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Originally Posted by
ElayneA
Thank you for this forum. I'm a 55 yo woman increasingly prone to joint issues over the past several years. Arthritis in my SI joints, feet, hands... rotator cuff tendonitis, biceps tendonitis, tennis elbow, hip pointers. My SI joints apparently pop out of place-- a PT showed me how to pop them back in. Most recently, I had a dislocated thumb for no known reason. I got sent to genetics and was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos.
I am a backpacker for fun, and I had been training for my second Appalachian Trail section this April, from just past Springer to Neel Gap, about 8 miles a day for 4 days. I have worked up to 8-10 mile hikes with a 30 lb pack once a week and 3-5 miles with the pack most mornings before work. It makes my joints, especially my SI joints, hurt like crazy-- but I love the rest of it.
Then I got this diagnosis, and the geneticist told me to do 10 min of recumbent bicycling a day while keeping my pelvis from moving and increase to 15 after a month. No hiking. That made zero sense to me. I found SS mentioned on an EDS athletes page, so I read it and did my second session today. I'm kind of embarrassed to say I am only squatting 35 lb x 5 x 3 and same for deadlift, but that's 5 more lb than 2 days ago.
I think I didn't have so much trouble when younger because I was stronger. I think I let my muscle situation slide and now my joints can't stay put because my connective tissue isn't normal. So it seems like lifting has got to be the way to go, not 10 minutes on a bike. Maybe I can actually hike without much pain, if I am stronger.
I am unsure what the best plan is for backpacking. Whether I will likely make the most progress by laying off of it completely until I have gotten stronger? Or just back down on the hiking volume? Or keep hiking as usual? Does it matter? I am not sure if the EDS diagnosis makes a difference with how I should do SS or how I can best integrate hiking into my schedule.