Does this picture make you think of having to go pee? If you know, you know….

This leakage of urine is actually known as “stress urinary incontinence.” The reason for this specific issue is that the muscles surrounding the bladder, including the urethra, are weak. So while jumping rope puts force on the bladder, the lack of pelvic muscular strength allows the pass through of urine and the inability to hold it back. Pelvic muscles are the ones in control of squeezing when trying to hold back urine and/or bowel movements.

Often times, this lack of strength is a result of pelvic floor dysfunction.

Research proves that the majority of women (1 in 3) who have given natural birth deal with pelvic floor dysfunction.

“Haven’t heard of pelvic floor dysfunction or do you think you may have it?”

Pelvic floor dysfunction is very common in mothers, many of who go untreated because they don’t notice any symptoms or think it’s “normal”. It is always important to see a physician especially going into intense exercise soon after childbirth and be mindful of the possibility. If this goes untreated for too long, it could lead to pelvic organ prolapse (which will I discuss later on in this blog series).

After women give birth, the tremendous stretching of the pelvis causes the pelvic muscles to weaken and may even tear the tissue surrounding the pelvic organs which causes instability. What typically happens soon after childbirth is women become weak through their pelvic muscles and lose some, if not all, of their ability to contract/relax these muscles which support organs including the bladder, uterus, and rectum.

While our pelvic floor muscles are usually contracted in order to hold our organs in place, we have to relax these muscles in order to urinate or have a bowel movement. Most mothers tend to find that they are contracting when they should be relaxing. And in other cases, they are not able to contract when necessary, such as when jumping rope, to hold back the passing of urine.

Although there is a lot more to pelvic floor dysfunction and several more reasons for it happening, the most common thing I see at BFP is the urgency to urinate when there is any jumping involved which is my reason for writing this blog and doing more research on this topic.

With that being said, although this is very common, it does not mean it is NORMAL to continue exercising with it!

Be mindful of what you are feeling.

This is the first blog of my series of 3 of “Do you pee when you jump rope?” Stay tuned to read more about it, including topics on:

1. Precautions when lifting weights

2. Diastasis recti/pelvic organ prolapse and

3. An exercise program to help strengthen pelvic floor muscles (but will not treat the condition)

-Coach Lopez