercise and at the end of your workout?
Tempo: How quickly are you performing each exercise repetition?
Progressive Overload
Strength training requires progressing your challenge over time, so your tissues and nervous system continue to adapt, reflecting your new level of strength at every step along the way. Progressing the challenge can be done by increasing your training frequency, volume, or intensity.
Common Strength Training Pitfalls
Strength training often goes wrong for bendy people because it’s either way too much, or way too little.
Standard strength training programs often involve far too much volume of exercise, performed too frequently, with too much intensity, and with too much speed. It simply overshoots our starting capacity and increases our risk of injury and fatigue.
On the other hand, many bendy people get stuck doing the same low resistance exercises for years on end, but never actually get anywhere because the stimulus is way too low to create meaningful change.
The Goldilocks principle states that people, systems, and natural phenomena perform best at an optimal, moderate middle-ground. Named after the fairy tale, it dictates that outcomes are worst at extremes (too much/too little) and best when conditions are “just right.” That “just right” sweet spot will look different for each individual.
The key for a sustainable strength training program is to start with a frequency, volume, and intensity of exercise that you can handle right now: something that feels easy and from which you can recover fairly quickly back to your baseline. Then, you slowly increase your challenge over time, allowing yourself to adapt along the way at your own pace.
Key Elements of Strength Training for Bendy People
Strength training with hypermobility isn’t about doing special exercises. It’s about doing exercises differently, with a frame of reference that centers the unique features of the bendy body.
Safety
The number one requirement for a successful strength training program for bendy people is that they must feel safe, both mentally and physically. They must feel ready, supported, and empowered to make their own decisions about all elements of the workout.
Adaptability
A successful strength training program must also be responsive to the day-to-day fluctuations in symptoms, rather than being overly prescriptive and rigid.
Preparation
Deficits in proprioception, or body awareness, are well documented among bendy people. It can be helpful to begin a strength session by settling in, connecting with the breath, and doing a couple low-resistance warm-up exercises that help connect the brain to key areas of the body.
External Feedback
The bendy brain needs lots of sensory input to help it connect to the body effectively. Mirrors, compression garments, kinesiology tape (if tolerable for skin), and weighted vests can be helpful, among other tools.
Muscle Recruitment
Bendy people often compensate by using the wrong muscles to complete an exercise, even when it looks “correct” from the outside. This is especially true when the appropriate target muscles become fatigued. That’s why it’s so important to do less, and make sure each repetition is making use of the appropriate muscular engagement. Guidance from a hypermobility-informed physical therapist, along with external feedback, can help improve muscle awareness and recruitment. One helpful question to ask your therapist with each exercise is, “Where should I be feeling this?”.
Positioning
For people who struggle with POTS, performing exercises lying down is often necessary until progressing to upright is possible. Many strength exercises can be done lying down or sitting.
Volume
Instead of three sets of ten repetitions of six different exercises in one workout, starting with one set of 3-5 repetitions of just a couple exercises may be more appropriate. Once you know you’re able to recover from a small volume of exercise, you can increase it slowly over time.
Frequency
Start with one day per week. The bendy body often requires a longer span of time to fully recover from new challenges and exertion. Once you can recover from one session per week, increase the frequency to twice per week, and so on.
Intensity
Start out by using weights that feel easy to manage for each exercise. Once you’re recovering well from that starting point, increase the weight slowly and by the smallest increments available, over time.
Range of Motion
Limiting the range of motion for a given exercise is a great way to gain motor control as well as discover the amount of movement that is comfortable. Once we have steady control in a small range of motion, we can progress the range over time, but never at the risk of control and comfort.
Tempo
A slow tempo allows bendy people to practice body awareness and steady control of each exercise. I generally aim for a 2 second concentric phase (ex: standing up from a squat), and a 4-5 second eccentric phase (ex: lowering down into a squat) for each movement. The goal isn’t simply to complete the exercise. It’s to perform each repetition with good control.
