Episode 142|Hypermobility: Why "Just Get Stronger" Isn't Enough|Heidi Pasch
If you live with hypermobility, EDS, POTS, or MCAS, you've likely been told to stay "safe," stay small, and never push — advice that can leave you feeling like a jellyfish with no sense of where your body is in space. Heidi Pasch offers a different path. A trainer, author, and artist who went from competitive athlete to disabled after seven surgeries, she rebuilt her body by ignoring the templates and learning to read the body in front of her.
In this conversation, Heidi and Dr. Adam Rinde unpack why flexibility without control is the real danger, what "earned range of motion" means, and how strength — not restriction — protects a hypermobile joint. They dig into why the scale misses everything that matters, how a body can show up completely different day to day (mast cell reactions, POTS flares, hormonal shifts), and why recovery is where the real rebuilding happens. Heidi also shares her book, Beyond Weight: Body and Context, and her art exploring the lived experience of connective tissue. It's an empowering listen for anyone told their body's limits are fixed.
Conventional advice for hypermobile bodies — "just stretch," "just get stronger," "stay in the normal range" — often makes things worse. Heidi Pasch, who lives with EDS, POTS, and MCAS, rebuilt her own body after seven surgeries and now trains hypermobile clients using an approach based on control, strength, and the body in front of you.
Key takeaways:
- Flexibility without control is the risk — hypermobile bodies need earned range of motion, not more stretch.
- "Normal range of motion" is a misleading goal; in early-to-mid ranges, a hypermobile body has little proprioception (the "jellyfish" feeling).
- Strength builds the body up to protect the joint — the opposite of the old "don't gain an ounce" advice.
- The scale misses movement quality, muscle, and bone density — weight alone can't tell you how a body actually functions.
- A hypermobile body shows up differently every day (mast cell reactions, POTS, hormonal shifts) — training must adapt in real time.
- Recovery is when muscle actually rebuilds; "active recovery" must be scaled to the body — for some, a walk around the block is the marathon.
- Watch heat (a mast cell trigger) and cold plunges (rough on POTS) — modify, don't blindly follow trends.
Heidi's core principles:
- The body in front of you — assess fingertips to toes, today, as it arrived.
- Earned range of motion — expand control gradually into late range, never end range.
- Reciprocal inhibition — stretching one muscle should contract its opposite; you're strengthening, not just lengthening.
- Movement quality over numbers — time under tension and control beat rep counts.
About the book: Beyond Weight: Body and Context explores the disconnect between movement, measurement, and medicine — and why we assign too much responsibility to the scale.
Work with Heidi: Virtual/online training for hypermobile bodies (and beyond); recent pop-up art gallery exploring connective-tissue lived experience.
Links mentioned:
- Heidi Pasch — Beyond Weight: Body and Context https://www.heidipasch.com/shop/p/beyond-weight-body-in-context
- Heidi Pasch — online training / website: https://www.heidipasch.com/training-for-hypermobility-and-joint-stability
- Three Square Food Bank — BackPack for Kids: https://www.threesquare.org
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ABOUT HEIDI
Heidi Pasch is a trainer, author, and artist who specializes in movement for hypermobile bodies. After a series of orthopedic surgeries took her from competitive athlete to disabled, she rebuilt her body by developing her own approach — grounded in control, strength, and reading "the body in front of you." Living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, and MCAS, she trains hypermobile clients around the world, works across ballroom and circus-arts movement traditions, and is the author of Beyond Weight: Body and Context, which explores the disconnect between movement, measurement, and medicine.--------------------social links:
Hypermobility and joint-stability training:
https://www.heidipasch.com/training-for-hypermobility-and-joint-stability
Beyond Weight: Body in Context:
https://www.heidipasch.com/shop/p/beyond-weight-body-in-context
(also available on Amazon)
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/heidi.pasch/
about the One Thing Podcast with Dr. Rinde
(Featured this episode: Three Square's BackPack for Kids — if we reach 300 listens in the first 30 days, we'll make our donation there. n Heidi's honor,
- Three Square Food Bank — BackPack for Kids (Las Vegas): sends backpacks of food home with kids who may lack weekend food security — because food should be an equal-opportunity foundation for lifelong health. https://www.threesquare.org
Discussion: Discussion question: If you're hypermobile, what's one piece of standard fitness advice that never worked for your body — and what did you find instead?
#hEDS, #EDS, #POTS, #Hympermoblity
About The One Thing Podcast with Dr. Adam Rinde
Host Dr. Adam Rinde, ND brings together leaders in functional and naturopathic medicine for actionable conversations on gut health, brain health, metabolism, and longevity. Subscribe and share at https://onethingpod.com.
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Strength professional, nutritionist, writer, and visual artist.
Heidi Pasch is a Las Vegas–based strength professional, nutritionist, writer, and visual artist. Her work focuses on movement quality as a pathway to greater access to life. Drawing on professional expertise and lived experience with hypermobility, she helps people develop strength, stability, and capacity through individualized, responsive training.
She is the author of “Beyond Weight: Body in Context,” which explores the disconnect between movement, measurement, and medicine.
Hypermobility and joint-stability training:
https://www.heidipasch.com/training-for-hypermobility-and-joint-stability
