I found this fascinating! I am hyper flexible in multiple joints and now I’m going to look this up! I am a genetics nerd too but not in this field!

@Ruth – nice work on putting your hands flat on the floor! I’m hoping to keep the ability!

Yes, me, my mom, and my daughter all have hypermobility.

Ruth, your mother sounds so cool.

@KGC- I am not offended! Just wanted to clarify that I am normally bendy, not abnormally bendy 🙂

Sorry for starting the odd twist! And I certainly didn’t mean to try to actually diagnose you with a medical condition – just pointing out that lots of people are extra flexible and occasionally we have a name for it in genetics world. My apologies that this came out wrong and I sparked concern.

(Ugh, and this is why typing is sometimes a lot harder than speaking. No inflection and reading of other people’s reactions!)

It IS pretty impressive that you can still do a split. I am quite bendy and can easily put my hands flat on the floor as an adult without bending my knees but am very very very far being able to do the splits that I could easily do as a kid!

I definitely couldn’t touch my toes as a kid and can at age 36. I had a brief period where I could get my hands flat pre-pandemic, and would like to get back to that.

@SHU- I’m guessing it’s like anything else! Bit by bit flexibility can improve. I have definitely read some literature on people developing the ability to touch their toes as adults.

@Megan – yes, this comment thread took an odd twist. I don’t have any sort of joint disorder. I am not naturally bendy — I worked really hard as a kid to be able to do a split, getting there bit by bit through years of dance. As an adult I do enough stretching that I’ve maintained a reasonable amount of that flexibility. The splits were somewhat surprising since I haven’t attempted that in a long time, but I touch my toes at least once a week in the course of doing some back stretches so that is why I can still do that.