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Hypermobile Singers: From Pretty Impressive to Pretty Painful

17/01/2025

I’m a hypermobile singer and voice teacher; and some of my clients are as well. The challenges we face are unique, and at the same time, our strengths are too! Here’s an overview of what’s important to know when you’re (working with) a hypermobile singer.

Unlike my other blog posts, this article is quite dry with lots of bullet points, so your brain can absorb the info easily.

The focus of this article is Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders – HSD
. I will not go deeper into two conditions that need a clinical diagnosis that also have hypermobility as a symptom:

  • Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome – hEDS
  • Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome – POTS

If you want to know more on those, scroll down to the resources.

In the webinar Is It Safe to Sing? Brain-Based Exercises for More Ease, Stability, and Efficiency in Your Voice by Bjorn Poels, Z-Health certified Performance Trainer, on February 26th, you are going to hack your brain with proprioceptive, vestibular, and visual exercises; and experience the effect immediately on your singing. Don’t miss the 🐔 EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT 🐔!

Read this blog post to understand why you need to make your brain feel safe to enable your best singing.

What are Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders - HSD?

Connective tissue (fascia) provides support to your skin, musculoskeletal system, blood vessels, and organs. In people with HSD, the fascia is weakened & too stretchy due to a defect in collagen production. The tissues don’t have the ability to hold everything together as they should.


  • More women than men are hypermobile.
  • HSD is more common in the artist population.
  • There’s possibly a link with neurodivergence.
  • This is not supported by research at all, but I wonder whether there’s a link with HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) too, as I recognize this in all the people I know who are hypermobile – including myself.

Potential Physical Symptoms

It’s possible that you are asymptomatic or only have positive symptoms. However, you can become symptomatic later in life if you don’t practice enough self-care.

Keep in mind that hypermobility presents differently in every body. If you’re hypermobile, you won’t necessarily have all of these symptoms!

  • Excessive range of motion in your joints, which can lead to chronic pain, easy dislocation / subluxation and early-onset degenerative arthritis.

    It also gives you the talent to do what this dancer is doing. Look at her overextended knees, elegant hands and bendy fingers! Further down, I’ll focus on the impressive skills hypermobile singers can have.

Take the Beighton test to assess your joints here!

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  • Scoliosis
  • Difficulty maintaining postural alignment & standing for a long time. This can lead to compensatory tension and stiffness in various parts of your body, particularly in your neck and surrounding areas, shoulders, jaw and abdominal muscles.
  • An under-regulated vestibular system (balance), which can lead to dizziness and fatigue
. This can also lead to muscles not firing when they’re supposed to during movement, with for example weak glutes or hyperextended knees as a result.
  • Breathing problems, for example slipping ribs or paradoxical breathing.
  • Hypermobile children might have limited physical control, be “floppy” and have difficulty holding a pen for a long time.
  • Hyper-elastic, soft and fragile skin that tears easily. Wounds sometimes heal more slowly with abnormal scarring.
  • Frequent micro injuries: slight injuries that may not show up on tests or MRIs, but can occur repeatedly in the same area of connective tissue without completely healing.
  • Slower healing of connective tissues in general.
  • Gastrointestinal issues like constipation, acid reflux or gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
  • Pelvic floor and bladder issues.
  • Hormonal issues.
  • Sensitivity to allergens and post-nasal drip.
  • Higher level of pain and fatigue, both acute and chronic.

Other potential symptoms

Poor interoception
You might have less awareness of internal body signals, such as hunger, thirst, heart rate, or muscle tension
. This makes it difficult for you to recognize physical or emotional states. It’s maybe challenging for you to be aware of your limits regarding your body, stress regulation, and overall well-being
.

Poor proprioception
This is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. Your brain might find it challenging to know which way is up and what direction you are moving in.

Anxiety
You brain can feel unsafe due to your connective tissue not holding everything together as it should
. Your “threat bucket threshold” is possibly lowered. Because your brain is constantly scanning the world for threat, you might be hyper-vigilant.

