When you "extend (extension)" you become longer.

You flex your bicep (make the angle at the joint smaller, can be applied to any joint in the body). Another way to remember flexion, is to think of folding… F=folding. Extension = eeeeeeeelogate (make longer)

Just do the cheaper ones. Only issue is once u do them for a while it’ll be too easy to do with just ur legs and no added load

Regular hyperextension focuses on the spinal erectors in your lower back while reverse hyperextension focuses more on the glutes and hamstrings.

Extensions bias the low back more than reverse hypers, but if you're limited by what's available with start with reverse hypers and see where that gets you. There's no "objectively superior" movement.

You need to find what works best for you and your goals

You appear to have hypermobile joins, which is generally painless but can lead to injuries if you're not careful. Meaning, people who are hyperflexible like you might get into a position very easy, but then not engage their muscles and pull something accidentally.

You didn’t prepare us for the transition from those perfectly normal legs to those arms lmao

“What is THAT” as I laughed 🤣😂

The elbow jump scare 😱

Is that a leg or arm? 😂

Knees no. Elbows heeeeell yea

Yep, feels like I’m crouching down a little bit when I try to allow my knees to sink forward. Then my hips are like WOAH NO and then my glutes are like HEY NOPE

Yep. Spent a lot of time in PT this past year working on “soft knees”. For the first few weeks I felt like I was doing a weird squat walk, lol!

Yep, when I stand with my knees how a normal person would, they feel bent, like I'm crouching.

Yep. "Straight" means straightening the joint until it stops, right? ...Right? 🥺

of course. we're used to hyperextending them so our brain is programmed to see that as the maximum which should align with straight if we weren't hypermobile.

The pain isn’t necessarily insane and that is really subjective anyways. Dislocations are really painful for me and I would describe subluxations as terribly uncomfortable depending on the joint. It’s honestly so subjective and personal. My right shoulder subluxates and it hurts like hell and doesn’t want to go back in place but then my left one subluxates and then easily moves back. When my right shoulder doesn’t get back into place, which happens a lot, it starts a chain up my neck and shoulders and down my arm because it pinches nerves and pulls on muscles improperly. That nerve pain is so fucking painful, similar to sciatic nerve pain down the back of a leg. The only want I’ve been able to get tricky joints back into place is with my PT. He then tells me what has rotated out of place and helps get them back. I also twisted my spine while SLEEPING and that took a month to undo.

Edit: Basically any of my joints that are surrounded by weak muscles will subluxate or dislocate a lot easier and the longer it is out of place the more it hurts. I’ve been working for about 6 months to work on muscle imbalances and get my joints in the right places.

I have sacroiliac joint (connecting the pelvis to the hip bones and spine) subluxations and it’s kinda like walking with a sharp stone in your shoe. Not impossible to walk with it but you would defo rather stop and fix it than walk with it. I don’t notice it coming out just notice the pain. Popping it back is sometimes easy, (for years the triangle yoga pose was a solid fix), sometimes I just have to wriggle and stretch and throw the craziest shapes for hours meanwhile walking with said stone in my shoe. It feel painful as well as unstable to walk with it, sharp stabbing pain and sometimes as if I “lost a leg” feels like the tendons are just stretching and fell into a black hole? It’s weird. When I manage to pop them back I can always hear a pop (others near me hear it too) and literally feel the gears getting back into place.

I would describe it as a slight pop…sometimes bigger and with pain but often more like cracking a knuckle maybe? I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to maintain good muscle tone so don’t often struggle with much joint instability. I highly recommend getting on the floor daily and just using your body to move in various directions. Throw in some pushups, planks, sit-ups etc. start small!

I have slipping rib syndrome. I often get sore ribs but I know it’s subluxed when it hurts to breathe or lie on it. It’s proper take your breath away pain. It can pop back in on its own, but doesn’t usually for me, so I just immediately book into the physio.

My jaw and two ribs (slipped) sublux. For me, it only hurts if I do it repeatedly. Basically I hear a pop and feel it sort of “shift”, like it literally moves is position. My ribs will push back into my chest a bit and my jaw will push back towards my ear. Once I stop pressing on my rib/sucking in my stomach or close my jaw it automatically goes back into place with the exact same thing (a pop and a shift) just in the opposite direction.

I would like to add mine are much smaller than most people’s, and some can be extremely painful or be very hard to put back as others have pointed out. It’s different for everyone and it varies from joint to joint.

Gonineter readings should always be used IMHO. Most of my joints exceeded 60° degrees of hyperextension, inherently and passively til I reached around 50 years old. But the dysfunctionality can occur with less laxitity. Injuries are a very telling predictor of dysfunctionality.

1. What is the normal degrees that one can extend? Is it just 0 degrees?

Depends on the joint and who you ask. There's no universal consensus.

