Avoid Holding Your Pee
Holding your pee is always a bad idea. While there are certain moments in which you cant do anything but resist the urge to pee, making a habit of it, especially when you have the choice to simply urinate, will only damage your bladder.
One of the worst effects of regularly holding your pee is bladder stretching. With this condition, your bladder becomes too stretched out that contraction becomes impossible.
When bladder stretching happens, your bladder wont be releasing urine the normal way. Therefore, you will have to rely on a catheter which is generally an unpleasant experience.
Other adverse effects of holding your urine include higher risks for UTI and kidney stone formation, painful urination, and urinary leakage.
When To Do Kegel Exercises
Most people prefer doing Kegel exercises while lying down on a bed or sitting in a chair. You can do them in any position you feel comfortable in. Doing Kegel exercises while standing can be very helpful because thats usually when urinary leakage happens.
To keep your urine from leaking, try to do a Kegel exercise before these activities:
- When standing up.
Kegels Or Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises
Kegel exercises can strengthen your pelvic floor strength, improve bladder function, and possibly even completely eliminate leakage.
As a first step, identify the pelvic floor muscles by stopping urination midstream. You should feel a clench inside the pelvic region that is holding it in. These are the muscles you will need to target for these two forms of Kegels.5
Try and do about 3 sets of short and long contractions each with 10 repetitions per set, twice a day. The focus needs to be on accuracy rather than count. So if you cant manage so many, do fewer but do them right.6
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How Often Should I Exercise
Do your exercises often enough to make them a habit but at a minimum of 30 repetitions twice a day. Pelvic floor muscle support usually improves within 6 weeks after starting the exercises. Strengthening your pelvic floor is one step you can take to control your bladder. While incontinence and frequent sudden urges to go may be embarrassing to talk about, your health care provider can offer other treatment options that may provide further relief.
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Medical Treatments To Strengthen Weak Bladder:
Electrical Stimulation:
Electrical stimulation is actually a painless process which involves delivering of gentle electricity volts, via a vaginal probe for activating and strengthening the muscles of pelvic floor. Sometimes, there is an implantation of a device under the skin of the upper buttock so as to stimulate a nerve known as the sacral nerve, which is connected to the bladder and the pelvic floor.
Vaginal Pessery:
Vaginal pessery is a flexible ring of silicone that is inserted into the vagina in women where it pushes up on the wall of the vagina and urethra so as to help in supporting the bladder as well as the urethra. You doctor can fit one for you however, you will require regular checkups so as to ensure that it does not cause irritation in your vagina.
Surgery:
Surgery is required at times for strengthening weak bladder, especially in individuals who experience severe symptoms and who do not respond to any other type of treatment. Surgery intends at improving the storing ability of the bladder and at reducing the pressure in your bladder.
You might require using a catheter for the rest of your life if you undergo the surgery to strengthen weak bladder.
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How To Do Kegel Exercises
Once you know what the movement feels like, do Kegel exercises 3 times a day:
- Make sure your bladder is empty, then sit or lie down.
- Tighten your pelvic floor muscles. Hold tight and count 3 to 5 seconds.
- Relax the muscles and count 3 to 5 seconds.
- Repeat 10 times, 3 times a day .
Breathe deeply and relax your body when you are doing these exercises. Make sure you are not tightening your stomach, thigh, buttock, or chest muscles.
After 4 to 6 weeks, you should feel better and have fewer symptoms. Keep doing the exercises, but do not increase how many you do. Overdoing it can lead to straining when you urinate or move your bowels.
Some notes of caution:
- Once you learn how to do them, do not practice Kegel exercises at the same time you are urinating more than twice a month. Doing the exercises while you are urinating can weaken your pelvic floor muscles over time or cause damage to bladder and kidneys.
- In women, doing Kegel exercises incorrectly or with too much force may cause vaginal muscles to tighten too much. This can cause pain during sexual intercourse.
- Incontinence will return if you stop doing these exercises. Once you start doing them, you may need to do them for the rest of your life.
- It may take several months for your incontinence to lessen once you start doing these exercises.
