Exercise and Perimenopause Part 1: Why the hell am I wetting my pants when I skip?
The day I wet my pants while skipping
I was at a bit of a loss for some exercise to do on that pandemic morning.
My gym was closed, and I had run the day before – I never run on consecutive days.
Of the myriad choices I had from my PT kit, I chose the skipping rope that I’d only recently purchased.
If I’m going to include skipping in my clients’ programs, then I should do some skipping myself was my thinking.
I grabbed the rope and went for a short walk to a nearby park for a quick cardio workout.
Oh dear!
Just as I was thinking how great I was to be a fit 50-something year old, wee started leaking from my bladder as I skipped.
I could only skip for a few seconds before it started to flow, but I persisted because I was determined to complete at least two rounds of Tabata (a type of 4 minute interval training).
The crotch of my undies and tights ended up very damp.
Thanks to my penchant for wearing dark coloured exercise tights, my accident was not obvious. I still had to walk home in my wet pants.
What the hell just happened?
I’d heard of ‘light bladder leakage’ and stress incontinence, but I only associated it with a weak pelvic floor due to pregnancy and childbirth.
I clearly had a problem with my pelvic floor but was in real denial because I have never been pregnant/given birth.
Denial and shame
Apart from the initial denial, I also felt ashamed.
I thought I was a freak and wondered why this had happened to me.
Surely my pelvic floor muscles should be conditioned through my disciplined strength and core training.
This is not my only problem ‘down there’
I am a practitioner of the ‘just in case’ wee.
Scarred by the experience of wetting my pants, I started to empty my bladder whenever I had the chance – just in case.
My pelvic floor had let me down before, so I tried to help it by making sure my bladder was empty before I left the house to do anything.
If I came across a toilet when I was out, I’d avail myself even if I had no urge – just in case.
Many women tell me similar stories
I’ve started to share my very personal story of incontinence and just in case weeing with the women in my life since I learned that these are all-too-common experiences.
Most women relate back similar stories with different movements – joining the kids on a trampoline or bouncy castle, sneezing or coughing, lifting, jumping exercises.
It also turns out that I’m not the sole member of the ‘just in case’ wee club.
Sadly, there is an acceptance that leaking and needing to wee a lot is just part of being a woman, especially after having a baby.
Leaking wee is COMMON, but it is NOT NORMAL
It seems that leaking wee has become normalised because it is so common.
The problem here is that women stop doing things they need and want to do.
Skipping is a fun and very effective exercise, and I would like to do it regularly, but I packed away my rope and stuck with other things that don’t make me leak.
I still had options, but what if there are lots of physical activities that precipitate leaking?
You might just stop exercising altogether, and many women do.
Since exercise is vital for health and wellbeing, inactivity is simply an unacceptable solution.
Help is at hand
The great news is that help is available, and we do not have to live with leaking.
A pelvic health physiotherapist is a highly trained professional who can diagnose and treat incontinence.
I’ll share my experience of consulting a pelvic health physio and how they helped me in a future post.
I did not learn about the pelvic floor in my PT course
You might think that a common muscular dysfunction that can manifest itself during exercise would be part of the foundational education for fitness professionals, but this is not the case at all.
I learned exactly NOTHING about the pelvic floor in my PT course.
This is because pelvic floor problems mostly affect women and fitness education is largely based on research carried out on fit young men.
I’m appalled that I have been training female clients – and myself for that matter – with such a large gap in my knowledge.
Ongoing education
In August 2021, just a few months after I completed my Certificate IV, I signed up for a webinar on training considerations for perimenopause and menopausal women by Michelle (Mish) Wright.
The topic caught my attention as a 54 year old menopausal woman who trains a lot, and as a new personal trainer focussed on over 50s with mostly female clients.
I leaned heaps from that webinar and became a huge fan of Mish, immediately subscribing to follow her work.
EVEolution™
Since then, Mish has released a wonderful course devoted to exercise considerations for women through all ages and stages of life – EVEolution™.
Working through the course, I’ve realised how much I didn’t learn in my Certificate IV.
I now know that pelvic floor dysfunction can have multiple contributing factors, including hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause, and I did not have to deny my problem because I’ve never had a baby.
I train myself and, more importantly, my perimenopause and menopausal women clients with more consideration to our specific needs during this time of life.
I’m still learning and will be a much better personal trainer as my knowledge grows.
Keep in touch
Please reach out to me if anything in this article resonates with you.
You can email me at [email protected] or connect via social media.