Do Not Let Urinary Incontinence Stop You from Working Out

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Highlights:

• Urinary incontinence is the unintentional passing of urine and affects millions of women globally
• The condition can be aggravated while working out, causing women to give up their active lifestyles altogether
• The solution can lie in the fact that performing kegel exercises before resistance training can reduce the risk of incontinence

Working out helps women feel great along with having a host of multiple benefits. However, women with urinary incontinence can be reluctant to continue many sports and gym programs. But there is no need for that because new research has found a way to help women undertake resistance training and reduce the risk of stress urinary incontinence.

The solution involves women engaging in a kegel exercise program that will tighten pelvic floor muscles before they commence resistance training, with the combined exercises helping to prevent or control urinary incontinence.

Resistance Training and Urinary Incontinence

The new research studied women with urinary incontinence before they started resistance training, comparing groups with and without prior kegel exercises. They recorded their Incontinence Severity Index score, pelvic floor muscle strength, and body composition (such as body mass index, fat, and muscle mass) both before and after exercising (1^✔).

‘There is no need to give up exercise because of urinary incontinence if you precede it with kegel exercises’

The research found that over 8% of the incontinent women no longer experienced urinary leakage during their daily lives after performing resistance training, which suggests its positive impact on pelvic floor strength and women's ability to timely and effectively activate their pelvic floor muscles.

Resistance training includes exercises using free weights and/or machines. Researchers have identified that some incontinent women who continued to perform resistance training experienced an improvement in their daily continence.

Kegel Exercises is Most Effective for Active Women with Incontinence

And the new research showed that combination of kegel exercises before resistance training provided the most effective results.

Results show that resistance training reduced stress urinary incontinence to a significantly greater extent, but only if preceded by kegel exercises and maintained over time.

A positive link was found between the average strength of pelvic floor muscles and stress urinary incontinence. Participants in the group doing kegel exercises before their resistance training demonstrated a significant increase in muscle mass and concomitant reduction in fat mass.

Working Out can Strengthen Pelvic Floor in Women

"Physically active women tend to have stronger pelvic floors, and this is thought to contribute to a successful continence mechanism when there is an increase in their intra-abdominal pressure," says Donelle Cross, from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, the author of the study.

"A dedicated program of kegel exercises preceding a resistance training program improved average pelvic floor muscle strength and was effective in reducing stress urinary incontinence among incontinent women," says Ms. Cross.

Urinary Incontinence can Negatively Impact Active Women

Urinary incontinence is a prevalent issue and affects up to 70% of women worldwide. Stress urinary incontinence is reported as the most prevalent subtype.

Incontinence is debilitating and can inextricably restrict lifestyle, reduce quality of life, and lead to social isolation, and having to modify or avoid sport completely. Stress urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine on effort or physical exertion, excluding sporting activities, or on sneezing or coughing.

The results of this study strongly supported the notion of pelvic floor assessments and supervised kegel exercises before performing resistance training can help women suffering from urinary incontinence.

Participants in this study were frequently reminded to activate their pelvic floor muscles as part of engaging their core when attempting the resistance training exercises, which contributed to the successful results.

Reference:

1. Does a Kegel Exercise Program Prior to Resistance Training Reduce the Risk of Stress Urinary Incontinence? - (https:www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859385/)

Source: Medindia

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