Last month I taught a pelvic floor workshop at a local gym. At the beginning of the night, each member introduced themselves and the main reason they attended.
One of the first members to speak said, “I pee”, giving permission for the rest of the group to follow suit with the same admission. In total it was about 80% of the room who admitted to not being able to jump without leaking urine.
Many gym going women are amazingly strong, but find themselves with pelvic floor symptoms. A high exposure to HIIT can contribute to a higher incidence of leaking.
In CrossFit athletes, the prevalence of females leaking is around 45%. (May 2024 Br J Sport Med. PMID 38413133.)
Pelvic floor muscle training is the first line of treatment in improving SUI (stress urinary incontinence).
Leakage isn’t occurring only in females who have given birth either. I treat many young female personal trainers with the same symptoms as their clientele.
Young women involved in sports, “report stress urinary from 0 to 80%, depending of the physical activities, their intensity and impact. The prevalence is higher during high-impact activities; especially trampolinists and volleyball players show a high prevalence rate from 65.7 to 80%.”
It’s very common so know you aren’t alone but also know there’s a lot we can do to improve your symptoms while keeping you in the gym. The options for training should meet the athlete according to their own capacity and desires. You don’t have to stop doing what you love. You may just need a new strategy for how you’re doing it.
Train for impact
Some clients are confused when they can perform a jump squat but jump rope makes them leak.
It’s possible you need to progress the training to handle greater force. Test out these three training drills from this video to train the impact and progress.
Research for progression taken from this article. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36368150/
Personalize it
Pelvic floor training needs to be personalized. How you jump rope can be an important factor in reducing symptoms.
Here’s a check list of strategies to pay attention to. Each one can be a potential change for improvement in symptoms .
- How high are you jumping ? (try shorter jumps)
- What kind of surface do you jump on ? (change the concrete floor to a gym mat)
- What kind of shoes are you jumping in ? (do they give good shock absorption)
- How fast are you jumping ? (slow it down)
- How soft is your landing ? (quiet the landing)
- Do you hold your breath? (keep breathing)
- Do you engage the core and pelvic floor like your life depends on it? Too much tension in core or pelvic floor is a common faulty strategy. Watch the video below.
Double under tips
The person who leaks at the end of a full set of double unders may need a very different strategy than someone who leaks into 3 singles. Below are 5 tips for you if you can handle the repetitive nature of a single jump rope but symptoms arise with double unders.
- Quiet the landing- How loud are your feet hitting the ground? Make it quieter to soften the impact.
- Let go of tension. If you grip your pelvic floor or abs try to let go.
- Change your position. One common posture is to lift your breast bone or flare your ribs. If this is you, then bring breast bone down as you stack the rib cage over the pelvis.
- Keep breathing. This is a taxing exercise you so make sure you keeep breathing. Holding your breath may create undue pressure or tension on the pelvic floor.
- Slow it down. Train isolated double unders followed by a couple singles before attempting continuous doubles.
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