HYPERMOBILITY EDS
Explore our FaceBook Group, Body Braid Banter for Body Braid users living with Hypermobility. It is a very active and supportive community and there are several videos in the guides section that offer many different ways to wear the braid. https://www.facebook.com/
People with hypermobility get extra benefit wearing the Body Braid. The extra feedback and resistance reduces the risk of injury from overstretching joints, which is common with hypermobility. Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a genetic disorder of connective tissue that can cause severe hypermobility and many people with this condition have become keen Body Braid users. While safe stretching can be a very healthy activity, people with hypermobility can easily overstretch and cause injury. This is particularly tricky because people with hypermobility are “good” at doing stretches but also tend to overstretch causing problems and pain.
The Body Braid is helpful for people with hypermobility in three ways. The Body Braid gives extra sensation feedback as you stretch out the elastic material. It amplifies your proprioception. You are more aware of feeling the stretch as it is happening, so you are more likely to adjust to keep the stretch within a healthy range. An important benefit is that this added feedback keeps going even when you are not paying attention to it. A key principle of the Body Braid is that it is guiding your movement to be in a safe range and better aligned without having to think about it all the time. The increase of feeling safety and comfort in your body can be very powerful.
A second benefit, in addition to the increased sensation feedback, is the mechanical hold and support that the elastic bands provide. The Body Braid bands follow your body's own bands of connective tissue that coordinate movement. The bands transmit the mechanical force spiraling from top to bottom and side to side which increases coordination. Wearing the Body Braid links movement anywhere in the body to movement all over the body.
The third benefit is returning the spring in our step. Our own connective tissue bands are elastic when we are young, but they become progressively more fibrous and fixed with age and injury. The Body Braid restores the bounce to our movement, aligns coordination and also gives added sensation feedback. The combination helps to keep movement in a safe range.
Here is an EDS testimonial:
I just wanted to say THANK YOU! My Body Braid is so incredibly fabulous. As an EDS Zebra, I find it hard to exercise and get my resistance training in but your Body Braid has made my life so much easier. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful invention.