If you’re hypermobile, chances are you may be suffering with coathanger pain.

This is often caused by tight muscles at the front of the body and long, stringy muscles in the back body. We are out of balance, so muscles fatigue and complain leaving this nagging daily pain. Our posture tends to mimic this with a forward slump and rounded shoulders, maybe winging scapula. Forward head posture and associated neck pain can follow.

In this photo, I am creating the coathanger shape through a specific back extension exercise to strengthen those long, stringy muscles at the back and widen the collarbones to give a sense of space across the shoulders. I remember this was the very first exercise the physio gave me back in 2008 when I was told I was ‘hanging off my joints’.

We can change the coathanger so that it does hold us up in alignment rather than feeling the coat is too heavy! Exercise can really target this area. I’ve got a whole series of videos on Coathanger pain over on YouTube if you’d like to try it out.

There is also a theory that this coathanger pain can be influenced by POTs.