Ways To Manage Leaking and Prolapse Symptoms While Running
At Kin we know that you are more than your pelvic floor.
Exercise is essential for good cardiovascular, gut health, brain health and bone health.
We want to try and keep you moving and feel confident with movement.
So here are our top tips for managing symptoms while running.
Try to avoid holding your pelvic floor while running.
You are likely going to be bulging through tummy which will increase pressure downwards on your pelvic floor increasing your symptoms, not decreasing them.
Cadence.
Cadence is the amount of steps that you take per minute. It doesn’t have anything to do with pace, just how quickly you are turning your legs over. Runners ideally will sit around the 170-180. If you run with your watch this is something they will commonly measure. If not, it is something we are able to measure this in clinic on our treadmill in Geelong.
How does this change symptoms?
The more steps you take, the less time you spend on the ground, the less force that goes down into the pelvis.
Ditch the headphones and listen to your feet.
If you are sounding heavy, try to think lighter steps. Similar to above, if you are landing with increased force it will place more pressure onto your bladder, pelvic organs and your pelvic floor.
Check your ankle mobility.
This sounds like a funny thing to check but stay with me. If you have less mobility through your feet and ankle, this means that it is less able to accept force from the ground. Your pelvic floor then has to help absorb some of the shock from the ground.
Make sure you have good thoracic mobility.
This is for a couple of reasons. We want to be able to rotate the body over the planted leg while running to help transfer force. We also know that the nerves that help us hold onto wee come from the thoracic spine. If we are feeling stiff and sore through the mid back this can impact how well those nerves are firing and possibly lead to increased leaking.
Get a proper pelvic floor assessment!
Some runners who have pelvic floor symptoms will start kegels thinking it will be the answer. However, for a lot of young active women we tend to have the opposite problem. Aka a pelvic floor that is too tight. And if these women start kegels it is likely to make their symptoms worse.
By getting a proper assessment from your women’s health physio they will be able to tailor an appropriate home exercise program to you.