Recovery
It’s important to start with an amount of exercise that you can recover well from. That means you may have a day or two of mild muscle soreness following exercise, but no significant pain or fatigue flare, and certainly no crash that puts you in bed for several days. If you have no idea where to start, make an educated guess as to what you can currently handle, and then just do half of that. Then, study your response to exercise for a couple days following each session, and adjust accordingly.
Tips for Better Recovery:
- More rest between sets (think: 3-5 minutes!)
- More rest and relaxation at the end of the session
- More hydration and nutrition to fuel recovery
- More self-care in the days following exercise with hot baths, massage, or whatever else is soothing
Key Takeaways About Strength Training for Bendy People
- Bendy bodies can benefit from strength training, but they require a specialized approach.
- Find your Goldilocks starting point. Begin with what your body can recover from, then progress slowly over time.
- Bendy bodies are adaptable, but they often adapt more slowly.
- Move slowly to practice body awareness and steady control.
- Focus on recruiting the right muscles, not just completing the exercise.
- Always under-shoot your capacity; don’t over-shoot it.
- Never progress at the risk of your recovery.
- When in doubt, do less, do it more slowly, and with longer rest intervals.
- Strength training is a long game. Sustainable change happens slowly.
Although it may not be appropriate for everyone at every stage, strength training can often be modified to meet your individual needs. With the right approach and guidance, many people can experience its benefits! Consider sharing this article with your physical therapist to discuss how these recommendations apply to you.
By Libby Hinsley, PT, DPT,
CPT, E-RYT500
www.LibbyHinsley.com
August, 2026
Important Note:
Hypermobility exists on a spectrum, and no single approach is right for everyone. The recommendations in this article are intended as general guidelines for people with EDS/HSD and should be adapted to your individual circumstances, symptoms, and recovery. Supportive tools discussed in this article, such as kinesiology tape, may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly those with fragile skin or adhesive sensitivities. Some people—particularly those with significant joint instability, severe dysautonomia, post-exertional malaise (PEM), or other complex medical conditions—may require a more individualized or pacing-based approach. Work with a healthcare professional knowledgeable about EDS/HSD to help tailor an exercise program to your individual needs.
References
Proprioceptive Deficits:
Akaras, E., Deniz, G., Eymir, M. et al. The effects of joint hypermobility on strength, proprioception, and functional performance. Sci Rep 15, 40529 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-24199-x
Clayton, Holly A, et al. “Proprioceptive Precision Is Impaired in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.” SpringerPlus 4, no. 1 (2015): 323. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-015-1089-1.
Decreased Force Production:
Golden, Donald W et al. “In-Vivo Force-Length Relationship of the Medial Gastrocnemius Muscle in Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of musculoskeletal & neuronal interactions vol. 26,1 (2026): 1-12. doi:10.22540/JMNI-26-001
Rombaut, Lies, et al. “Muscle Mass, Muscle Strength, Functional Performance, and Physical Impairment in Women with the Hypermobility Type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.” Arthritis Care & Research, vol. 64, no. 10, 2012, pp. 1584–92, https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21726.
Impaired passive stability:
Rombaut, Lies, et al. “Muscle-Tendon Tissue Properties in the Hypermobility Type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: Muscle Tension and Achilles Tendon Stiffness in EDS-HT Patients.” Arthritis Care & Research, vol. 64, no. 5, 2012, pp. 766–72, https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21592.
Adaptability of hypermobile tissues:
Liaghat, Behnam, et al. “Heavy Shoulder Strengthening Exercise in People with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) and Long-Lasting Shoulder Symptoms: A Feasibility Study.” Pilot and Feasibility Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020, p. 97, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00632-y.
Møller, Mathias Bech, et al. “Functional Adaptation of Tendon and Skeletal Muscle to Resistance Training in Three Patients with Genetically Verified Classic Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.” Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons Journal, vol. 4, no. 3, Nov. 2014, pp. 315–23, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241422/.
