Review of Julie Wiebe's Female Athlete Webinar
Those of you who know me, and news to those who don't...I have a teeny (big!) obsession with research. I love it. I also love finding out how crappy I have been in the past at reading research well. Yes, I did previously just read the abstract. And yes, I always skipped the methods section and why would you read anything to do with math? Math is so not practical (learning how wrong I am every day and wishing I didn't need my 7 year old to teach me math strategies). Now that I am learning how to critically read research papers, I have realised not to take a lot of information at face value. And that sometimes they trick you with their wording to make it sound extra special, when in fact the results were crap.
Unfortunately in our field of pelvic health, we just can't get enough subjects to allow us to invasively assess them or we haven't developed tools equipped enough to give us the info we want. So a lot of our research has to be taken with a grain of salt. But every little bit gives us at least some information to think about.
This lack of quality research is one of the reasons we don't know what the special "fix" is for treating incontinence and/or prolapse in every woman (especially highly active women), along with the fact that every person is so individual that it's really difficult to research one idea and apply it to a group of women and expect the treatment strategy to work in 100% of them.
Julie Wiebe is one of those great physiotherapists that has a knack (haha, anyone get that!?) for reading into research details, gathering info from each paper and using what she can to implement educational and treatment strategies to help women, especially those wanting to continue being fit and active.
Her webinar "Female Athletes: Ready for Impact?" is a great 2.5 hour explanation into the research defining prevalence of urinary incontinence in female athletes, the role of the anticipatory core in movement as well as the role of posture on breathing and pelvic floor mechanics. She continues to explain research support into the role of impact on the pelvic floor and how we, as physiotherapists, can have a role in mitigating these pressures using alignment and breath.
The second hour includes a great case study of a CrossFit client of hers. Stop shaking your heads. CrossFit is here to stay and it's not as bad as some of you think (watch this space for more on that topic soon).
Her simple cues for alignment and breath are small changes we can all give to our clients. I find often, these small but important details are overlooked when treating the pelvic floor dysfunctions. Some can be too quick to go down south and completely forget about the rest of the body, whilst others can make things over complicated confusing both patient and professional.
I think this webinar is great for any professional dealing with clients who have urinary incontinence and want to stay or become fit and active.
*Update - Yes, I do receive an affiliate payment if you purchase through my link but I only support what I truly believe in.
To purchase, just click here: Female Athletes - Ready For Impact?
Enjoy!
Lori Forner
