Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Stress urinary incontinence is more prevalent among women practicing CrossFit® than swimming and not diminished by physical inactivity Cover

Stress urinary incontinence is more prevalent among women practicing CrossFit® than swimming and not diminished by physical inactivity

Open Access
|Mar 2026

References

  1. Almeida, M. B., Barra, A. A., Saltiel, F., Silva-Filho, A. L., Fonseca, A. M., & Figueiredo, E. M. (2016). Urinary incontinence and other pelvic floor dysfunctions in female athletes in Brazil: A cross-sectional study. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 26(9), 1109–1116. doi: 10.1111/sms.12546.
  2. Avery, K., Donovan, J., Peters, T. J., Shaw, C., Gotoh, M., & Abrams, P. (2004). ICIQ: A brief and robust measure for evaluating the symptoms and impact of urinary incontinence. Neurourology and Urodynamics, 23(4), 322–330. doi: 10.1002/nau.20041.
  3. Bo, K., & Nygaard, I. E. (2020). Is physical activity good or bad for the female pelvic floor? A narrative review. Sports Medicine, 50(3), 471–484. doi: 10.1007/s40279-019-01243-1.
  4. Dominguez-Antuna, E., Diz, J. C., Suarez-Iglesias, D., & Ayan, C. (2023). Prevalence of urinary incontinence in female CrossFit athletes: A systematic review with meta-analysis. International Urogynecology Journal, 34(3), 621–634. doi: 10.1007/s00192-022-05244-z.
  5. Dornowski, M., Makar, P., Sawicki, P., Wilczynska, D., Vereshchaka, I., & Ossowski, Z. (2019). Effects of low- vs high-volume swimming training on pelvic floor muscle activity in women. Biology of Sport, 36(1), 95–99. doi: 10.5114/biolsport.2018.78909.
  6. Eickmeyer, S. M. (2017). Anatomy and physiology of the pelvic floor. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, 28(3), 455–460. doi: 10.1016/j.pmr.2017.03.003.
  7. Elks, W., Jaramillo-Huff, A., Barnes, K. L., Petersen, T. R., & Komesu, Y. M. (2020). The stress urinary incontinence in CrossFit (SUCCeSS) study. Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, 26(2), 101–106. doi: 10.1097/SPV.0000000000000815.
  8. Forner, L. B., Beckman, E. M., & Smith, M. D. (2021). Do women runners report more pelvic floor symptoms than women in CrossFit(R)? A cross-sectional survey. International Urogynecology Journal, 32(2), 295–302. doi: 10.1007/s00192-020-04531-x.
  9. Gron Jensen, L. C., Boie, S., & Axelsen, S. (2022). International consultation on incontinence questionnaire - Urinary incontinence short form ICIQ-UI SF: Validation of its use in a Danish speaking population of municipal employees. PLoS One, 17(4), e0266479. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266479.
  10. Harland, N., Walz, S., Eberli, D., Schmid, F. A., Aicher, W. K., Stenzl, A., & Amend, B. (2023). Stress urinary incontinence: An unsolved clinical challenge. Biomedicines, 11(9), 2486. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11092486.
  11. Jin, X., Qiu, T., Li, L., Yu, R., Chen, X., Li, C., Proud, C. G., & Jiang, T. (2023). Pathophysiology of obesity and its associated diseases. Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 13(6), 2403–2424. doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2023.01.012.
  12. Kang, H. (2021). Sample size determination and power analysis using the G*Power software. Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 18, 17. doi: 10.3352/jeehp.2021.18.17.
  13. Kannel, W. B. (1979). Some health benefits of physical activity. Archives of Internal Medicine, 139(8), 857–861. doi: 10.1001/archinte.1979.03630450011006.
  14. Kopyra, K., Chomiuk, T., Kasiak, P., Mamcarz, A., & Śliż, D. (2024). Evaluation of stress urinary incontinence in physically active and childless Polish females: A cross-sectional study. Physiotherapy Quarterly, 32, 80–85. doi: 10.5114/pq/191514.
  15. Lavoie, J. M., & Montpetit, R. R. (1986). Applied physiology of swimming. Sports Medicine, 3(3), 165–189. doi: 10.2165/00007256-198603030-00002.
