Why Walking Feels Impossibly Exhausting When You Have Hypermobile Joints—And What Actually Helps

If you have hypermobile joints, even a short walk can leave you exhausted in ways that don't make sense to people around you. It's not laziness or deconditioning—it's a fundamental difference in how your body uses energy. Canadian researchers recently published findings that finally explain the science behind this frustrating reality, and the results point toward a path forward.

Why Do People With Hypermobility Get So Tired From Exercise?

Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS)—a connective tissue disorder—affect how tendons and ligaments function. In a healthy body, tendons and ligaments act like tight rubber bands, bending when needed but snapping back to transfer energy efficiently. When joints are hypermobile, these connective tissues are excessively stretchy, which creates a cascade of problems.

Researchers compared 11 hypermobile adults with 11 healthy adults of the same age and gender, measuring their walking mechanics using ultrasound imaging, oxygen consumption, and muscle electrical activity. The findings revealed three critical differences in how hypermobile bodies move:

• Excessive muscle shortening: Muscles must contract far more than normal to compensate for the instability created by loose joints, adding extra work that doesn't improve performance.
• Lost energy recycling: Stretchy tendons cannot return unused energy back to muscles the way healthy tendons do, so energy is drained from the system rather than recycled for the next movement.
• Compensatory strain: Neighboring joints and muscles must participate in walking in abnormal ways to provide stability, creating yet another energy drain throughout the body.

The result is stark: each step takes significantly more energy, produces less power, and is far less efficient. "People with HSD/hEDS showed a significantly higher energy cost of walking and lower muscle strength," researchers concluded, noting that these differences were accompanied by higher pain ratings and greater muscle activation during walking at all speeds.

What Does This Mean for Daily Life?

The exhaustion people with hypermobility experience isn't imaginary—it's measurable. Someone with hEDS or HSD might feel completely drained after a 20-minute walk on a treadmill, or find that a trip to an amusement park becomes unbearable after just two hours. Online support groups are filled with similar stories: "I try now and then to walk on the treadmills for a slow 20 min, but it just makes me feel worse," one person shared. Another described how exercise triggers migraines and muscle tension, while someone else reported that pain in their legs becomes intolerable during physical activity.

This isn't a matter of fitness level. No matter how fit someone with hypermobility becomes, the fundamental biomechanical inefficiency remains. The body is working harder to accomplish the same movements that others perform with ease.

How to Manage Exercise With Hypermobility

• Individualized physical therapy: Standard exercise programs don't account for hypermobility mechanics. Working with a physical therapist who understands HSD or hEDS can help you develop movements that stabilize joints rather than stress them further.
• Gait training: Specialized training focused on how you walk can reduce the compensatory strain on neighboring muscles and joints, making movement less exhausting and painful.
• Strength building tailored to stability: Rather than general fitness, the goal is building strength that supports joint stability, which can make exercise safer and more sustainable over time.

While increasing strength and physical fitness won't solve hypermobility itself, it can make exercise significantly safer, less of an effort, and more enjoyable. The key is working with professionals who understand that hypermobility requires a different approach than standard pain management or fitness training.

Why Getting a Diagnosis Matters More Than You'd Think

For many people living with hypermobility, the path to diagnosis is frustratingly long. One patient described waiting five years for an official hEDS diagnosis, even after a doctor had already noted "benign hypermobility" in her chart—a notation that should have prompted immediate investigation. During those five years, her life contracted dramatically: from managing two jobs and an active social life to working one job, moving in with her mother, and spending so much time indoors that her vitamin D levels dropped dangerously low.

This pattern is common. Patients often have to diagnose themselves and then convince doctors to take their symptoms seriously. The average time to diagnosis for a rare disorder is six years, and hypermobility-related conditions are frequently missed or dismissed. Doctors sometimes treat the diagnosis itself as a fad or assume patients simply want a label for attention.

But a diagnosis matters profoundly—even when there's no cure and it doesn't immediately change treatment. A name gives you the ability to explain your experience to others, to connect with people facing the same challenges, and to access specialized care. It transforms "I'm just tired and in pain" into "I have a connective tissue disorder that affects how my body uses energy," which opens the door to appropriate treatment and understanding.

If you suspect you have hypermobility or hEDS, documenting your symptoms and seeking evaluation from a specialist in connective tissue disorders can be the first step toward getting the support and treatment you actually need.