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Our collaborator Miriam Sanchez tells us on this occasion the importance of pelvic floor care in women athletes
We all know that cuidar the biomechanics of the gesture of the foot race it is important for any runner, to avoid injuries, to run better, to perform more ... And this becomes even more important in women due to the Anatomical differences that make up the pelvis, and that cause a different biomechanical behavior because of that difference that makes us pay much more attention to the Pelvic floor care in women.
In a very basic and summarized way, the pelvic floor is the back of the perineum, with a dome shape (two domes, one in each half of the body) whose function is cushion the impact of the viscera that are inside the pelvis. This damping function has a special relevance in the women who practice impact sports, such as running on foot in the triathlon, since the forces that are exerted on this area in the support phase of the race multiply considerably, weakening and causing problems in the pelvic floor if its force tone is not adequate or the biomechanics is incorrect and we provoke the forces outside the appropriate axes.
Evidently There are many more factors that can affect the pelvic floor in women, such as pregnancy and childbirth, constipation, overweight, bad postures repeatedly (outside of sport), the use of belts continuously ... but in this article we will focus only on what refers to the subject of the sport itself.
And a weak pelvic floor that problems or symptoms can cause?
We can mainly find problems of Urinary incontinence during the realization of activities, genital prolapse, constipation, weakness of the abdominal girdle with problems of lumbar spine association, sexual dysfunctions .... Problems that usually talk little but that can become important, and especially considering that it is estimated that an 20% of women over a certain age have problems of this type, although they do not go to any type of specialist to try to solve it.
The biomechanical analysis of the running technique helps us to find out what factors related to running are influencing a runner to be injured more or less, or repeatedly, in addition to helping us to make runners more efficient over time. and therefore with a higher performance in terms of training.
As far as women and pelvic floor are concerned, we will focus on analyze the parameters that cause a greater or excessive impact towards these structures, to correct it through the retraining of the career technique if necessary.
In a basic way in women it is necessary to pay attention to three essential points that influence the impact on the lower pelvic area:
Although you have to take into account many other factors and of course individualize each case, taking into account and correcting these biomechanical points can help a lot to take care of the pelvic floor.
The most important thing is preventively or when there is a problem, always consult a specialist in urogynecology, and when the problem is defined, there are also physiotherapists specialized in urogynecology who can help to recover and improve many of the pathologies of this type.
How? Reinforcing the pelvic floor through the use of electrotherapy, perineal balls, treatment with INDIBA, with special devices or pelvic belts, hypopressive abdominal gymnastics ... Regarding the latter, now that it seems that this type of strengthening is becoming “fashionable”, hypopressive exercises are one of the best methods to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, and they can help manage and solve many gynecological problems if performed on an ongoing basis.
Therefore, for women who perform a sport that involves running, it is important to pay attention to the health of the pelvic floor, since the impact can weaken and deteriorate it. But the good thing is that it is easy to take care of and solve problems when they appear, we just have to be aware of taking care of this part of the body, and eliminate many of the taboos that exist on this topic.
Mariam Sánchez
Further information: institutoinnova.net