Episode #8: Peeing & Powerlifting | The Truth About Powerlifting Specific Urinary Incontinence Causes & Management

Wondering why you pee when you lift weights? Or are you working with a powerlifter who may be experiencing incontinence when they’re training?

Powerlifting Urinary Incontinence is a specific type of athletic incontinence experienced by women (or men!) only when they are barbell training.

In this episode of the PRS Podcast, Dr. Rori Alter, PT, and Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, discuss the specific condition of Powerlifting Urinary Incontinence that affects 74% of female powerlifters between the ages of 18 and 35 with no other risk factors for or symptoms of incontinence outside of barbell training.

Unfortunately, peeing when you powerlift (or even pooping your pants - the male equivalent) has become something considered “normal,” but it’s anything but normal.

Listen to this episode of the PRS Podcast to learn why peeing when you lift weights needs to be addressed from a programming, mechanical, and mental/emotional standpoint to reduce the risks of poor progress, injury, or cessation of training in those who experience training related incontinence symptoms.

This episode breaks down the three contributing factors to sport-specific Powerlifting Urinary Incontinence and how you can address them without the time and emotional burden of traditional pelvic floor physical therapy.

Disclaimer: Powerlifting Urinary Incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine only during barbell training. For individuals experiencing incontinence both inside and outside of training, a comprehensive pelvic health evaluation should be obtained by a qualified physical therapist. Book a free consultation here with one of the PRS Clinical Coaches to discuss your symptoms and recommendations for treatment and management.

Show Note Links:

Technique Article 1: https://bit.ly/3cpUh5K
Technique Article 2: https://bit.ly/3zBezAV
Fatigue Management In Powerlifting: https://bit.ly/3T2htrx

Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC : [00:00:36] Welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rori Alter, head clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength, with my lovely co-host Dr. Alyssa Haveson, also a clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength. And today, we are going to discuss a topic that we are extremely passionate about and have both had personal experience with in different capacities, which have led us on a path to work with women in powerlifting who experienced this issue as well. And in today's podcast, we will be talking about powerlifting urinary incontinence, and we will talk about why this is different from traditional urinary incontinence in the way that you might have heard about it. But first, let's talk about urinary incontinence and why we're talking about it today. So, generally speaking, urinary incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine due to stress, urgency, functional issues that you may have with your hands or body, and neurological issues. Many different risk factors can lead to these different types of urinary incontinence. Including age, sex, parity (the number of pregnancies you've had), obesity, diabetes, changes in hormones over time, and history of abdominal or pelvic abdominal surgeries or conditions. Also, different types of medications that you've been on, injuries to the hip, low back, or pelvic region, neurological damage, and many other medical conditions can contribute to the risk factors for urinary incontinence.

Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC : [00:02:23] So, urinary incontinence affects many people, not just athletes. Generally speaking, studies show about 51% of females over the age of 20 experience incontinence in some capacity. Among males over the age of 20, about 14% of them experience incontinence in some capacity. So when we remove parity, the risk factor that increases urinary incontinence after having children or after being pregnant, looking at nulliparous adolescents and middle-aged women, who again haven't had any pregnancies or deliveries, we're looking at about 20% of those women experiencing urinary incontinence. Now, when we look at urinary incontinence in the female athlete population, the range is about 11% to 80%. That's because it depends on the sport, the requirements and demands of the sport on the person's body. So we see such a wide range in the athletic population because all sports affect the pelvic floor differently. So when we're just looking at stress and urinary incontinence, it's about 44% across all sports. But again, that's not looking at individual sports. It's just looking at the athletic female athletic population as a whole. So just to discuss what athletic incontinence is, athletic incontinence is a specific condition that occurs in young nulliparous women only when they're participating in their sport.

Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC : [00:04:03] Therefore, it needs to be evaluated and treated differently than other categories of urinary incontinence. Before we dive into powerlifting specifically, I want to talk about one thing that we see in and out of the powerlifting community that people say. I think it's a little bit more prevalent than powerlifters do this. We tend to laugh it off, saying, "Oh, it's normal. Everybody pees," but it's not normal; it's common. So when we look at these numbers, we're seeing that tons of people experience incontinence, but it's not something that you should live with or be dealing with regularly. And there's something that we can do about it. So there's a difference between common versus normal. And I think as powerlifting becomes more popular, we will see more females participate in the sport regularly. We're seeing it more in competition and gyms at higher and higher levels. And there are so many things that can happen because of it. And I think that the biggest concern for me from a coaching, athletic, and rehab perspective is that people think it's normal. They don't see it as a problem because everybody has it or sees a lot of it around.

Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC : [00:05:34] They're not addressing it and doing anything about it. And when we don't do anything about it, it can turn into an injury of the pelvic floor or a longer-term, bigger problem that we have to do something to address outside of the sport of powerlifting or outside of programming and technique. And then the other thing is it leads to I think a lot of people experience shame and embarrassment, and they start to develop anxiety when training and don't want to train.

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Web: https://www.progressiverehabandstrength.com

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