🧠💪 The Mind-Muscle Disconnect in EDS & HSD: Why Movement Feels Hard — and How to Rebuild It

An EDS Awareness Month Special | By Paramotion

For many people with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD), movement feels confusing, unstable, or even dangerous. You might struggle to activate certain muscles. Your body may feel floppy, disconnected, or locked up in strange places. You’re not weak—but something feels off.

This isn’t just your imagination. There’s a real reason behind it: a breakdown in the connection between your brain and your muscles.

This is what we call the mind-muscle connection—and in hypermobile bodies, that connection often needs serious rewiring.

🧠 What Is the Mind-Muscle Connection—Really?

Your brain and body are constantly talking. Every time you move, your brain sends signals through the nervous system to tell your muscles when to turn on, how much to contract, and for how long.

At the same time, your body sends messages back to the brain, letting it know things like:

• Where your joints are in space (called proprioception)

• Whether you're balanced or off-center

• How much tension or pressure is in a joint or muscle

This back-and-forth creates the coordination and control we need for safe, stable movement.

🔄 What Normally Happens in Muscle Activation?

In a healthy, well-functioning movement system, there's a specific order:

1. Deep stabilizer muscles (like the transverse abdominis, diaphragm, pelvic floor, deep neck flexors, and multifidus) switch on first.🧩 These muscles don’t move you—they stabilize you quietly in the background.

2. Once stability is set, the larger, superficial muscles (like the glutes, quads, and lats) activate to create the movement itself.

This sequencing happens so fast you don’t even notice. But it’s crucial. Without that foundation, movement becomes noisy, unstable, and exhausting.

⚠️ What Goes Wrong in EDS and HSD?

In hypermobile people, this timing and coordination often breaks down. Here's why:

🧬 1. Your Connective Tissue Is Too Stretchy

The collagen in people with EDS and HSD is more elastic than normal. This means:

• Joints are loose or unstable

• The body can't rely on passive stability (tight ligaments) the way other people can

🔌 2. Poor Sensory Feedback (Proprioception)

When joint receptors send unclear messages to the brain, your body doesn’t know exactly where it is in space. This is like trying to move in the dark.

Result? The brain overcompensates by using large muscles to "clamp down" and protect, while the deep stabilizers get ignored or underused.

🧠 3. The Brain Starts Using Shortcuts

To protect you from injury, your brain often:

• Freezes certain areas (especially the spine, hips, or shoulders)

• Overuses big muscles like your traps, quads, or spinal extensors

• Avoids the small, subtle muscles because they don’t feel reliable

Over time, this builds poor movement habits—and even though you're moving, you may be skipping the most important parts of stability.

🔁 So What Does This Feel Like?

If you have EDS or HSD, you might notice:

• Muscles that should feel strong just don’t switch on

• Feeling like you're collapsing into joints

• Constant tightness in big muscles, even after stretching

• Balance problems, shaky knees, or joint "giving out"

• Exhaustion after even small tasks

This isn’t laziness or deconditioning. It’s a sensory-motor disconnect—and it can be retrained.

Deep vs. Superficial Muscles: What's the Difference?

This is a key distinction that often gets missed.

Deep Muscles:

• Located near joints

• Responsible for stability and fine motor control

• Examples: pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, multifidus, rotator cuff

Superficial Muscles:

• Larger and closer to the skin

• Built for movement, not stabilization

• Examples: quadriceps, latissimus dorsi, upper traps, hamstrings

In hypermobility, deep muscles tend to stay offline, while superficial muscles get overused, creating an imbalance that feels like weakness, tightness, or both.

Real Life Example: What This Feels Like

Take someone who is hypermobile and exercising regularly but not gaining strength. She might notice:

• Her glutes aren't engaging, so her hamstrings and lower back do all the work

• Her belly pushes out, and no amount of ab work fixes it

• Her shoulders round forward, and upper traps feel tight constantly

These aren't just aesthetic issues. They're signs of a disconnected motor system, where the brain doesn't have access to the muscles it's supposed to use. The result? Compensation, overload, and exhaustion.

🌱 A Step-by-Step Approach to Rebuilding Muscle Activation

Start simple. Stay patient. This is a nervous system journey, not a fitness one.

Step 1: Reset the Foundation — Breathing & Body Awareness

Before you strengthen anything, you need to wake up your internal map.

• Practice diaphragmatic breathing: Lie on your back, feet flat, and feel your ribs expand in 360°. Your belly, sides, and back should all move gently.

• Try “body scans” or somatic awareness: Tune in to where you feel tension, fatigue, or nothing at all.

• This step rebuilds the mind’s awareness of your body and reduces unnecessary muscle tension.

💡 Do this for 5 minutes a day, especially before movement or exercise.

Step 2: Reconnect to Deep Stabilizers (Core, Hips, Neck)

Once the nervous system is calmer, begin activating the deep muscles without load or resistance.

• Pelvic tilts, chin nods, gentle abdominal lifts: These are small, slow, and often boring—but they rewire your neuromuscular system.

• Focus on feeling gentle engagement, not force.

• A physio trained in hypermobility can help cue these movements correctly.

💡 Quality over quantity: even one solid rep is progress.

Step 3: Rebuild Coordination — Balance & Control

Now, teach your system to stabilize during movement.

• Start with closed-chain exercises like heel lifts, sit-to-stand, or wall sits.

• Add light balance work: standing on one leg, shifting weight, or using a wobble cushion.

• Keep the movements slow and controlled, focusing on how you move, not just getting it done.

💡 Use mirrors, video feedback, or verbal cueing to increase body awareness.

Step 4: Strengthen with Intention

Once your stabilizers are online, you can safely add resistance.

• Use bands, body weight, or light weights to train functional strength.

• Focus on movements that require control and coordination, not brute force—like squats, lunges, and pull exercises.

• Keep rest and pacing in mind—fatigue will disrupt coordination.

💡 If it feels like the wrong muscles are taking over, pause and regress the movement.

At ParaMotion, we take this into account in our movement programs, education and consulting so that you are guaranteed results with our no pain, no strain method customized for the hypermobile body. Ready to take the next step? 👉 [Book your Free 15 mn call here!!]

❤️ Final Thoughts for EDS Awareness Month

This May, as we raise awareness for Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, we want to remind you:

✨ You’re not weak, broken, or lazy. You’re working with a nervous system that needs clarity, not punishment.

Muscle activation is not just about effort—it’s about communication, coordination, and safety. With time, patience, and the right tools, your body can relearn how to move in a way that feels strong, supported, and free.