I’d like to end this chapter on potential symptoms with a quote by Celest Pereira:

Hypermobile people are like the canary in the coal mine.
They feel if something is bad for EVERYBODY before others feel it:

    • Not eating well
    • Too much stress
    • Not resting enough
    • Pollution
    • Not enough hydration

We need to listen to them to give us guidance!

Can Hypermobility be a Strength for Singers?

Yes – Just like the dancer in the pictures above, hypermobile singers can have unique talents. But remember, HSD presents differently in every body!

  • You might notice that you have an extended vocal range without having to train hard for it. The extreme highs and lows are just there, waiting for you to use them in your artistic expression. Sometimes you have easy access to whistle register.
  • It may be very easy for you to sing silently and with a breathy voice, thus creating an intimate atmosphere. In case you didn’t know, this can be a challenging skill to acquire for other singers and they might be jealous of you. Celebrate your talent!
  • Because your larynx consists of a big collection of joints and they can be affected by HSD too, you might have an unusually flexible voice. This makes it easy for you to perform riffs and runs.
  • Changing vocal qualities / registers / vocal modes throughout your range can be easy peasy for hypermobile singers, which gives you great stylistic versatility. However, sometimes the extreme opposite presents itself.

The Possible Challenges for Hypermobile Singers

Unfortunately, I also have bad news. First, I’ll repeat this disclaimer:

It’s possible that you are asymptomatic or only have positive symptoms. However, you can become symptomatic later in life if you don’t practice enough self-care.

Keep in mind that hypermobility presents differently in every body. If you’re hypermobile, you won’t necessarily have all of these symptoms!

Collagen is a major component of the human vocal folds  – it makes up 43% of the total tissue protein. People with HSD have a weaker collagen production. As a result, up to 74,6% of hypermobile singers face voice problems, as opposed to 45% of singers without HSD. These problems may present 20 to 30 years sooner than in singers without HSD.

  • Overuse can quickly lead to voice pathology.
  • Hypermobile singers experience vocal fatigue, hoarseness, loss of stamina, voice-related pain and hypofunction
 more rapidly.
  • It’s more difficult to make the vocal folds approach, which can lead to “pushing”. The combination with under-regulated interoception (recognizing tension in your body) is quite unhelpful.
  • It might be harder for you to sing loudly, powerfully and intensely. Some hypermobile singers have big or powerful voices, but in that case, it might be challenging to control.
  • Your voice might feel unstable and you might experience sudden loss of function and / or progress. This unreliable and inconsistent nature of your singing can lead to performance anxiety and stress.
  • You maybe have a hard time changing vocal qualities / registers / vocal modes, although some hypermobile singers experience the extreme opposite (see above).
  • Producing & sustaining your desired pitch might be troublesome.
  • Maybe you experience skeletal-muscular issues like TMJD (tension in your jaw) and / or postural imbalances in your back and / or neck
. Compensatory tension in the muscles around your larynx (MTD – Muscle Tension Dysphonia) and tongue can lead to changes in the soft tissues of your throat and muscles that raise your larynx. This has an impact on your vocal control and resonance.
  • Breath management might feel like a constant challenge.

What’s Good for You When You’re Hypermobile

I’ll start with repeating the quote by Celest Pereira and adding the second part of it:

Hypermobile people are like the canary in the coal mine. They feel if something is bad for EVERYBODY before others feel it. We need to listen to them to give us guidance!

    • Not eating well
    • Too much stress
    • Not resting enough
    • Pollution
    • Not enough hydration

They can do fascinating things with their bodies. They thrive if given the right foundation:

    • Enough proprioceptive stimulation
    • Enough neuromapping of where their body is in space
    • The right tools to manage anxiety
    • Being taught that they are a superhero and resilient, not that they are fragile.

So… What’s good for you – and every body, not just the hypermobile ones?

  • Make sure that all the therapists and teachers you’re working with understand hypermobility. Maybe send them this blog post?
  • Regular physical therapy. Be careful with releasing the suboccipital region because that can destabilise your whole body.
    • Osteopathy
    • Craniosacral therapy & therapies that regulate your nervous system
    • Alexander technique & Feldenkrais
    • Tai chi & Qi gong
  • Massages are proprioceptive stimulation for your brain, so a good thing!
    
