Hypermobility, EDS & POTS Physical Therapy Westminster CO | Made Strong PT
Made Strong Physical Therapy & Wellness · Westminster, CO
You’ve been told you’re just flexible.
You know your body doesn’t work that way. If you’ve spent years being dismissed, misdiagnosed, or given exercises that made things worse, this page is for you.
Hypermobility is one of the most misunderstood presentations in physical therapy. It doesn’t look like a typical injury. It doesn’t respond to typical protocols. And the people who live with it have usually heard some version of “everything looks normal” from providers who weren’t looking at the right things.
At Made Strong, hypermobility, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hypermobility spectrum disorder, and related conditions like POTS, is a specialty, not an afterthought. The approach here is built around understanding how a hypermobile body actually works, what it needs to stabilize and strengthen, and what it absolutely does not need: passive treatment, generic protocols, and being told to push through pain that your body is genuinely producing as a signal.
“It’s rare to find someone who can provide the kind of excellent, evidence-based, weight neutral care that you will find with Dr. Jen. Her diagnostic skills are top notch and it was obvious that my rehab plan was being carefully tailored to the quirks of my hypermobile body.”
What we treat
Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD)
Joint instability, chronic pain, fatigue, and injury patterns that don’t fit standard diagnoses. Often goes unrecognized for years.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS and other types)
Complex connective tissue disorder requiring careful, individualized loading. Many clients have had prior PT that was too aggressive or entirely unhelpful.
POTS and dysautonomia
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome often co-occurs with hypermobility. Exercise tolerance, positioning, and load management are all different and need to be treated that way.
Chronic pain in hypermobile bodies
Pain that’s widespread, variable, and hard to explain to providers who aren’t familiar with this presentation. Addressed through pain science, movement retraining, and progressive strength work.
Return to sport and activity
Hypermobile athletes, dancers, gymnasts, climbers, and skiers who want to stay active and need a plan that respects their body’s limits while building genuine capacity.
Strength is one of the most important tools for hypermobility management. Every plan integrates progressive loading from session one.
What’s different here
Most PT protocols are not built for hypermobile bodies, and often either do nothing or make things worse. Here’s how care at Made Strong is different:
No one-size-fits-all protocol. Every plan is built from scratch around your specific presentation, history, goals, and what you’ve already tried.
Joint stability before mobility. The standard PT instinct, stretch what’s tight and strengthen what’s weak, often misses what a hypermobile body actually needs. Proprioception, motor control, and graduated loading come first.
Pain is information, not a verdict. Hypermobile clients often experience pain that doesn’t correlate with structural damage. Understanding why your nervous system is amplifying signals, and what to do about it, is part of the work.
Your goals matter. Whether you want to get back to dancing, finish a hiking season, lift without subluxations, or simply get through a day without pain, the plan is built around what you actually want to be doing.
Evidence-based and weight-neutral. Care here is grounded in current research on connective tissue disorders, not assumptions about what bodies should look like or what they should be able to do.
Full hour, one patient at a time. No rushing, no aides. You get the time to actually explain what’s going on, because with this population, the history matters enormously.
A note on diagnosis: You don’t need a formal EDS or HSD diagnosis to be seen here. If you have a body that’s hypermobile and you’re struggling, with pain, instability, fatigue, or simply not being taken seriously, that’s enough to start. We’ll figure out the right approach together.
The honest reality of treating hypermobility
Progress with hypermobility is usually slower and less linear than with a standard orthopedic injury. That’s not a failure. It’s the nature of the condition. Connective tissue responds differently to load. The nervous system is often sensitized. Flare-ups happen even when you’re doing everything right.
What changes with the right approach isn’t that everything becomes easy. It’s that you develop a better relationship with your body: understanding what it’s telling you, knowing how to respond, and building a level of strength and stability that makes flare-ups less frequent, less intense, and less derailing.
Many clients with hypermobility have been told their options are limited. That’s rarely true. The options are just different, and they require a clinician who’s willing to actually think, not just apply a protocol.
“She took my short- and long-term goals seriously and never tried to dissuade me from pursuing my outdoor adventures. Dr. Jen’s diagnostic skills are top notch and it was obvious that my rehab plan was being carefully tailored to the quirks of my hypermobile body. It’s rare to find someone who can provide the kind of excellent, evidence-based, weight neutral care that you will find with Dr. Jen.”
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an EDS diagnosis before booking?
No. Many people with hypermobility-related symptoms never receive a formal diagnosis. The diagnostic process for EDS in particular can be lengthy and difficult to access. If you suspect hypermobility is contributing to your symptoms, that’s enough to start. A thorough evaluation will help clarify what’s going on and what approach makes the most sense.
I’ve tried PT before and it made things worse. Why would this be different?
This is one of the most common things clients say when they first reach out. Standard PT protocols, especially aggressive strengthening, high-rep loading, or stretching already hypermobile tissue, often don’t translate well to this population. The approach here starts with understanding how your body responds, not with a predetermined program. If something isn’t working, we adjust rather than telling you to push through it.
Can you help with POTS specifically?
Yes. POTS management in a PT context involves exercise programming that accounts for orthostatic intolerance, typically starting supine or semi-reclined, building very gradually, and monitoring how your system responds. It’s not the same as standard deconditioning rehab and it requires patience. The goal is building enough cardiovascular and muscular resilience that daily function and tolerance improve over time.
I’m an athlete with hypermobility. Can I keep training?
Almost always, yes. The goal is rarely to stop doing the thing you love. It’s to build the stability, load tolerance, and body awareness to do it more safely and consistently. Hypermobile athletes often have significant strengths: proprioceptive awareness, flexibility, and adaptability that can be worked with rather than around.
Do you offer virtual care for hypermobility?
Yes. Virtual sessions work well for hypermobility clients, especially for programming, movement coaching, and check-ins between in-person visits. Many clients combine occasional in-person sessions with ongoing virtual programming support. This is particularly useful for clients who aren’t local to Westminster or who have energy limitations that make frequent travel difficult.
How is this different from seeing a PT in a standard insurance-based clinic?
The main differences are time and individualization. Insurance-based clinics typically see multiple patients per hour, which makes complex presentations like hypermobility genuinely difficult to address well. At Made Strong, every session is the full hour, one patient, with programming and follow-up support built into the care model. Hypermobility needs that space. It’s not a 20-minute problem.
Let’s figure out what’s actually going on.
Discovery calls are free and 15 minutes. If you’ve been dismissed, misdiagnosed, or just haven’t found an approach that works, this is a good place to start.
