What Every Clinician Should Know About Pelvic Health in Sport

Overview

This Embodia course with Michelle Lyons provides a comprehensive, evidence-informed approach to pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) and urinary leakage management in female athletes. Moving beyond isolated Kegels, the course integrates pelvic floor rehabilitation with global strength training, hip conditioning, load management, hormonal considerations, and lifespan-specific care.

Participants will explore how high-impact sport, recovery strategies, postpartum hormonal shifts, and menopause influence pelvic floor resilience and lower urinary tract symptoms. The course emphasizes neuromuscular coordination strategies such as “the knack,” individualized return-to-sport planning, and a biopsychosocial model of care.

Designed for clinicians working with active women across the lifespan, this course supports practical, performance-focused, and person-centered pelvic health care.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the role of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in preventing and managing stress urinary incontinence in athletes

2. Teach and apply “the knack” to train automatic pelvic floor activation during impact

3. Integrate pelvic floor rehabilitation with global strength and resistance training

4. Assess the influence of hip mobility and strength (rotation, abduction, extension) on pelvic floor function

5. Apply load management and recovery principles to reduce stress urinary incontinence risk

6. Develop individualized return-to-running strategies for postpartum athletes

7. Address pelvic health considerations during menopause using a biopsychosocial framework

8. Incorporate adjunct strategies such as pessaries, compression garments, footwear optimization, and nutritional considerations

Audience

This course is designed for musculoskeletal physiotherapists and all clinicians who work with active women and female athletes - from recreational exercisers to elite competitors.

It will be especially valuable for:

• Sports physiotherapists and athletic therapists seeking to integrate pelvic health into performance and injury prevention.

• Pelvic health physiotherapists interested in expanding their understanding of sport-specific demands.

• Clinicians in orthopaedics, women’s health, and exercise science who want to better support female patients through all life stages—menstrual, maternal, and perimenopausal.

• Trainers, coaches, and other movement professionals looking to identify when referral to a pelvic health specialist may be appropriate.

No prior experience in pelvic health is required - just curiosity and a commitment to improving care for active women.

Why This Course Matters

Urinary leakage remains highly prevalent - and significantly underreported - among female athletes. Despite strong evidence supporting pelvic floor muscle training, dysfunction is often underdiagnosed and undertreated.

This course highlights critical considerations including:

• The effectiveness of PFMT combined with global strength training

• The role of hip mobility and strength in reducing lower urinary tract symptoms

• The importance of recovery and load management (e.g., high-intensity running >5 days/week increases risk)

• Hormonal influences in postpartum recovery and breastfeeding-related genitourinary symptoms

• The musculoskeletal and pelvic health impact of menopause

• The value of a biopsychosocial, individualized treatment approach

Rather than isolating pelvic floor strength, this course reframes pelvic health as an integrated system influenced by training load, energy availability, hormonal shifts, inflammation, fatigue, hypermobility, and scarring.

For clinicians working with athletic women, this knowledge is essential for prevention, performance optimization, and long-term pelvic health resilience.