NCT06626841

Assessment of Pelvic Floor Strength Variables in Female Nulliparous Athletes

A Functional Fitness Training Workout Significantly Affects Pelvic Floor Strength and Muscle Activation in Female Nulliparous Athletes

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 23 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universidad Politecnica de Madrid · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Functional Fitness Training (FFT) is a modality that seeks to improve physical fitness and performance within several functional tasks by conducting a variety of training activities such as aerobic and metabolic conditioning, resistance training, and high impact exercises. Although there are many benefits of FFT for improving fitness and body composition, their effects on the pelvic floor are not clear, as high-impact exercises performed in FFT have been shown to cause an increase in intra-abdominal pressure. When these exercises are performed repeatedly, fatigue can occur within the pelvic floor muscles (PFM), which can increase the risk of developing pelvic floor dysfunctions. However, currently little is known about how FFT activities acutely affect the PFM and whether such training regimes may contribute to long-term urinary incontinence in female FFT athletes. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the acute effects of a FFT.workout on pelvic floor strength and muscle activation in nulliparous female FFT athletes. It is hypothesized that both strength and PFM activation of the female athletes would be reduced after a FFT workout due to PFM fatigue.

Conditions

• Pelvic Floor Muscle Weakness
• Strength
• Muscle Tone

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Pelvic floor muscles contractile capacity and activation	An initial assessment of the pelvic floor is carried out when athletes arrive at the facility. Participants then complete a FFT workout, which consists of performing as many rounds as possible (AMRAP type) of 20 wallballs, 15 box jumps, and 10 burpees within 15 minutes. These plyometrics and load lifting exercises are chosen to fatigue the PFM and are simple to execute. The pelvic floor assessment is performed again at 3 minutes following the FFT workout. Measurements of the pelvic floor parameters are conducted by a specialist physiotherapist. The muscle activation and strength of the PFM are obtained using a vaginal dynamometer (i.e. pelvimeter probe fixed at a vertex with two arms that can be separated by up to 25°), connected to the Phenix USB2, Vivaltis (Pelvimètre Phenix, Vivaltis).

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-04-21
• Primary completion: 2023-06-03
• Completion: 2023-06-03
• First posted: 2024-10-04
• Last updated: 2024-10-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain