Those Pesky Double Unders

During our stay in Santa Cruz we had the opportunity to visit several CrossFit gyms along the way. They all truly give you a sense of community, welcoming, and a non-intimidating environment. We leave  with a feeling of "We love what we do." Our latest visit was to Santa Cruz CrossFit Central. We got some great coaching working on our clean and jerks, thanks to coach Annie Sakamoto. If you visit their website articles of interest are available for you to read. I would recommend visiting their site and taking a look.

One particular article that I thought I would share is the pesky double under problem - however it is not about jumping rope but rather urinary leakage that occurs us to dash to the bathroom during our jump rope attempts.

What happens?  Jumping rope, a hard cough, laugh, or sneeze causes a sudden increase in pressure within the abdomen and simultaneous contraction of the abdominal wall and the diaphragm.  These events move the abdominal contents downwards, displacing the angle between the urethra and the bladder-neck by about 10 mm—enough to cause

leakage of urine in women and men with weak pelvic floor muscles. In people with strong pelvic floor muscles, this increased intra-abdominal pressure results in stretch resistance of the big pelvic floor muscle (the levator ani).  The result is that the pressure in the urethra is suddenly more than that in the bladder, successfully keeping the urethra

closed ‒ perfect, as it was meant to be!  However, this sequence can be defeated by weak pelvic muscles.  The way you are physically training, could you possibly have a weak muscle fiber any place in your body?

What happens?  Jumping rope, a hard cough, laugh, or sneeze causes a sudden increase in pressure within the abdomen and simultaneous contraction of the abdominal wall and the diaphragm.  These events move the abdominal contents downwards, displacing the angle between the urethra§ and the bladder-neck by about 10 mm—enough to cause leakage of urine in women and men with weak pelvic floor muscles.1  In people with strong pelvic floor muscles, this increased intra-abdominal pressure results in stretch resistance of the big pelvic floor muscle (the levator ani).  The result is that the pressure in the urethra is suddenly more than that in the bladder, successfully keeping the urethra closed ‒ perfect, as it was meant to be!  However, this sequence can be defeated by weak pelvic muscles.  The way you are physically training, could you possibly have a weak muscle fiber any place in your body?

Although more common in mulitparous women or in older women who haven't had children, One article claims stress incontinence to be a factor in more than a quarter of college athletes when participating in sports.  An uncontrolled study of 1,956 men and women aged 60 who were interviewed in their homes in Washtenaw County, Michigan reported the prevalence of urinary incontinence at 19% of the men and 38% of the women.

So how can this be prevented? Not just for women. The Kegel exercises are the same for men and women. Identify the correct muscles.

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