Urinary Incontinence During Heavy Lifts

Urinary incontinence is the grievance of involuntary loss (leakage) of urine. The condition occurs in each sexes, but is rather more frequent in women

Incontinence in men is usually a consequence of prostatic enlargement or from damage to continence mechanisms during surgery or radiotherapy for prostate cancer.

Incontinence in women, then again, is usually related to dysfunction of the bladder or pelvic floor muscles, with such dysfunction often arising while pregnant or childbirth, or on the time of menopause.

There are two important subtypes of urinary incontinence: Stress Incontinence and Urgency Incontinence. Stress Incontinence is the grievance of urine leakage in association with coughing, sneezing or physical exercise, whereas Urgency Incontinence is the grievance of urine leakage related to a sudden compelling desire to void that’s difficult to defer (there are other types also, but beyond the scope of this topic).

Our Urinary Tract includes two kidneys, two ureters, urethra and a sphincter. This entire system works together to store and expel urine from our bodies. It’s the kidneys which makes urine. Kidney is a significant filtration system of our body, it cleans to blood, and removes waste and excess water (urine).

(Pic Source: https://bit.ly/3wWflYJ)

This urine then passes from kidneys, through the ureters, in to the bladder. Bladder is a balloon like organ which stores urine. When the bladder muscles squeeze/contract, urine is expelled out.

The bladder is connected with a tube called Urethra. The urethra has sphincter muscles which controls the urine passage. The sphincter muscles remain contracted, which prevents the leaking of urine, till you might be able to pass out the urine. At that point, the sphincter muscles relaxes, the bladder contracts, and the urine passes out.

During Stress Incontinence during heavy lifting, the urine leaks out because of sudden pressure on the bladder and the urethra, because of which the sphincter muscles relaxes for a brief time frame, without your conscious control, and the urine leaks out.

In womenthe prevalence of urinary incontinence is believed to range between 25 and 45%. The prevalence of urinary incontinence in high impact sports akin to trampolining is reported to be 80% while the in non-impact activities, akin to yoga and Pilates, it has been found to range between 5.56% and 25.9%.

In addition to risk aspects for urinary incontinence in the overall population, sport and exercise related risk aspects akin to load, body position and training to fatigue may result briefly term pelvic floor muscle fatigue, raise intrabdominal pressure or provoke urinary incontinence in women who take part in sport. Though regular strength training doesn’t result in urinary incontinence, as such.

The term athletic incontinence isn’t an officially recognised term, but a term used either generally within the literature to explain urinary incontinence by women only during training and competition. Urinary incontinence is most problematic in sports akin to gymnastics, weightlifting and powerlifting where women athletes wear tight clothing and compete as a person quite than in a team.

Acc. to a studycompetitive women powerlifters experience a better rate of urinary incontinence during lifting-related activities than in each day life. Approximately, 41% of girls powerlifters had experienced urinary incontinence during life, and 37% of girls powerlifters currently experienced urinary incontinence during training, competition, or maximum effort lifts.

A studyfound that, participants were more more likely to experience urinary incontinence during heavy lifts. Those who lifted essentially the most weight in competition experienced essentially the most severe urinary incontinence. The deadlift is the lift where powerlifters are more likely to lift the best amount of weight, and correspondingly, the deadlift was the lift most probably to impress urinary incontinence (42.5%). The squat was the second most probably competition lift to impress continence in powerlifters.

Acc. to a studywith progress in training capability, women powerlifters are in a position to lift heavier weights without leaking. An increase in urinary incontinence threshold and urinary leakage were only experienced at near or above their previous maximum lifts.

In addition to the full amount of weight lifted, some women reported that other aspects akin to body position during lifts provoked urinary incontinence. Body position while lifting a weight has been found to influence the quantity of intra-abdominal pressure, a phenomenon thought liable for leakage during physically exerting actions.

Intra-abdominal pressure also increases, through the tight powerlifting compression clothing utilized in competition, tight weightlifting belts, and Valsalva manoeuvre.

Alsobody position when it comes to lifting stance also makes a difference, as some women reported that sumo deadlifts, where the lifter has a wider stance in comparison with the standard deadlift, were more more likely to provoke urinary incontinence.

On top of thatexercises which don’t place downwards pressure on the pelvic floor, generally don’t cause urinary incontinence, despite of lifting very heavy in those lifts, like bench press.

Another issue which might result in urinary incontinence is pelvic floor muscle fatigue. In a studyparticipants reported that fatigue provoked urinary incontinence in the event that they weren’t well rested before a training session, their sets were long and/or heavy and if individual lifts were difficult and slow. Most women experienced leakage during high repetition sets, especially at the tip of heavy sets, indicating that not only the quantity of weight lifted and body position but additionally fatigue played a component within the provocation of urinary incontinence in powerlifters. One reason fatigue contributes to urinary incontinence in women athletes is that girls training at a competitive level could have a stronger pelvic floor than non-trained women but less pelvic floor muscle endurance.