5 Tips For a Healthy Bladder and Pelvic Floor
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that lies within the pelvis and plays many important roles, one of the main one being sphincteric. It acts to contract - HOLD THINGS IN - and relax - LET IT GO. It obviously works closely with the bladder on account of holding urine and and releasing.
If you have bladder dysfunction - aka stress or urge incontinence, leaking while you run, jump, laugh, sneeze, cough, or you just don't feel like your kegels do anything to help you strengthen and hold it in - THIS POST IS FOR YOU. Until I started getting training in pelvic floor PT, I never realized all of the unhealthy bladder habits I possessed myself.
So with that being said…
Here are 5 helpful tips that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine:
Sit down on the toilet seat.
When you hover, you aren't allowing your pelvic floor to fully relax to let urine go. This leads to things constantly staying in to tightened/contracted state which leads to other pelvic floor dysfunctions. Take the time to make your nest with toilet paper - I know, it's annoying and time consuming, or take some wipes and clean off the seat prior to sitting. Sit down, take a few deep breaths, relax the pelvic floor and allow pee to come out with ease.
2. Say no to power peeing.
We want this to be a time where the pelvic floor relaxes and lets it go without using muscles to push it out. If you are constantly contracting the muscles in a time of relaxation, it messes with the signal to the brain, and can lead to further dysfunction. Sit down, relax, don't push/strain, and breath!
3. Avoid “just in case” peeing.
We may have been trained to do this by our parents when (rightfully so) they didn't want to pull over and stop to pee every time we got in the car. Instead, we all pee prior to leaving the house, just in case, even though you didn't really have to go. It leads to maybe a few seconds of peeing and you're on your way.
If this is a daily habit, this is telling your brain that it needs to send the signal to GO, even when your bladder isn't full. You end of having to go multiple times throughout the day and going more JIC, which just amplifies the problem.
If your brain is telling you it's time to go to the bathroom, and you just went 30 minutes prior, try ignoring the signal, distract yourself, and the sensation will usually subside. This is one aspect of bladder re-training that we work on in PT.
4. Drink enough water.
Many times, women who struggle with incontinence and leaking limit their intake of water in hopes of fixing the problem. However, decreasing water intake makes urine more acidic which actually irritates the bladder lining, causing more agitation and potential leakage.
Instead of limiting water, try to make sure you are getting 1/2 body weight in ounces per day (more if you workout and/or are pregnant and breastfeeding), and instead limit bladder irritants: coffee, alcohol, caffeine, carbonated beverages, citrusy drinks, and sugary drinks. This will help balance the pH of the urine and make things less irritating for the bladder.
5. Learn how to correctly contract and relax your pelvic floor.
It's not uncommon for my patients to have no freakin' clue what a pelvic floor is and how to actually do a kegel. Not surprising - who is supposed to teach us this stuff!? Learning how to correctly contract and relax the PF is helpful in treating any dysfunction.
A good place to start is lying on your back or sitting. As you inhale and ribs expand, try to feel your pelvic floor relaxing and lengthening. I cue to imagine “flowers blooming from the vagina and anus”. As you exhale, try to lift your pelvic floor like an elevator. Think about pulling your "sits bones" together and lifting as a unit.
Do a few cycles of these. If you need help or have trouble making that connection, a pelvic floor PT can help you.
Try to incorporate these tips into your daily routine!
As always, this is global advice and if you have dysfunction it is best to seek out a medical professional for an individualized assessment and treatment plan.
