Over the past 25 years or so, I’ve been practicing sports on a very regular basis. I’ve tried several different sports, with football and cycling being the main ones in my twenties.

Then, in my thirties, padel became my main focus, with other racket sports (beach tennis, tennis, frescobol) complementing it. Cycling was still present, although mainly as a means of transport.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in gyms too, although never on a consistent and serious basis over a number of years. Over the last 3-4 years, however, I’ve learned a lot about anatomy and proper technique while working with personal trainers during my padel preparation training.

All these activities, together with pretty good genetics, have enabled me to stay in the “above average” section of the population when it comes to fitness.

However, I recently came to the realisation that I have never been fully happy with my body, always missing that extra bit of optimisation and strength.

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I was born with hypermobile joints, especially in my knees, ankles, elbows and shoulders.

Hypermobility is a connective tissue condition (usually inherited) in which the body’s collagen is more elastic than the ‘norm’, leading to increased flexibility. For some people, notably musicians, gymnasts, dancers and sports people, this natural flexibility gives a very useful advantage, though it leaves them more prone to injuries such as sprains and dislocations. In others, it can cause clumsiness, lack of spatial awareness and joint pain.

If I’m not making any conscious effort to stand differently, my knees will hyperextend backward and my ankles will cave inwards.

It’s very easy for me to twist my ankles outwards if I’m walking on uneven terrains or during certain sports like football, where the grass provides a cushioned and slightly unstable landing pad for the feet. I’ve been aware of this condition for many years, but during the last year or so I’ve been struggling with pain around the right ankle especially. The pain intensifies after I play padel or tennis, and can linger for months unless I stop playing for a month or two.

I’ve decided to see what I can do to deal with this condition, and in this post, I’ll be documenting my journey. The start date is November 2020.

Note that if you have just injured your ankle, the best thing to do is to follow the RICE methodology and apply heat or ice as necessary, and see a specialist. You might eventually also use EMS to treat the injury.

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Using the right products around the house and for personal hygiene and care is very important for someone health conscious like me. So you can say that every product I own has been carefully selected to make sure there are no harmful chemicals present and that it does what it says. I’ve honed this process over many years, so I wanted to document my process in a few lines here.

I use the following apps and websites for research into ingredients:

• INCI Decoder – tells you what ingredients do in layman form
• EWG Skin Deep – ingredient and product research
• Skin Carisma
• Skin Safe

These are some of my favorite brands:

• Weleda
• L’Occitane
• La Roche Posay
• ISDIN
• Sebamed
• Satin Naturel
• Procoal
• Lush

This PDF is worth a look at for understanding the basics on product safety and how to pick better products.

If you’re doing a lot of training or missing certain dietary requirements for some reason or another, you might want to turn to supplements.

It’s very important to know what supplements actually work, and the best resource I’ve found for that is Examine.com.

Then, to find out which brand I should buy (supplement quality varies a lot between one brand and another), I rely on the analysis done on Labdoor and Consumerlab.

If you’re a desk jockey and are troubled by bad posture, here are a few things that I suggest to address this issue.

• Stay active. Any kind of sport will generally improve things and put you in a better mood and hence more likely to stand tall than slouch.
• Perform these exercises a few times per week.
• Use a foam roller and a RAD Roller.
• Do some sessions with an Alexander Technique teacher.
• Read the Overcoming Poor Posture book.

Have you tried any of the methods above? Let me know in the comments section.