Many parents don’t allow their daughters to jump on trampolines because the activity is thought to increase the risk of urinary incontinence in old age. But is this the case?
Urinary incontinence is a common problem in women after age 40, characterized by leakage of urine in small amounts. Although it doesn’t pose a serious threat to their health, it’s so unpleasant that many women stop taking part in various sporting activities.
And unfortunately, in recent years there has been an increasing number of articles that scare many parents into believing that jumping is bad for girls during childhood because it’s thought to cause incontinence as they get older. So what’s the problem?
Jumping on a trampoline indeed exposes the pelvic floor to significant forces. When you bounce, gravity naturally brings you down and all the strain falls heavily on the pelvic floor muscles. If these aren’t strong enough, they can no longer cope with the load they’re supposed to support, which results in urine leakage.
However, this is also true for nearly all other sports, and many women also leak urine when sneezing, laughing, and engaging in other everyday activities. But does this mean that weakened pelvic floor muscles are the result of jumping on trampolines in childhood?
We don’t know of any cases where weakened pelvic floor muscles were due to jumping on trampolines. However, there are many cases of pelvic floor muscles weakening due to pregnancy, childbirth, hormonal changes associated with menopause, and weight gain.
A study in Sweden of young female professional trampoline jumpers found that minor urine leakage did indeed occur occasionally when jumping. However, the activity itself doesn’t weaken pelvic floor muscles and thus causes incontinence.
Another independent study compared pelvic floor muscle strength between professional female athletes and untrained women. It showed that the pelvic floor muscles of female athletes were 5% stronger than those of untrained women. Although this isn’t a significant difference, it’s enough to conclude that pelvic floor muscle strength doesn’t deteriorate with sporting activity and trampolining and cannot be the cause of incontinence either in the short or long term.
Some studies have shown that regular practice of "fitness jumping" actually improves the strength of the pelvic floor muscles. In one study, researchers were interested in the possibility of using just this exercise to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles of women who are already experiencing urinary incontinence.
After eight weeks of regular, systematic "fitness jumping" training, it was found that the strength of the pelvic floor muscle activation increased in both the contraction and relaxation phases. Unfortunately, nine months after the last training session, the pelvic floor muscle activity returned to its original state.
Very few people know the real cause of urinary incontinence problems in women after the age of 40. Unfortunately, this has also led to the emergence of many who are uninformed yet still vocal about the issue and would like to stop girls from using trampolines. But is this the right solution to urinary incontinence?
We have found that urinary incontinence is caused by weakened pelvic floor muscles, which over the years become weak due to factors completely unrelated to jumping on trampolines. It’s even been shown that physically fit women who regularly jump and skip have stronger pelvic floor muscles, and this prevents or even eliminates incontinence.
So should we ban girls from jumping on trampolines? The answer is absolutely clear: there’s no need to ban trampolining, because this would do more harm than good to girls – something that no parent wants.