Optimize Your Sprinting: How Does Pelvic Floor Function Affect Running Efficiency?

Hannah Giffune, PT, DPT
Registered Physiotherapist

Maybe you’re part of an adult indoor track league, or you like to throw in a 30-second sprint between sets at the gym. It makes you feel energized and strong, but there’s this little problem of leaking urine uncontrollably when you train, or, you have a hip injury that just won’t go away.

A study published in 2018 determined that women who are athletic had a 177% higher risk of presenting with urinary incontinence compared to sedentary women (Teixeira, 2018). Athletes tend to hesitate before bringing up these symptoms to providers, and will often quit the sport entirely rather than treating the condition (Syeda, 2024).

Today, we’ll explore how your pelvic floor connects to running efficiency and why understanding the kinetic chain can make a world of difference. The pelvic floor doesn’t just need strength, it relies on coordination and full-body support from above and below.

Sprinting power starts from the ground up, but efficiency begins with balance through the pelvis. When your trunk aligns over your hips and your lower limbs move symmetrically, your pelvic floor can manage force efficiently and support powerful, pain-free running.

What Role Does My Pelvic Floor Play in Sprinting?

Your pelvic floor sits at the base of your core system. It’s a group of muscles that stabilize your spine, hips, and pelvis. When you sprint, these muscles need to react quickly to changes in both force and pressure.

Quick Facts:

● The pelvic floor manages impact during sprinting.
● It works with your diaphragm, deep abdominals, and hips.
● Misalignment can lead to leakage, injuries, or decreased power.

Just like a shock absorber, it performs best when forces move straight up and down through it, not off-center.

How Can My Pelvic Floor Influence Running Efficiency?

Your pelvic floor will contract and relax to help absorb the impact that is a direct result of sprinting. It does this before the foot ever touches the ground, on an automatic level. Without this, you reduce your ability to propel yourself forward. The pelvic floor is quite literally the floor of the core canister - it works with the diaphragm, abdominals, and back muscles to stabilize the torso. It regulates your internal pressure as air comes in and out and muscles contract. An unstable core leads to power loss and fatigue. Our pelvic floor directly influences the hips, and can influence things such as hip rotation, knee collapse, or backstiffness. When sprinting, we need these muscle fibers to fire quickly, with the least amount of extra motion as possible.

Why Does Alignment Matter?

Think of your body as a tower: when one level tilts, everything above or below has to compensate. From where the head rests all the way down to where the toes strike the ground - the weight of these different anatomical body parts will make the pelvic floor work overtime to stabilize and correct. Excessive motion is less power to go to your sprint.

Examples of a few common contributors include from the top down:
● Forward head posture
● Minimal midback rotation
● Arm swing that crosses the midline

Examples of a few common contributors include from the bottom up:
● Foot rotation in the shoe
● Knees collapsing inward
● Excessive hip rotation or drop

Efficiency tip: A neutral rib-to-pelvis alignment and balanced foot strike help the pelvic floor manage a force effectively, giving you more power with less energy waste.

Training for Running Power While Caring for the Pelvic Floor

You can train your body to support your pelvic floor dynamically through:
● Core and rib positioning drills
● Single-leg stability exercises
● Foot-to-hip mobility work
● Breathing and pressure control training

A Proactive Pelvic Health Physiotherapist can assess how your entire body is working together, and can help establish an individualized training program that maintains or improves running efficiency and reduces pelvic floor strain. A pelvic floor assessment, when combined with gait analysis, will provide you with the plan you need to sprint to the finish line. Leaking when sprinting is treatable, it will improve your quality of life, and keep you exercising at max capacity.

References

Teixeira, R. V., Colla, C., Sbruzzi, G., Mallmann, A., & Paiva, L. L. (2018). Prevalence of urinary incontinence in female athletes: A systematic review with meta-analysis. International Urogynecology Journal, 29(12), 1717-1725. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-018-3651-1

Syeda, F., & Pandit, U. (2024). Urinary incontinence in female athletes: A systematic review on prevalence and physical therapy approaches. Cureus, 16(7), e64544. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.64544