crossfit & Pelvic Floor
Who has leaked in a workout?
It might have been
🤸At the end of a double back handspring &
🦶🏿 With double unders before you got pregnant
🏋🏿♀️Strict overhead press after your second birth
🫣Deadlifts
📦Box jumps
🏖️Folicking to play with your kid at the beach
😳Sprinting to catch a connection flight
If you are going through this, you aren’t alone!
Stress Urinary Incontinence (accidental bladder leaks) effects up to 80% of active women who Have never given birth.
30% of women who exercise after childbirth experience leakage
Specific to Crossfit, the top exercises were women report leakage
DoubleUnders (47%)
Box Jumps (28%)
Single Unders (41.3%)
The great news is that you can get help and heal!
This is exactly what I help women with at Radiance PT
Yes! Bladder leaks are treatable, there are many great solutions so you can be leak free AND crush it in the gym
Consider the options:
be empowered to get help
support others who want to get help
You might have been led to believe, that leakage is a part of life and it is just part of being a woman, but the truth is
You can get better!
For everyone person celebrating their leakage –There are 2 more that are embarrassed by it and this will be the reason they stop CrossFit or stop exercising altogether and miss out on opportunities to improve bone density, muscle strength, and feel like a badass with your friends!
That said leakage is a symptom that something needs to be addressed, kinda like a check engine light-
You might need to address:
Weakness in the pelvic floor
Too much tension in the pelvic floor
Prolapse
A technique issue
Over training
Energy deficiency
Hormonal imbalance
Psychological stress
Need more sleep
Constipation
Less caffeine
AND MORE
And because everyone is so unique
Age
Genetic
History of giving birth
Hormonal status
Other injuries
HEALING– it’s not a 1 size fits all treatment
No one who is working to help women reach their highest athlete potential would ever tell a female athlete who gets multiple fractures and skips her period that just how it is.
The sports medicine community KNOWS better now
Pelvic floor problems for athlete women should be no different!
Especially when there are conservative treatments available.
I’m a believer in autonomy and supporting life long athleticism and encourage folks to think just for now how are you supporting your whole self and what does it look like for 20 or 30 or 40 years from now?
References
Forner, L.B., Beckman, E.M. & Smith, M.D. Do women runners report more pelvic floor symptoms than women in CrossFit®? A cross-sectional survey. Int Urogynecol J 32, 295–302 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-020-04531-x
Carvalhais, A. Urinary incontinence and disordered eating in female elite athletes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2018.07.008
Goldstick, O. Urinary Incontinence in Physically Active Women, BJSM April 2013