Is this the right place? Trampolining and pelvic floor (or lack of it [grin])

[flamingobingo]

I've been doing trampolining on my parents' trampoline, with my dad coaching me and it is so, so fab! Great fun and really good exercise.

But.......I have to wear a pad. My pelvic floor isn't that bad, considering I've had 4 DCs, but it obviously isn't strong enough to cope with trampolining.

Will trampolining knacker it even more? Or will it actually help strengthen it? Or neither?

I do pelvic floor exercises already, btw .

And so long as it doesn't make it worse, I will continue trampolining with a pad in, because I love it so much I don't care about the leaking

I had pelvic floor problems when I started exercising after having my ds 2. I found skipping hard and running up and down the stairs but I stopped just before any accidents occured. Things did get better and I could skip and run without any problems. I would take it easy, 5 mins, then off for a while then up it when you're feeling more comfy.

Do your pelvic floor clenches as you jump.

hate to say it but it gets worse IMHO

coco, no idea if it is just me, but trying to do pelvic floor clenches while jumping or running actually makes things worse for me.

I need to go to the GP about mine tho, as mine has not improved at all since my last appointment about it 3yrs ago.

Psychomum I got TVT done in August and it's changed my life, I can sneeze without having to cross my legs

oh, the thought of being able to do that is heavenly!!

what do they do?? and how do they assess you for proper need??

I got a referal to gyynae and told them that I had stress and urge incontinence, they did a test to check that it is stress incontinence and not an overactive bladder and that was that.

One thing I found strange, the gynae Dr asked was I taking any medication for it, I said no, It had never been mentioned to me, even though I had been to my GP loads of times.. She gave me vesicare which 'dries' you up a bit. The urge incontinence can get worse after TVT, I still take Vesicare.

I think it sounds like you need to get checked out to see if there's a fixable problem...

I had a 3rd degree tear after ds 2 and incontinence (bowel and bladder) I had to cross my legs when sneezing/coughing and laughing to much could result in disaster! I found the pelvic floor exercises quite uncomfortable (like I was going to wet myself)

For me exercise taken at a very slow pace really helped but other posters have said it hasn't so I really do think it's a medical problem thing were all repairable/fixable/treatable issues need to be adressed.

I am 33 weeks prgt with ds 3 and are having problems again which I know will need to be looked at once the baby is delivered.

My consultant with ds 2 said that high impact exercise isn't great for pelvic floors that are weak -is trampolining high impact sorry, don't know!

i've just looked up my physiotherapy in obs and gynae textbook (2004)
it says that,
"as a general principle, if an activity causes leakage the patient should discontinue it and maybe with treatment it can be resumed later"

there is medication??

I have never been offered any either!

mind you, the time mine was checked, was all at the same time as me being referred for my endo, and as I needed so much done from that point of view, I think we all (I certainly did) hoped that the endo surgery would be enough to help.

they gave me tips on how to help (ie, clenching, not drinking too much caffeine as it is an irritant), but TBH, nothing has helped, and now I am fretful all the time of an accident or running, jumping, sneezing etc.

tis the embarrassment factor as well, altho talking on here seems not to be getting to me .....

one thing tho, tis nice to know it is fairly common (well, not rare at least), and I am not alone

I went after my first DD and it wasn't too bad, after DD2 it just got worse. I had a slight prolasp, but also varicus veins on my womb(sorry if TMI!)which would swell up with my period pushing everything down I had the womb ablation with the TVT.

I always had too wear a pad, I was a bit narked at nobody mentioning the tablets to me TBH.

Sorry about crap spelling, I'm having a dumb moment

psychomum5 - I am with you on the embarassment factor... I absolutely HATE talking about it but personal trainer was lovely and even said he's had one lady completely wet herself due to not wanting to tell him of her pelvic floor problems.

I hate having to lean on a wall or chair if I need to sneeze or just really bend over to make sure there is no leakage. I was fine before I had ds 1!!! (Damn that child )

well, am convinving myself to go get sorted.

mind you, my GP will get so tired of seeing me soon......everything seems to be going worng with me at the moment.

ooh, there;s a thought. I have had three urine infections already this year since xmas..........could they be being made worse due to my continence issues??

oh, and so sorry for the hijack flamingo

Wow! What a great thread - thank you

Don't worry about all about the hijack psycho - it was a very helpful one

I think I will keep doing it, and maybe use the fact I'm doing trampolining to motivate me to do plenty of pelvic floor exercises in the meantime.

Mine gets worse when I cough/sneeze if I don't do the exercises and gets dramatically better when I do do them. But I think trampolining just is too much impact for me

Can't possibly think about clenching my pelvic floor muscle and getting a good enough bounce to do seat drops etc. (and show off that I can do a swivel hips and my dad (my coach) can't ).

I think I'll just continue with using a pad and do plenty of pelvic floor exercises the rest of the time, and make sure I do loads when I'm doing things like running etc.

I'm a physio in women's health - and, yep, some sports are just not good for your pelvic floor.

From memory - something like 78% of elite trampolinists have stress incontinence. Gymnastics, running and athletics are also fairly grim. 25% of women aged 15-35 wet themselves during sport.

The problem is that the bounce generates a lot of intra-abdominal pressure, and if your muscles are too weak - you'll leak.

It's a scourge - a third of women aged 35-55 wet themselves. A third!

The good news is that 85% of simple stress incontinence can be cured by doing pelvic floor exercises and 5 sessions with a physio.

If you look at my profile you'll find a link to my (amateurish) website - I'm trying not to fall foul of advertising - there's a page about the exercises on there.

I use twitter as a training tool - @gussiegrips "I tweet, you twitch your twinkle"

I'm trying to get this into the mainstream, speaking with our governing body and trying to get mumsnet to run continence as a campaign. Meanwhile, I'm about to do a Fringe run with a comedy show about continence (erm, seemed like a good idea at the time) - imaginatively entitled, Gusset Grippers. I'm hoping ot get some publicity, it's public health stuff disguised as scatological humour...

Now, to answer your immediate problem...there is some new evidence from the States saying that women participating in impact sports should use internal support.

Many runners use tampons to wodge everything up there and keep themselves leak-free.

www.incostress.com is a silicone version of that, it's got good evidence behind it and it does work. I don't represent the company, it costs about £30 and is resusable.

There is another gadget, contrelle activeguard which desmit systems sell, think they are about £50 for 30.

The best thing you can do is get an assessment. Ask your GP for a referral to a women's health physio, or find one privately. Don't put up with it - most cases can be cured, you've just got to do the exercises.

Oh, found the research - 80% of trampolinists. I'm rather impressed by my memory! trampolining paper

contrelle doodah

incostress