How to not pee your pants
Sneezing, running, jumping, coughing, and laughing may have you peeing your pants? This is called stress incontinence and is often joked about or thought of as a given but I am here to tell you there are ways to manage peeing your pants. Trampolines here we come!
Up to 55% of women experience urinary incontinence and it is mostly talked about after having children. Urinary incontinence can impact any woman (or man) at any age.
Find a pelvic floor physical therapist or a Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism Coach in your area to do an in-person assessment.
Finding a trained professional to help. It can save you lots of time trying to figure it out on your own and give you feedback in real-time. PPA Coaches specialize in movement and modifying the movement to limit your symptoms. You can schedule an in-person or virtual appointment with me or You can find a coach here in your area. PF physical therapists can do internal or external assessments and give you a deeper understanding of what is happening in your body. I highly recommend finding one of each and allowing them to work together for your best results.
Coordinate your breath with your pelvic floor and core.
Your pelvic floor should be like a trampoline. When there is a force pressing against it (aka intra-abdominal pressure) it should have some stretch and give. When you think you’re going to sneeze or go to jump do you clench everything making it harder for your pelvic floor to relax and absorb your organs? If yes, you can start by coordinating your breath to your pelvic floor (PF) and core.
When you inhale your PF should relax and lengthen- imagine you have a blueberry inserted in your vagina when you inhale you create space around the blueberry and let it drop a bit. When you inhale your core should expand, your belly, back, and ribs should evenly move out. Imagine you are standing in a hula hoop when you inhale you should try to fill the hula hoop with a 360-degree breath.
When you exhale your PF will lift and give a gentle contraction. Imagine that blueberry again when you exhale you're going to gently hug it and lift it up. We don’t want to squish it! On the exhale your core will pull away from that hula hoop evenly.
Find the body alignment that works for you.
We have all been told to stand with “good posture” before but “good” posture will look different for every person. To find your neutral alignment stand with your eyes closed, stack your ankle, over your heels, your knees over your ankle, then hips, ribs, and shoulders. That is your neutral. From here do a few hops and try to maintain that neutral position.
Work on your threshold.
If you start to pee your pants after 10 jumps work on sets of 9. Jump to 9 and then relax and reset your core and PF. Once you feel comfortable jumping to 9 without feeling like you have to pee test again and train your new threshold.
Practice, Practice, Practice.
Apply your controlled breath to movement. When you feel like you’re going to pee stop and reset. When you feel a sneeze coming on try to relax. The more you practice the more this will become automatic and you will be on your way to managing those symptoms!
If you would like to schedule an assessment with me please fill out this form.