u/PermissionFeisty7735

Introduction
About a year ago I was formally diagnosed with hypermobile EDS, and it finally helped explain many of the things I’d experienced throughout my life.

I’d already made significant progress over the years. Earlier treatment for TMJ dramatically improved many of my chronic symptoms, but I still couldn’t explain why I continued to have periods of spinal, shoulder and hip pain, joint subluxations, poor recovery, fatigue and other symptoms that seemed unrelated.

Over the last two and a half years I’ve continued rebuilding my body through careful strength training. It hasn’t been a straight line. There have been plenty of setbacks, frustrating flares and times where I questioned whether I was actually making progress.

Looking back, the biggest lesson I learnt wasn’t how to train.

It was how to understand my body.
I stopped chasing individual symptoms and started looking for patterns.

That simple shift changed the questions I was asking. Instead of, “Why does my shoulder hurt?” I started asking, “What has my body been trying to tell me over the last few days?”
I’m still learning, but these are the ten lessons that have helped me the most.

1. Stop chasing symptoms. Start looking for patterns.
   Symptoms rarely happen in isolation. Instead of focusing on one problem, ask yourself, “What else has changed?”

2. Learn your baseline.
   You can’t recognise a bad day until you know what a good day feels like. Learn what “normal” looks like for your body.

3. Find your early warning signs.
   Pain isn’t always the first clue. For me it was often changes in sleep, energy, recovery or joint stability. Learn what comes first for you.

4. Think in trends, not days.
   One bad day doesn’t mean much. A pattern over several days often tells a much clearer story.

5. Keep a simple record.
   You don’t need complicated spreadsheets. A few notes about sleep, energy, exercise and symptoms can reveal patterns you would otherwise miss.

6. Every flare is feedback.
   Instead of asking, “Why me?” ask, “What can I learn from this one?”

7. Recovery is part of the pattern.
   Pay attention to what helps, what doesn’t, and how long it takes your body to recover. Recovery teaches you just as much as a flare.

8. Don’t compare your pattern with someone else’s.
   Hypermobility affects everyone differently. Learn from others, but build your own owner’s manual.

9. Use your patterns to make better decisions.
   Patterns can help guide conversations with your healthcare team and help you think about recovery, pacing, training and everyday life.

10. Stay curious.
    You don’t have to understand everything today. Every pattern you recognise is another piece of the puzzle, and over time those pieces start to make sense.

What patterns have you noticed in your own body?

I’m genuinely interested to hear what you’ve discovered, because I think we all learn from each other’s experiences.

Is anyone in the hypermobility community working on TUT, slow time under tension exercises? I have struggled with Hyper-mobility, TMJ and many of the related issues my entire life. Correcting the TMJ helped enormously, but, only got me half way.

I started weight training two years ago, and plateaued after a year. It was a recurring cycle of HRV, RHR and strength crashes.

I moved to Kieser gym and initially had mix results. I requested to change the exercise physiologist/physiotherapist to someone with expertise in HSD.

I have been tracking my health data for over a year, I sleep with my wearables. I have been working with Chat GPT and Gemini uploading my data nightly.

A major breakthrough occurred when I dropped the Kieser weights to a very low baseline. Weights are less than half of what I can physically lift. TUT (time under tension) dropped to 90, with a build up to 150 TUT.

In six months, my HRV has increase 30% from 48 average to 74 and still rising. RHR down to 48 from 55. My system is not crashing anyone, but, still highly sensitive to any weight training increases. I am slowly increasing time and weights, but, it is extremely slow going. This process is known as micro loading.

Gemini stipulates this: Two years of continuous, slow-velocity mechanical tension physically forces your fibroblasts to weave fresh, thick Type I collagen fibers directly around your joint capsules and muscle beds. This creates a tough, built-in structural sleeve—essentially acting like heavy-duty climbing canvas that minimizes joint "play" and prevents micro-slipping.

So far, I am making progress, pain, sleep, stability, memory have improved remarkably. I still have an upper back sublaxing issue, but, that is improving also.

Has anyone successfully completed a weight training program like this?