Involuntary loss of urine during athletics is more common than you thought

Athletic incontinence is a type of stress incontinence that happens during an athletic event. Stress incontinence is an involuntary loss of urine due to a pressure or force like coughing, sneezing or jumping. When most people think of urinary incontinence they do not usually picture young athletes, however it is surprisingly common.

A study of young, elite athletes found 43% experienced urinary leakage while participating in their sport. The study also investigated which sports had higher incidences of incontinence:

Kasia Gondek, PT, DPT, CSCS

Doctor of Physical Therapy and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

Kasia (she/ her/ hers) earned her Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) from Mount Saint Mary’s University, and her Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Santa Cruz. She has established herself as a compassionate, effective, and respected clinician treating pelvic floor and women's health, orthopedic, neurological, and sports-related injuries and conditions.

Kasia utilizes a whole-body, whole-person treatment approach that is unique to each patient and is focused not only on improving pain and difficulty with activities, but also getting them back to doing what they love. She empowers her patients to become an integral part of their recovery and healing process through providing education, self-care, meaningful goal setting, and incorporating activities that they love into their treatment plan.

What studies say about returning to running as postpartum exercise

Most of the therapists in our office are moms, and we intimately understand wanting to get back to exercise after delivery. Caution should be taken when returning to running postpartum - we see this clinically and research also shows postpartum movement strategy changes that can increase your risk of injury.

A recent pilot study by Provenzano et al., 2019 compared the biomechanical changes of runners pre-pregnancy (or <14 weeks gestation and postpartum). They found at six weeks postpartum subjects had decreased trunk and pelvic rotation, decreased running speed, with increased step width and stance time compared to pre pregnancy measurements. They also found decreased motion in the hips with increased motion at the knee as a compensation.