In my late twenties, I was living in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and practising yoga consistently.
During an Ashtanga class, an experienced instructor named Pablo came over to me and said, very simply:
“You are hypermobile.”
I had no idea what he meant.
My fingers, elbows, and knees had always had a wide range of motion, even backwards like one of those creepy aliens some would say. This was simply how my body moved. No one had ever used the word hypermobile to describe me before.
Pablo offered one practical suggestion: “To help keep your joints safe, microbend your knees.”
I did—and the experience of the posture changed completely.
The microbend invited more of my muscles to participate. Rather than settling into the furthest range available to me, I could feel my legs working. I felt more supported and more stable inside the posture.
That moment has stayed with me throughout my years of practising and teaching yoga. I still return to the microbend on my mat, while standing, and even during ordinary activities in my day-to-day life.
It also informs how I educate yoga teachers.
I teach trainees how to recognize possible hyperextension, how to offer supportive options, and how to help students explore muscular activation without making them afraid of their natural range of motion.
Because this is the nuance I have come to understand in my own body: moving into hyperextension is natural for me. That does not automatically mean every instance of it is unsafe. But when I use a microbend, I often experience more muscular engagement and greater stability. That difference matters.
It is also why I believe yoga teachers should understand the basics of hypermobility—even though diagnosing it is not our role, but observing the rooms we teach in is. I am truly grateful to Pablo for pointing out what may have seemed obvious and offering a very simple adjustement that I still explore. To me, this exploration and expansion of awareness is what a great yoga teacher offers.
1. What is the difference between flexibility and hypermobility?
In everyday conversations, flexibility and hypermobility are often used interchangeably. They are not the same.
Flexibility generally describes the movement available through muscles and other soft tissues.
Joint hypermobility describes movement at a joint beyond the range typically expected.
Some people have hypermobile joints without pain or other symptoms. Others may experience instability, recurring injuries, dislocations, fatigue, balance challenges, or persistent pain. Hypermobility may also be associated with a broader medical condition that should be assessed by a qualified healthcare professional.
For most of my early life, I did not think of my movement as unusual. My elbows, knees, spine and fingers had always moved that way. It felt normal because it was normal for my body.
Pablo saw something I had never been taught to notice.
His observation gave me useful language and helped me become more curious about how I was supporting myself within my range of motion. However, a yoga teacher noticing possible hyperextension is not the same thing as receiving a formal medical assessment.
As teachers, we can observe movement and offer choices. We should be careful about presenting those observations as diagnoses.
Instead of telling a student what is happening inside their body, we can say:
“I notice you have a lot of movement available here. How does it feel?”
“Would you like to try a slight microbend and notice whether anything changes?”
“Can you find a version where you feel both spacious and supported?”
“What happens when you use a little less range and a little more muscular engagement?”
These questions invite exploration without treating a student’s body as a problem.
2. Is hyperextension always unsafe in yoga?
No movement is automatically safe or unsafe for every person in every context.
Hyperextension is part of my natural range. I do not want teachers—or students—to hear the word hypermobility and immediately become frightened of their bodies.
I also do not want us to assume that because a range is available, it is always the most supportive place to practise.
My experience with the microbend helped me understand that there is a difference between resting in my available range and actively supporting myself within it.
When I slightly soften my knees, I often feel my muscles engage differently. My posture feels more stable. I become more aware of where I am in space.
The microbend is not a rigid rule I must obey in every moment. It is a tool—one I can choose when it helps me create the experience I want.
That is how I teach it as well.
Rather than saying, “Never straighten your knees,” I might invite a student to compare:
Stand in the posture as you normally would.
Notice where you feel effort and where you feel pressure.
Create a very small bend in the knees.
Notice whether the legs become more active.
Choose the version that feels more stable and supportive today.
The goal is not to make the posture look a certain way. The goal is to help the student develop awareness and choice.
Current guidance from The Ehlers-Danlos Society emphasizes movement control, stabilizing strength, appropriate joint loading, and gradual progression for people with EDS and hypermobility spectrum disorders. The NHS similarly identifies strength and fitness as important for joint support and advises people not to overextend simply because they can.
For yoga teachers, those principles suggest a helpful shift:
Instead of automatically emphasizing Invite students to explore
The furthest available range A range they can actively control
Locking or resting in a joint Muscular support around the joint
“Deeper” as the progression Greater stability and awareness
One universal alignment Individual sensation and response
Long passive holds Pacing, feedback, and choice
Correcting how a body looks Asking how the posture feels
These are educational principles—not medical treatment.
Yoga teachers can offer options, support student agency, and avoid physically pushing someone further into a posture. We cannot diagnose connective-tissue conditions, prescribe rehabilitation, or promise that a particular cue will prevent injury.
