Peeing when you exercise is called stress urinary incontinence. It can be really frustrating and embarrassing, but it’s something we see a lot of moms struggle with when they return to exercise after pregnancy. It’s very common but doesn’t get talked about enough!
You don’t have to suffer through this alone though. At Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine we can successfully treat this problem and get you exercising confidently again!
To help solve this problem, you need to know why it happens. As a result of pregnancy, the pelvic floor muscles and deep abdominal muscles often stop working the way they are supposed to. The muscles aren’t properly activating or relaxing to manage the load of exercise on your pelvic floor. This results in you peeing when you exercise.
Fortunately there are 3 easy exercises you can try to stop this in 10 minutes a day or less!
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Make sure when you breathe in, you are letting your rib cage expand towards your belly and let go of any tension in your pelvic floor.
This allows your pelvic floor muscles to relax so they can be ready to contract when needed to control urine output.
If you can’t feel your pelvic floor relax, then you want to see a pelvic floor therapist so they can help you properly identify pelvic floor muscles.
Squats
Once you can diaphragmatic breath well, try this exercise.
Try to engage your pelvic floor “aka – Kegal” when you are lowering down into and returning from a squat.
Breathe in at the top of the squat and “let go of pelvic floor tension”.
Then Kegal and exhale/blow as you move through the squat.
Avoid holding your breath. Do 2-3 sets of 10 of these every other day.
Overhead press
For this exercise any type of weight will do. Start with some light dumb bells if you need to.
Kegal/exhale as you press overhead. Inhale as you lower the weights back down.
Try 2- 3 sets of 10 reps every other day.
If you’ve tried these and you’re still having problems, we can help you!
Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine pelvic floor therapists are experts at treating stress urinary incontinence and will help you develop a plan to stop it.
Call us at 703-672-7169, or click here to request an appointment.
A member of our team will schedule you an appointment with one of our pelvic floor physical therapists.
With a plan to stop stress urinary incontinence you could:
- Go on long runs confidently
- Workout in the gym without fear
- Live the active life you want again!
The exercises above are a great way to get started. They don’t require a lot of time and are pretty easy to do correctly.
But if you want an expert to listen to your unique problems and guide you to success, a Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine pelvic floor physical therapist will create a plan specifically for you.
You’ll feel confident that you have the knowledge and ability to stop stress urinary incontinence and do all the things you want.
Call us at 703-672-7169, or click here to schedule your appointment and start your path to healing.
Working to keep you living your best life,
The Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Team
