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I'm trying to find someone to help my partner, but I haven't been able to find much information so far. They have hypermobility syndrome, chronic fatigue and potentially POTS. They need to stretch and strengthen, but they need to be really careful not to damage the joints which have hypermobility, which need to be strengthened. They can't stand up for long and they are currently in a wheelchair because of dizziness, weakness and fatigue. Can stretch therapy cater to their needs, or do we need to find a good physiotherapist? Do you have any suggestions? We're located in Canberra. Thank you.

I find a good way to stretch muscles like the hamstrings is to get them as tired as possible first. When they feel like jelly, they go into a stretch well and dont pull back as hard. For this, in my classes, we have been doing squats. For the younger age group (20s), in the splits class, we do many repeated squats in sets of 20. If any had knee problems they would hold the squat for the same length of time, though I personally do not like held squats as much (it doesnt feel as if its doing so much good, somehow). In my classes for older people (40-70s), where more have knee or other problems, we do a single 30 sec held squat. Those who don't like this might just do a wall sit. Squats and in particular repeated squats have the problem that a poor pattern of movement might damage the knee - I watch for this, but even so it may happen to some extent anyway. It would be nice to avoid them for this reason, if possible. A couple of days ago a member of the older class said he never got much out of the held squat - it wasnt working his hamstrings much (or at all). It was instead working his quads hard. This is in spite of my instructions to keep as much weight as possible over the heels. In experimenting with variations on myself, it seems the quads always come in hard whatever one does, and the hamstrings are often not contracting particularly hard. Someone who has a certain ingrained pattern of body movement may I guess not use the hamstrings much at all, in spite of trying to. The class member suggested why not do leg curls instead (as taught by his physio). Stand on one leg, and repeatedly bend the other knee, lifting the heel as high as possible towards the calf. Though this indeed works the hamstrings, in me it does not work them particulary hard, because you are not lifting the body weight (just the weight of the ankle and foot), I also find that the muscle starts to feel crampy quite quickly (presumably because it is being worked in a contracted position) and this happens before the muscle gets very tired. I wonder, does anyone have any good suggestion for an exercise to fatigue the hamstrings quickly and effectively, that can be done in a class setting without equipment, and would be suitable for an older age group? Many thanks, Jim.