Acute effect of resistance exercise performed at different intensities on urine loss in older women

Introduction To evaluate the acute effect of resistance exercise performed at different intensities (moderate and vigorous) on urine loss in older women with mixed and stress urinary incontinence. Methods The total of 16 older women with urinary incontinence underwent 2 sessions of resistance exercises involving different muscle groups. In a balanced crossover design, 1 of the 2 exercise intensities (12 or 6 repetitions maximum, RM) was applied in each session. The pad test was used to assess urine loss in the 2 sessions, with a weight increase of 2 g as the criterion. Differences in the pad test results between the sessions were compared with the use of the Wilcoxon test. Results The mean pad weight was 0.69 ± 0.94 g at the intensity of 12RM and 0.50 ± 0.53 g at 6RM. In accordance with the cut-off adopted (2 g), only 2 of the 16 women lost urine. No significant difference in the pad test results (p = 0.975) was observed between the 2 resistance exercise intensities. Conclusions Resistance exercise performed at different intensities (moderate and vigorous) did not cause urine loss in older women with urinary incontinence.