I was talking to a personal trainer the other day about the struggles that she has with her clients. She specializes in helping women feel strong and fit, and teaches bootcamp style fitness classes, and has some one on one clients too. Her clients really like high intensity training, so she programs a lot of movements with jumping in them to keep the intensity up in her classes.
She thought this would be a hit with her clients, but many of them complained!
They told her things like:
- “Now I will be worrying about leaking all class…”
- “I can’t do that, I’ll leak…”
- “If you were a mom, you would know better than to put so much jumping in the workouts!”
- “Just wait until you are a mom, then you’ll understand!”
My friend told them that this is a common problem, but that it is NOT normal. The women didn’t believe her because she didn’t have kids, but she is right! There are plenty of physical therapists who are mothers who help other women with this common problem. You don’t have to deal with it forever, and there is something that you can do!
Also, if you aren’t a mom, and still have problems with leakage, you aren’t alone!
Pelvic floor issues don’t only happen to mom’s. We’ve seen plenty of athletes in our clinic who experience leakage with box jumps, jump rope, and heavy lifts because their pelvic floor is too tight.
These are the same women who come to me and tell me that people have told them to do their kegels, and so they tried it, but it didn’t help, or actually made their problem worse!
Sometimes kegels aren’t the answer!
This is why it is so important to get assessed by a women’s health physical therapist to help you feel confident jumping, squatting, and lifting heavy WITHOUT leakage.
Many women who come to me who are already doing kegels either shouldn’t be doing kegels, aren’t doing them correctly, or aren’t doing the correct type of kegel for their problem.
A good example of this was an athlete that I treated who had leakage with squatting, jumping, and sneezing. She always felt self conscious at her bootcamp classes, or when she would sneeze at work. She had been doing kegels but wasn’t noticing a difference. The reason? She was only doing kegels in a seated position, wasn’t using proper form, and thought that they were easy. Just like any other exercise kegels should feel challenging, and if you only practice them in one position, you will only be strong in that position. I taught her how to perform kegels with correct form, and we progressed the kegels so that the strength would carry over into the movements that she performed in her workouts. After some hard work, she was able to go through workouts with an hour of jumping without leaking, and felt confident again! Even her OBGYN noticed a difference!
If this resonates with you, or if you are wondering if you might have a core or pelvic floor problem that CAN easily be fixed, click here to download our FREE checklist, “The Top 6 Signs That You Are Suffering From a Pelvic Floor or Core Strength Problem That CAN be Easily Fixed” or give us a call at 336-271-6677 to talk with a Women’s Health Physical Therapist now!
Leave A Response