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Hello, I have delt with double jointed athletes in the course of my career as a Competitive Gymnastics Coach, but not during the course of Personal Training. One of my young pre- elite gymnasts from many years ago, ( whom I still know well), had an extraordinarily hyper- flexible lumbar spine.Astetically and from a judges point of view, this presented a number of difficulties. Gymnasts are required to be extremely flexible. However, in this case- during the execution of a back handspring for example, the arch in the lower back was toooo pronounced producing the apperance of the back of the head touching the buttocks. This gymnast was blessed with incredible talent, but could never seem to overcome this problem dispite supplemental strength training targeting the entire back including the lumbar spine, with strict attention to R.O.M. As she aged, she experienced ever increasing pain issues with her lower back. Monitoring STRICT R.O.M. is the order of the day, whether the person
seems to experience any pain/ discomfort at the time, ( which she did not...) or not. Bowing out joints beyond an extreme degree that even a flexiblity specilized athelete would display leads to damage eventually in my observation. I would not worry about your client losing her flexability, that's prob. nearly impossible. Keeping the weight light is a good notion. Also, utilizing visualization by using repeatitive verbal cues can help as well, such as, " straighten your arms more," holding the elbow joint to provide support and decrease the bend till your client developes a familiarity with this arm posture can also be helpful, use " E," all of the above. Also, sticking with cable machines more, rather than free- weight increases the element of control, and lessens errors with posture and R.O.M. Also, you may elect to drop the weight for trhe joint(s) in question even lower yet... Saftey First. Hope this info is a help to you! Good luck.
Bryn
mlee_personaltrainer <mlee_personaltrainer@...> wrote:
mlee_personaltrainer <mlee_personaltrainer@...> wrote:
Does anyone have experience training double jointed clients? I have
had several slightly DJ'ed (hypermobile) people and I've been able to
modify the exercises so that they remain balanced on both sides (When
there is an inch or less difference in ROM).
I now have a client who is almost completely DJ'ed. Her left side esp
is more flexible-- in addition to which she is very tall and willowy.
When doing Lateral Shoulder Raises for ex. her elbow will bend
backards so that at the top of the movement her upper arm is parrallel
to the floor/ceiling while the lower arm is bent 15+ degrees toward
the floor.
she experiences no pain and has never had a dislocated joint. She
never locks out a joint, and we keep her weights relatively low.
My intial thoughts after a bit of research is that I should let her
work the movements out almost to her full ROM ( enough so that both
sides are equal) as long as the weight is still being moved by the
targeted muscle joint combo-- However I wonder how much this will
cause her to lose flexibily because of shortened muscles on one side.
Our approach so far has been that there is no "deficiency" to be
corrected. She's healthy, fit and enjoys her workouts. WE just try to
keep her in a safe and equidistant ROM.
What would you guys do?
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