Leaking During Workouts or Runs? Why It Happens to Active Women

You’re mid-workout — jump rope, box jumps, a heavy squat, or the last mile of a run — and you feel it: a small leak. Maybe you’ve started wearing dark leggings just in case, skipping the jumping portion of class, or planning runs around bathroom stops. You’re far from alone. Leaking during exercise is common among active women, including young women who have never had children, and it’s one of the least talked-about reasons women change or quit the workouts they enjoy.

What’s Happening

The medical name is stress urinary incontinence. “Stress” here doesn’t mean emotional stress; it means physical pressure. When you jump, land, cough, laugh, or lift, pressure inside your abdomen spikes and pushes down on the bladder. Normally, the pelvic floor muscles and supporting tissues around the urethra tighten in time to hold everything in. When that support isn’t quite strong enough or fast enough, a little urine escapes.

Why Active Women Experience It

• High-impact activity. Running and jumping put repeated force on the pelvic floor, many times per minute.
• Heavy lifting and breath holding. Bracing hard during a lift drives pressure downward.
• Pregnancy and childbirth, even years ago, can stretch or weaken supporting tissue.
• Hormone changes in perimenopause and menopause, when lower estrogen affects the strength and elasticity of tissues around the bladder.
• A pelvic floor that’s tight, not weak. Some athletes have muscles that are overworked and fatigued, which can also lead to leaks.
• Chronic coughing, constipation, and straining.

It’s Common, But It’s Not Something You Have to Accept

Many women hear that leaking is just part of being a woman, having kids, or getting older. That message keeps a lot of women from asking about it. The truth is that leaks are a sign the support system isn’t keeping up with demand — and there are several ways to improve that support.

First Steps That Help

• Pelvic floor training. Learning to contract and relax the right muscles, at the right times, is the foundation. Many women benefit from working with a pelvic floor physical therapist, because doing these exercises correctly is harder than it sounds.
• Breathing and bracing technique. Coordinating your breath with lifts can reduce downward pressure.
• Gradual progression. Building up impact slowly gives tissues time to adapt.
• Managing constipation and chronic cough, which repeatedly strain the pelvic floor.
• Bladder habits. Emptying before a workout can help, but avoid going “just in case” so often that your bladder gets used to holding less.

When to Get Evaluated

Talk to a doctor if leaking is affecting your workouts or daily life, getting worse, or comes with pain, burning, blood in the urine, or frequent infections. An evaluation can confirm what type of leaking you have and rule out other causes, which matters because the right treatment depends on the type.

A Non-Surgical Option Worth Discussing

For women whose leaks come from weakened support around the bladder and vaginal tissue, Dr. Uchenne Mbaraonye offers EmpowerRF at Luckycharm Primary Care, an in-office, non-surgical treatment that uses radiofrequency energy to support the tissues involved. It’s typically considered alongside pelvic floor work rather than instead of it, and results vary from woman to woman — it isn’t the right fit for every type of leaking. But if you’ve been planning your workouts around leaks, it’s worth a private conversation to see whether it makes sense for you.

This article is for general education and isn’t a substitute for medical advice. If you have symptoms that are severe, sudden, or worrying, call 911 or seek emergency care.