<p>Urinary Incontinence and Women CrossFit Competitors</p>

Abstract

Purpose Urinary incontinence is a common condition that potentially discourages women from participating in physical activity. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of urinary and athletic incontinence and establish which activities and contexts were most likely to provoke urine leakage in women CrossFit competitors. Patients and Methods This research was an international, cross-sectional, survey-based study. The online survey was completed by 452 women CrossFit competitors. The Incontinence Severity Index was used to determine the frequency and severity of urinary incontinence. Results Urinary incontinence was experienced by 41.8% of participants in the three months prior to the study and 17.7% experienced athletic incontinence. Women came to experience athletic incontinence through two different pathways. Some women were continent before commencing CrossFit (9.7%), remain continent during everyday activities but now experience urinary incontinence during exercise. Alternatively, 8% of women were incontinent before commencing CrossFit, are now continent during everyday activities but remain incontinent during exercise. High impact CrossFit activities were most likely to provoke urinary incontinence. Conclusion This study highlighted the importance of distinguishing between urinary incontinence that develops after commencing an exercise program in otherwise continent women and urinary incontinence that persists only during exercise in previously incontinent women.

Urinary Incontinence in Competitive Women Powerlifters: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…The squat was the second most likely competition lift to provoke UI in our cohort of powerlifters. While 36.3% of participants in our study reported experiencing UI during squats, comparable studies reported that 23% of weightlifters [11] and 12.6% of CrossFit participants [17] experienced leakage of urine while squatting. Squats are possibly less likely to provoke UI in weightlifters and CrossFit participants due to a difference in the amount of weight lifted, and the number of sets and repetitions performed during training or competition.…”

“…Most commonly UI is classified as stress (complaint of involuntary loss of urine on effort or physical exertion including sporting activities, or on sneezing or coughing [ 1 ]), urgency (complaint of involuntary loss of urine associated with urgency [ 1 ]) or mixed UI (complaint of both stress and urgency UI [ 1 ]). The term athletic incontinence is not an officially recognised term [ 17 ] but a term used either generally in the literature to describe UI experienced during athletic activity [ 18 ] or more specifically to describe UI experienced by otherwise continent young nulliparous women only during training and competition [ 19 ]. More recently, the term athletic incontinence has been used to describe UI experienced during exercise by otherwise continent women of any age or parity [ 11 , 17 ].…”

“…The term athletic incontinence is not an officially recognised term [ 17 ] but a term used either generally in the literature to describe UI experienced during athletic activity [ 18 ] or more specifically to describe UI experienced by otherwise continent young nulliparous women only during training and competition [ 19 ]. More recently, the term athletic incontinence has been used to describe UI experienced during exercise by otherwise continent women of any age or parity [ 11 , 17 ]. While stress UI, as suggested by its definition, can be provoked by sporting activities that this study does not focus on the mechanical classifications of UI but the contexts in which UI is likely to occur (everyday activities, training or competition or both).…”

Exercícios físicos de alto impacto e incontinência urinária em mulheres jovens: revisão integrativa da literatura

“…A IUE é considerada pelos artigos científicos estudados como o tipo mais comum de IU, sendo caracterizada por sintomas como a perda de urina ao tossir e/ou espirrar e em conformidade com a frequência de impacto sobre o períneo, sendo esse fato comum durante a realização de atividades físicas de alto impacto que implicam no esforço físico de mulheres (Wikander et al, 2020;Khowailed et al, 2020;Campbell, Batte, & Drummond, 2020;Sorrigueta-Hernandez et al, 2020).…”

“…Para Wikander et al (2020) a incontinência urinária é uma condição comum que potencialmente desestimula as mulheres de participarem de atividades físicas. Conforme o estudo, as atividades CrossFit de alto impacto foram mais propensas a provocar incontinência urinária.…”