2. Lastly, is it possible to have an increased range of motion of your elbows and knees but NOT meet the Beighton diagnostic criteria for your knees and elbows?

Yes, 0-9°.

Is there a middle? For example, would a measure of 5 degrees be said middle?

I guess if you're trying to force a middle classification that doesn't exist onto this yes, but...why? That kinda defeats the purpose of the Beighton Score being black and white.

In case it's relevant or you're interested, criticisms of using the BS to establish GJH include...

○ Neither Carter and Wilkinson (1964) nor Beighton et al. (1973) provided any evidence-based justification for the selection of joints (Malek et al., 2021)
○ Only 4 joint sites are measured (Malek et al., 2021)
○ Validity not adequately researched (Juul-Kristensen et al., 2017)
○ Appropriateness for paediatric populations (Patel, et al., 2017)
○ Inability to capture degree of hypermobility
○ Developed as an epidemiological tool (Malek et al., 2021) (Beighton et al., 1973)
○ Inclusion of ligament laxity measurement (Corten et al., 2020) (Castori et al., 2017)
○ No consensus-based cut-off values (Remvig et al., 2014)
○ Bias towards upper limb hypermobility, that might fail to capture lower limb hypermobility resulting in false negatives (Ferrari et al., 2005)
○ Only assesses ROM in 2 dimensions. For some joints ROM occurs in multi-dimensions
○ There are no consensus values for normal ROM (Soucie et al., 2011) (Moromizato et al., 2016) (Remvig et al., 2007) and the values chosen in the BS scoring system are based on tradition, rather than evidence

Source

The blanket answer is that if you're hypermobile and going to the end of your ROM - especially if you're doing so without supporting the joint - you're risking damage. Clicking isn't necessarily ligaments, and you'd need to have an exam (and quite possibly imaging) to know for sure if it's meniscus damage or something else. This isn't to say we should never go to the end of our ROM, but doing so requires care and ensuring there's muscular support due to the laxity of the connective tissue.

I have students with a regular EDS diagnosis (before hypermobility was moved into that spectrum), and even in my mid forties I score a 6 or 7 on the beighton scale depending on the day - I've been practicing for about 25 years.

Work on strength. Don't dump weight into your joints (triangle and head to knee are often good examples of this). Don't pull on them unsupported (the shoulders in binds can be a good example). If you practice yin, do so with less intensity than you might prefer. Be sure you're supplementing your practice and any stretching or flexibility work with additional strength training.

Just want to thank the OP for posting this! I too am hyper mobile in my knees and elbows and have found this info super helpful. Ty

Stay engaged in the whole leg, and take some time to feel into each shape, thinking about where you need to engage more for stability, then hold to build strength in that shape.

Say you are in a standing forward fold, knee to nose. Start with very bent knees, like rag doll with arms extending to floor. Engage the glutes, actively pushing the outsides of the feet into the floor, like chair in the lower body. Start slowly straightening the legs, keeping glutes engaged. I will rise slightly with inhale, engage actively with glutes on exhale which lets me stretch deeper. The knees are still bent, a little or a lot, and repeat a few times to settle in. The isometric contraction will pull you gently into the stretch with more stability for your ligaments.

The microbend in any shape is just sign of active engagement of those muscles that creates stability in that shape, vs “dumping” into the joints. Your joints need that stability more than most. Over time, that strength and stability will come.

Not sure if it’s will actually help with the informatjon you’re after, but there’s an insta account & also book for hypermobile yoga practitioners called Too Flexible To Feel Good and the account is https://instagram.com/hypermobile.yogis

Sometimes practicing the 'prep' version of a pose becomes the better version of a pose. Like you said though the internet can't tell you it's gonna take informed experimentation and in your case that sounds like experimentation of the less rigorous flexibility wise. Good luck OP.

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I have had a few major injuries I have had to work through/adapt to - so I speak from that perspective. Good luck OP

Dont be afraid of momentum on reverse hypers, let the down swing pull you. The og idea of reverse hypers is the up will strengthen your back, and the down will release pressure from your back

Reverse hypers help to decompress your spine. So it’s better as an accessory to squats or deadlifts since those are compressing your spine

When i tried reverse hypers in a new gym it kinda hurt when doing them, felt like it was pulling my back apart and not in a good way

These have nothing to do with deadlifts?

I use 25s because the 45s hit my knees.

I do sets of 20 where I divide it so the first ten are strict like you’re doing and the second ten are with more swing. I’m not sure which is correct so I do both.

You are too far forward and are attempting to pull yourself up with the bars.

You should use the holders as holders not a pullup and let the weight swing forwards, then lift the weight with your ass.

You are currently doing a full body back swing super man thing