  16. Li, Q., Cheng, Y., Shi, H., Xue, K., & Zhou, F. (2023). Advances in the natural history of urinary incontinence in adult females. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 43(1), 2171774. doi: 10.1080/01443615.2023.2171774.
  17. Mahoney, K., Heidel, R. E., & Olewinski, L. (2023). Prevalence and normalization of stress urinary incontinence in female strength athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 37(9), 1877–1881. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004461.
  18. Meyer, J., Morrison, J., & Zuniga, J. (2017). The benefits and risks of CrossFit: A systematic review. Workplace Health and Safety, 65(12), 612–618. doi: 10.1177/2165079916685568.
  19. Milsom, I., & Gyhagen, M. (2019). The prevalence of urinary incontinence. Climacteric, 22(3), 217–222. doi: 10.1080/13697137.2018.1543263.
  20. Nygaard, I. E., & Heit, M. (2004). Stress urinary incontinence. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 104(3), 607–620. doi: 10.1097/01.AOG.0000137874.84862.94.
  21. Nygaard, I. E., & Shaw, J. M. (2016). Physical activity and the pelvic floor. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 214(2), 164–171. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2015.08.067.
  22. Nygaard, I. E., Shaw, J. M., Bardsley, T., & Egger, M. J. (2015). Lifetime physical activity and female stress urinary incontinence. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 213(1), 40 e41–40 e10. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2015.01.044.
  23. Pisani, G. K., Sato, T. O., de Carvalho, D. H. T., & Carvalho, C. (2022). Impact of urinary incontinence on quality of life in female CrossFit practitioners: A cross-sectional study. European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 268, 56–61. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.11.424.
  24. Rebullido, T. R., Gomez-Tomas, C., Faigenbaum, A. D., & Chulvi-Medrano, I. (2021). The prevalence of urinary incontinence among adolescent female athletes: A systematic review. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 6(1), 12. doi: 10.3390/jfmk6010012.
  25. Rubin, N., Cerentini, T. M., Schlottgen, J., do Nascimento Petter, G., Bertotto, A., La Verde, M., Gullo, G., Telles da Rosa, L. H., Viana da Rosa, P., & Della Mea Plentz, R. (2024). Urinary incontinence and quality of life in high-performance swimmers: An observational study. Health Care for Women International, 45(12), 1446–1455. doi: 10.1080/07399332.2023.2197861.
  26. Szczepańska, O., Chomiuk, T., & Permoda, A. (2021). Urinary incontinence in physically active women. Physiotherapy Review, 25(4), 19–37. doi: 10.5114/phr.2021.111808.
  27. Townsend, M. K., Danforth, K. N., Rosner, B., Curhan, G. C., Resnick, N. M., & Grodstein, F. (2008). Physical activity and incident urinary incontinence in middle-aged women. The Journal of Urology, 179(3), 1012–1016, discussion 1016–1017. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2007.10.058.
  28. Troup, J. P. (1999). The physiology and biomechanics of competitive swimming. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 18(2), 267–285. doi: 10.1016/s0278-5919(05)70143-5.
  29. von Elm, E., Altman, D. G., Egger, M., Pocock, S. J., Gotzsche, P. C., Vandenbroucke, J. P., & Initiative, S. (2007). The strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) statement: Guidelines for reporting observational studies. Lancet, 370(9596), 1453–1457. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61602-X.
  30. Wagener, S., Hoppe, M. W., Hotfiel, T., Engelhardt, M., Javanmardi, S., Baumgart, C., & Freiwald, J. (2020). CrossFit® – development, benefits and risks. Sports Orthopaedics and Traumatology, 36(3), 241–249. doi: 10.1016/j.orthtr.2020.07.001.
Language: English
Page range: 11 - 21
Submitted on: Aug 24, 2025
|
Accepted on: Feb 5, 2026
|
Published on: Mar 21, 2026
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Tomasz Chomiuk, Przemysław Kasiak, Kaja Czupryńska, Artur Mamcarz, Daniel Śliż, published by University of Physical Education in Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.