Are you leaking during your workouts?

1 in 3 women are incontinent, that’s right 1 in 3! And men, you aren’t immune either. 11% of men are incontinent.

So what causes urinary incontinence?

It is multifactorial, but the biggest risk factors for urinary leakage in women are age, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, and hysterectomy.

The two most common types of incontinence are:

1. Urge incontinence: You have a very strong urge to get to the bathroom and you can’t get there in time. For example you’re coming home from work, you open the garage door and then BAM that urge hits you and you can’t make it to the toilet in time. Or maybe it’s when you turn the shower or kitchen sink on and you get that urge to pee and some pee dribbles out. Some other environmental triggers include putting your key in the door, walking into an air-conditioned super market, or opening the bathroom door.
2. Stress incontinence: This is leakage with exercise, coughing, sneezing, laughing, squatting, jumping, jumping jacks, jump roping, and the formidable trampoline.
   Society and social media have told us that after you have a baby or go through menopause that leakage is to be expected, that it’s just part of life. But it doesn’t have to be!

And you don’t need to have gone through pregnancy or menopause to have urinary incontinence. Some studies show that female gymnasts have incontinence rates as high as 67%! AKA 2 in 3 gymnasts. Here’s looking at you, crossfitters.

So even though something is very common, it isn’t normal, even if it’s a small amount of leakage, even if it’s only on the trampoline. You don’t have to live with leakage. And if you have leakage, you would benefit from a Pelvic Floor PT evaluation to discover why you are leaking.

Leakage can be a sign that your pelvic floor muscles aren’t doing their job to stop urine flow. This can be due to pelvic floor tension, pelvic floor weakness, or a combination of the two. It can also be due to your body’s inability to tolerate big increases in abdominal pressure (aka coughing, laughing, lifting heavy weights).

If you leak with exercise you can try:

1. Emptying your bladder prior to a workout
2. Exhale during the harder part of the exercise
   1. For example: inhale as you lower down into the squat, exhale as you stand.
   2. For jumping-start your exhale before you leave the ground
3. Ditch the caffeine prior to a workout (I know I’m sorry)
4. Decrease repetitions so your pelvic floor and core can recover between sets

OR you can try Pelvic Floor PT so that you can enjoy your coffee before a workout and not have to worry about leakage during the workout. At Sunshine PT, I assess your entire body and pelvic floor to determine what is contributing to your leakage and I closely observe these movements that cause leakage so that you can become dry during your workouts.

If you’re pregnant, you don’t have to wait to give birth to start. If you start now, you’ll have better outcomes after you give birth.

So don’t wait to become dry, because it may not go away on it’s own. You can do this!

Schedule a free 15 minute consultation here.