Phoebe's story

13 year old Phoebe shares her experience of exercising with a hypermobility syndrome.

I don't always find exercising easy because I end up in a lot of pain and often injure myself. I don't do PE anymore because my consultant told me to concentrate on my physical strength outside of school because the injuries in PE were affecting my attendance. So far, I've had far less subluxations and I'm in less pain, so it's easier for me to join in with everyday life.

Over the past year I've learnt that there are two activities that are suitable for me that I enjoy. I now regularly swim and roller skate. I normally swim front crawl because breaststroke legs can make my hips pop. If my shoulders are bad, then I will swim on my back without my arms. I go with my family, but I also enjoy going with my friends. Sometimes we go to sessions with floats, I enjoy this as I can use them to kick my legs or to balance on. I can also do exercises that I learnt in hydrotherapy. There are two different pools, one is deep and the other I can stand up in. So even if I can't swim, I can still move around and float. One of the pools also has stairs so that I can walk into the pool rather than have to use a ladder, this really helps if I've hurt my shoulders.

I also love going roller skating with my sister and my friends. We try to go in the morning when it's quiet so that there are less people skating. I have my own roller skates that I take with me as they are more supportive than the hire skates. I wear my orthotic insoles inside. Sometimes my knees need extra support so Mum tapes them for me. I take breaks regularly, and I do hurt towards the end of the session, but it's not so bad, normally I don't hurt the next day.

I tried ice skating recently, but I found that there was no support for my ankles and I spent the whole time trying to stop them from bending too far, even though my friend tied my ice skates as tightly as they would go. I don't mind that ice skating doesn't work for me, as I love roller skating anyway. I have learnt my lesson and know it isn't sensible for me to go ice skating again.

I've also tried things like trampoline parks and clip and climb. Clip and climb was fun, but not something I'd do that often because it put quite a lot of strain on my arms. I do go to trampoline parks sometimes, but most times I go I end up hurting myself. The biggest problem is that I often don't know how much I've hurt myself until the next day.

The most important thing is to try things you you might enjoy, but don't overdo it. Stay with it, you will soon find something that you can do and enjoy.

For more information and support about hypermobility, please check out our online hypermobility awareness weekend on the 28th-29th of June, with a range of free online information and support. You can see the list of events on that weekend here.