What It’s Like to Be an Athlete With Hypermobility

Today I'm going to talk about my experience with hypermobility spectrum disorder. Hello and welcome back to my YouTube channel. And if you're new here, I'm Dr. Alyssa Lennick. A lot of people know me as Doc Liss. And something a lot of people are really surprised to hear and know is that I struggle with

something known as hypermobility spectrum disorder or just hypermobility. I have had struggles with this my entire life. And it does impact a lot of my exercise, day-to-day training, and a lot of snags, niggles, injuries that I've had or issues I have. And it's something that I've really personally worked to overcome to not have be my identity or

totally be an obstacle that stops me from doing the things I want to do. But it is something that I'm constantly having to manage. And so when I tell people that I have it, I think they're shocked. Can I help you, miss? [laughter] My dog has an attitude disorder. So when people find out that I'm as active as I

am and that I've struggled with this my entire life, it seems really confusing because most people with hypermobility spectrum disorder or Elo Stanler syndrome, which is a related syndrome and disorder, tend to have a lot of issues with exercise and exercise tolerance and or pain associated with training and exercise. So, I want to

start this by saying that my experience may not be yours. And everyone's experience with this is different. And that doesn't mean that you should feel bad if you can't do what I'm doing, but also keeping in mind that I do a lot to work around and with myself with this. And it is a lot more of an obstacle than

I think I often talk about or even allude to because I've worked so hard to move past this and around it. So, now that I'm done with my disclaimers, what is hypermobility spectrum disorder and or what even is this? So essentially, my connective tissue in my body is overly stretchy. And this might seem awesome