Experiment with what works best: deep tissue / light touch / vibration / hot / cold/ sharp / dull.
  • Strength training of your whole body, with a focus on the muscles around your vulnerable joints.
  • Avoid all kinds of extremes – don’t go to the limits of your strength and flexibility.
  • Train reflexive stability (context-dependent activation of your muscles), not static strength.
  • Short-term use of braces / kinesiotape to support unstable joints.
  • Monitoring by a medical team to prevent and / or manage complications.
  • Psychological counseling.
  • Help your brain feel safe by:
    • Developing your sensory perception, with extra focus on your auditory and visual system.
    • Training your interoception, with extra focus on your kinesthetic feedback.
    • Training your proprioception, with extra focus on your vestibular system.

Make sure to read the blog post Is it Safe to Sing? Hack Your Brain and Sing with Ease!
 for a more detailed explanation on all of this!

If you want to dive right into these exercises, enroll for the webinar Is It Safe to Sing? Brain-Based Exercises for More Ease, Stability, and Efficiency in Your Voice –  by Bjorn Poels on February 26th

What’s Good for You When You’re a Hypermobile Singer?

Obviously, all of the above. And if you’re also experiencing hypermobility in your voice or are working with hypermobile singers, the following advice will be helpful:

  • Activate your whole body through movement while singing.
  • Avoid all kinds of extremes like going to the limits of your volume, range, opening your jaw, etc.
  • If you can sing with high volume, don’t do it for too long.
  • Adjust your repertoire and genre, as well as the duration of your rehearsals and performances.
  • If necessary, see specialists such as a speech therapist and laryngologist. Make sure they understand hypermobile voices! Maybe send them this blog post?
  • Reduce excessive tension in around your larynx and jaw with manual therapy
. Tell the therapist you’re hypermobile, so they can be cautious of dislocation / subluxation.

Subscribe to The singsing! Sofa Library and watch the 3rd webinar of Releasing a Tense Voice: Releasing the Larynx, Tongue and Jaw to learn stretches and massages that you can safely do by yourself!

  • Avoid “pushing” / too much air pressure due to challenged interoception with good microphone technique and monitoring.

Subscribe to The singsing! Sofa Library and watch the webinar Microphone Technique, led by Beo Van Haver!

  • Extra focus on vocal hygiene, resonance training and SOVTs.

Subscribe to The singsing! Sofa Library and watch the 3 webinars of SOS Voice to learn everything about taking care of your voice and SOVTs!

  • Address breathing issues like, for example, paradoxical breathing.
  • If you’ve been taught by certain Yoga / Pilates / voice teachers that you should be holding in your belly at all times: The pelvic floor is not evolved to be lifted and gripping all the time! An engaged core is not a more stable structure. We create better lumbar stability with a relaxed core.

    You’re not going to achieve more stability by conscious control. It’s a reflexive thing, your brain is lightning fast, much faster than you can do consciously.


    This means that you need to train reflexive stability: context-dependent activation of your muscles. Here are a few exercises I’ve learned from Celest Pereira:

    • Sing with a weight in one hand while standing on one foot.
    • Vestibular drills: Sing while standing on one leg and alternatively look to your left and right.
    • Train your proprioception with perturbation:

      Sing with your feet together and ask your teacher (or somebody else) to give you little pushes
.

      Tie a strap around you and attach it to the wall / door / furniture while singing.

If you want 1,5 hours full of proprioceptive, vestibular, and visual exercises to hack your brain: Enroll for the webinar Is It Safe to Sing? Brain-Based Exercises for More Ease, Stability, and Efficiency in Your Voice –  by Bjorn Poels on February 26th and experience the effect immediately on your singing.

Don’t miss the 🐔 EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT 🐔and Enroll now!

RESOURCES

As always, feel free to send me your thoughts, questions, and feedback in the comments below this blog, via the contact form or in the singsing! online community ❤️

Cordially,

Sarah

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