How to Use Google Scholar to Fact-Check What You Hear on Instagram
If you teach Pilates, chances are you see a lot of health and exercise information on Instagram.
Some of it is excellent.
Some of it is oversimplified.
And some of it sounds scientific enough that it can be difficult to know what to believe.
You don't need to become a researcher to start checking the claims you come across.
One of the simplest tools available to you is Google Scholar.
I recently used it to fact-check a claim about urinary incontinence in female CrossFit athletes — and it was a perfect example of why basic research skills are so useful for Pilates teachers.
A claim that made me stop scrolling
I came across a Reel where a Pilates teacher stated that 84% of female CrossFit athletes experience urinary incontinence.
The recommendation was that everyone should do Pilates to strengthen their pelvic floor and then go on to lift weights.
The first part immediately caught my attention.
Not because urinary incontinence isn't relevant to high-intensity exercise. It absolutely is.
But 84% sounded unusually high.
Rather than accepting the number — or immediately dismissing it — I decided to spend a few minutes looking for the research.
This is an important distinction.
The goal isn't to think:
"I know better than this person."
The goal is to think:
"That's an interesting claim. Where did that number come from?"
That's scientific literacy.
My quick Google Scholar search
I opened Google Scholar and searched for:
urinary incontinence CrossFit athletes
You can make this even more specific by using Google's allintitle: function.
For example:
allintitle: urinary incontinence CrossFit
This tells Google Scholar that you're looking for papers with those words in the title.
That can be a very useful shortcut when you're trying to quickly establish whether a topic has actually been studied.
I then looked specifically for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Why?
Because if I'm trying to answer a broad question such as:
"How common is urinary incontinence among female CrossFit athletes?"
I'd rather start by looking at research that has already brought together multiple studies than base my conclusion on a single study.
And that's one of the simplest research habits you can develop:
Don't just look for a paper. Look for the body of evidence.
So what does the research actually say?
One systematic review and meta-analysis published in the International Urogynecology Journal included 13 cross-sectional studies and 4,823 women. The review reported a urinary incontinence prevalence of 44.5% among the CrossFit participants represented in the included studies.
That's obviously a significant number.
But it's very different from saying that 84% of all female CrossFit athletes experience urinary incontinence.
And there's another important detail.
A different systematic review and meta-analysis reported a pooled urinary incontinence prevalence of 32.1%, with a 95% confidence interval of 22.2–43.8%.
So even within the research literature, you don't necessarily get one neat number.
That's normal.
Science is rarely:
"The number is X. End of story."
Instead, we have different studies, different populations, different definitions of urinary incontinence, different questionnaires and different methods of collecting data.
That's why learning how to interpret research is more useful than memorizing individual statistics.
And where did the 84% number come from?
This is where things get particularly interesting.
One study of female CrossFit practitioners reported that 84.2% of women who were experiencing urinary incontinence reported losing urine during CrossFit training.
Notice the difference?
That's not the same as saying:
84.2% of female CrossFit athletes experience urinary incontinence.
The denominator matters.
If you don't pay attention to exactly who the percentage describes, it's very easy for a statistic to be repeated online in a way that changes its meaning.
This is one of the most important research skills you can develop as a Pilates teacher:
Always ask: "84% of whom?"
Whenever you see a statistic on social media, ask:
Who was studied?
How many people were included?
What exactly was being measured?
How was it defined?
Is the percentage describing the whole sample or a subgroup?
Was this one study or a systematic review?
Are we talking about correlation, prevalence or causation?
Those questions can completely change how you interpret a claim.
Does this mean CrossFit isn't associated with urinary incontinence?
No.
And this is another reason we need to be careful with fact-checking.
The purpose of checking a statistic isn't to replace one oversimplification with another.
Urinary incontinence is a real issue for female athletes, and research suggests that it can occur during high-impact and high-intensity activities, including CrossFit. Some studies have found associations with activities such as jumping and high-load lifting.
There is also evidence that factors such as age, BMI and parity can be associated with urinary incontinence, which reminds us that the story is more complicated than simply:
"CrossFit causes pelvic floor problems."
Likewise, we shouldn't jump from:
"Some women experience urinary leakage during high-intensity exercise"
to:
"Everyone needs Pilates to strengthen their pelvic floor before they can safely lift weights."
That's a much bigger claim — and it requires its own evidence.
This is why Pilates teachers need research skills
I don't think every Pilates teacher needs to learn how to conduct a randomized controlled trial.
But I do think we should develop some basic scientific literacy and research skills.
Because we are constantly exposed to health information.
Instagram.
TikTok.
Podcasts.
Teacher training programs.
Workshops.
Other instructors.
Even things that we've been taught for years.
And sometimes the information is accurate.
Sometimes it's outdated.
Sometimes it's a reasonable interpretation of the evidence.
Sometimes it's a personal opinion presented as fact.
And sometimes a statistic has simply been taken out of context.
The solution isn't to become cynical about everything you hear.
It's to become curious enough to check.
You don't need to read 50 research papers
This is something I really want Pilates teachers to understand.
You don't have to become an academic.
You don't have to understand every statistical analysis.
And you certainly don't need to read an entire systematic review every time someone makes a claim on Instagram.
Sometimes you just need five minutes.
Try this:
1. Identify the claim
Write down exactly what is being claimed.
For example:
"84% of female CrossFit athletes experience urinary incontinence."
2. Search the topic
Go to Google Scholar and search:
urinary incontinence CrossFit athletes
3. Try allintitle:
Narrow your search:
allintitle: urinary incontinence CrossFit
4. Look for a systematic review
Add:
systematic review
or search specifically for:
CrossFit urinary incontinence systematic review
5. Check the abstract
You don't always need to read the entire paper initially.
Start with:
Number of studies
Number of participants
Population
Main outcome
Main result
Limitations
6. Check what the percentage actually means
This is the step people often skip.
Ask:
Who does this percentage represent?
The entire sample?
A subgroup?
People who already had symptoms?
People who answered a particular question?
The distinction can be enormous.
And perhaps the most important lesson...
Don't use research simply to prove that you were right.
Use it to find out whether you were right.
That's a very different mindset.
As Pilates teachers, we don't need to have an opinion about everything.
We need to be comfortable saying:
"I don't know. Let me look at the evidence."
And sometimes the evidence will support what we've been teaching.
Sometimes it will challenge it.
Sometimes it will show that the answer is more nuanced than either side of an Instagram argument suggests.
That's not a problem.
That's how evidence-based practice works.
The goal isn't to have a collection of facts that we can use to win arguments online.
The goal is to develop the skills to make better decisions about how we teach.
Want to learn how to do this more confidently?
This is exactly why I created my Research Skills for Pilates Teachers pilates workshop inside the Pilates Teachers Community.
In the workshop, we go beyond simply saying "look at the research."
I walk you through practical skills you can actually use as a Pilates teacher — including how to search for research, how to use Google Scholar, how to find systematic reviews, how to interpret what you're reading, and how to start separating evidence from the claims we encounter every day.
You don't need to become a researcher.
You just need enough research literacy to start asking better questions.
Because the more confident you become at finding and interpreting evidence, the less dependent you are on someone else's interpretation of it.
And that is a really powerful skill for any Pilates teacher.
Watch the Research Skills for Pilates Teachers workshop and explore the rest of the Pilates Teachers Community with a 2-week free trial.
It's part of our ongoing Pilates mentorship and Pilates continuing education for teachers who want to develop a more evidence-based approach to their teaching.
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