3. Why should yoga teachers learn about hypermobility?
My experience in Cabo changed more than my personal practice and my own body awareness and anatomy understanding. It changed what I notice as a teacher.
Because hyperextension is natural in my body, I understand how easy it can be to move into it without realizing it. A hypermobile student may not experience their range as extraordinary. They may simply be doing what their body has always done. They may also have been praised for that range.
Yoga culture has often treated flexibility as evidence of experience or accomplishment. A student who can easily access deep shapes may receive encouragement to keep going further, even when what they need is an opportunity to build strength, control, or proprioception.
This is why I discuss hypermobility in my teacher trainings.
I help trainees notice common places where hyperextension may appear, including the knees and elbows. We explore how to offer a microbend without turning it into another rigid alignment command. We also discuss how to observe without diagnosing and how to invite students into a conversation about sensation.
A foundational teacher training cannot cover every condition or population in depth. Still, I believe teachers should graduate understanding that:
Flexibility is not the same as stability.
A larger range does not necessarily mean a student needs a deeper option.
The external shape does not reveal everything happening inside a body.
Hypermobile students are not all alike.
Pain, recurring instability, dislocations, or rehabilitation needs belong with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Good cueing creates choices rather than fear.
A specialty course can then help a teacher explore this subject more deeply.
Do I need a hypermobility certification to teach yoga?
There is no universal hypermobility certificate that every yoga teacher must hold before teaching a general class.
There is also no yoga certificate that qualifies someone to diagnose or medically treat hypermobility.
Focused continuing education can nevertheless be incredibly valuable—especially for teachers working with students who have varied mobility, recurring injuries, chronic pain, or known hypermobility-related conditions.
The most important question is not simply, “Will I receive a certificate?”
Ask: “Will this education change how I observe, communicate, sequence, and refer?”
A worthwhile online course should include:
Clear definitions. It should distinguish joint hypermobility, symptomatic hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorders, and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes without teaching yoga instructors to diagnose them.
Qualified education. Review the trainer’s professional qualifications, teaching background, relevant clinical collaborations, and lived experience.
Principles rather than prohibitions. Be cautious of courses built around universal lists of “safe” and “unsafe” poses.
Practical teaching application. Teachers should practise cueing, sequencing, observation, and responding to realistic student scenarios.
Student agency. The course should encourage teachers to ask questions and respect individual responses rather than imposing assumptions.
Scope and referral guidance. Teachers need to understand the boundary between yoga education and healthcare.
Feedback or mentorship. Information becomes more useful when teachers can discuss cases, practise teaching, and receive thoughtful feedback.
What can teachers change right now?
You do not need to wait for another certification to begin teaching more thoughtfully. Start by questioning the idea that greater range always represents greater skill. When you notice a student’s knees or elbows moving beyond neutral, resist the urge to publicly label or correct them. Offer an experiment.
You might say:
“You have plenty of range available here. If you would like, try a very small microbend and notice whether you feel more muscular engagement or stability.”
The phrase if you would like matters.
My microbend helps me feel more supported, but my experience does not become a universal instruction for every hypermobile person. Our job is to offer an informed option and help the student notice their response.
I use a simple framework:
Notice. Ask. Offer. Refer.
Notice the movement without immediately turning it into a diagnosis or problem.
Ask about sensation, effort, stability, history, and preference.
Offer an experiment: a microbend, a smaller range, another orientation, a prop, a pause, or permission to choose differently.
Refer when pain, recurring instability, dislocations, unexplained symptoms, or rehabilitation needs move beyond your education and scope.
This framework does not require us to know everything. It asks us to remain attentive, curious, and honest.
The lesson I still carry with me
Decades after that class in Cabo San Lucas, I still hear Pablo’s words.
I remember them on my mat. I remember them while teaching. Sometimes I remember them when I am simply standing during an ordinary day.
Microbend.
For me, that small adjustment is not about believing my natural movement is wrong. It is a reminder that I have choices inside my range.
I can access a deep range of motion, and I can choose more muscular activation.
I can move naturally, and I can explore greater stability.
I can appreciate my body without assuming that the furthest place it can go is always the place it needs to be.
That is the awareness I want my teacher trainees to carry into their own classrooms.
Your hypermobile students do not need you to be their doctor. They do not need to be treated as fragile, corrected publicly, or made fearful of movement.
They need a teacher who understands that flexibility and stability are different qualities. They need meaningful options. They need permission to explore rather than perform.
Most of all, they need to know that their body is not wrong.
It may simply be asking for a kind of attention they have not been offered before.
