• Valeria Regina Silva, Cássio Luis Zanettini Riccetto, Natalia Miguel Martinho, Joseane Marques, Leonardo Cesar Carvalho, and Simone Botelho.
• Departamento de Cirurgia da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), SP, Brasil.
• Int Braz J Urol. 2016 Jul 1; 42 (4): 779-86.

Introduction And Objectivesseveral studies have been investigated co-activation can enhance the effectveness of PFM training protocols allowing preventive and therapeutic goals in pelvic floor dysfunctions. The objective of the present study was to investigate if an abdominal-pelvic protocol of training (APT) using gametherapy would allow co-activation of PFM and transversus abdominis/oblique internal (TrA/OI) muscles.Patients And MethodsTwenty-five nulliparous, continent, young females, with median age 24.76 (±3.76) years were evaluated using digital palpation (DP) of PFM and surfasse electromyography of PFM and TrA/OI simultaneously, during maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), alternating PFM and TrA/OI contraction requests. All women participated on a supervised program of APT using gametherapy, that included exercises of pelvic mobilization associated to contraction of TrA/OI muscles oriented by virtual games, for 30 minutes, three times a week, in a total of 10 sessions. Electromyographic data were processed and analyzed by ANOVA - analysis of variance.ResultsWhen MVC of TrA/OI was solicited, it was observed simultaneous increase of electromyographic activity of PFM (p=0.001) following ATP. However, EMG activity did not change significantly during MVC of PFM.ConclusionTraining using gametherapy allowed better co-activation of pelvic floor muscles in response to contraction of TrA, in young nulliparous and continent women.Copyright© by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.

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