How Is It Diagnosed
Your physical therapist will perform a thorough examination to identify the causes of your urinary incontinence, and will ask you to describe your symptoms and your daily experiences. They may assess the muscles of your pelvis, hip, and low back, as well as the coordination, strength, and flexibility of the muscles of your pelvic floor.
Your physical therapist also may refer you to a physician for additional tests, such as urodynamic testing, diagnostic ultrasound, or MRI to show any pelvic-floor muscle problems, to ensure an accurate diagnosis.
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Perform Pelvic Floor Exercises Regularly
Pelvic floor muscle training in the form of Kegel exercises is known to strengthen the muscles supporting the urinary bladder.
Kegel exercises are particularly popular among women as these exercises also help the uterus and the rest of the organs in the pelvic region. Nonetheless, men can also greatly benefit from this training, especially managing or preventing urine leakage.
When you do Kegel exercises regularly, you increase your bladder control. In this sense, you can prevent urinary incontinence. This condition is characterized by the sudden urge to pee or leaking a few drops of urine whenever you sneeze, cough, or laugh.
Moreover, you can also control fecal incontinence or stool leakage.
Do Daily Pelvic Floor Exercises
The pelvic floor muscles are responsible for supporting the bladder, and they help control the flow of urine through the urethra. When they become weakened or damaged, it can cause stress incontinence.
Performing pelvic floor exercises including Kegels, squats, and the bridge can help strengthen the muscles around and within the bladder to prevent urinary incontinence.
According to the results of two clinical trials , women who participate in pelvic floor muscle training are twice as likely to see an improvement in their urinary incontinence than those receiving symptomatic care alone. They are also five times more likely to have their symptoms completely resolve.
Those who have had recent surgery, have given birth recently, or have other health concerns should talk with a doctor before beginning any exercise regimen.
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What Can Happen If You Do A Kegel Incorrectly
Women often incorrectly contract their buttocks or gluteal muscles, or inner thighs, and basically squeeze their thighs together. Many strain and increase their abdominal pressure. Thats not good for two reasons. One, its ineffective. And two, straining results in the opposite effect. Chronic straining is a risk factor for developing and worsening problems like pelvic organ prolapse or stress incontinence.
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How Is Urinary Incontinence Treated
Treatment methods for bladder weakness include methods such as behavioral therapies and pelvic floor training, as well as various medications and surgical procedures. Bladder weakness can usually be treated effectively and, in some cases, can even be cured.
For older people with overactive bladder, stress incontinence and mixed incontinence, the main approach to treatment is behavioral therapy in the form of toilet habit re-training, as this is not associated with any side effects. This involves defining a personalized schedule for emptying the bladder, timed voiding and bladder re-training.
There are also many other treatment options based on the cause of the urinary incontinence:
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How Do I Exercise Pelvic Muscles
You can exercise almost anywhere and anytimeâwhile driving in a car, at your desk orwatching TV. To exercise these muscles, just pullin or âsqueezeâ your pelvic muscles . Hold this squeeze forabout 10 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Do3 to 4 sets of 10 contractions per day.
Be patient and continue to exercise. It takestime to strengthen the pelvic muscles, just like ittakes time to improve the muscles in your arms,legs or abdomen. You may not notice anychange in bladder control until after six to 12weeks of daily exercises. Still, most womennotice an improvement after just a few weeks.
How Long Should You Continue With These Exercises
Like any group of muscles, it is in your own interest to keep them in good shape so really everyone should be exercising their pelvic floor muscles from childhood through to old age.
If you already have some symptoms that might be caused by a weakened pelvic floor, do not be disappointed if you do not notice any improvement even after a month or two of exercising it is a long process, which needs patience and some willpower. It may help to talk to a specialist continence adviser or a continence physiotherapist about the exercises to make sure you are doing them properly. They may also be able to suggest additional exercises, exercise devices or muscle stimulation which could speed up the process.
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How To Strengthen Your Bladder And Urinate Less Often
This article was medically reviewed by Allison Romero, PT, DPT. Dr. Allison Romero is a Pelvic Health Specialist, Physical Therapist, and the Owner of Reclaim Pelvic Therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over a decade of experience, Allison specializes in comprehensive pelvic physical therapy treatments for pelvic floor dysfunction. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Sonoma State University and a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California. Allison is a board certified Physical Therapist in California and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association-Section on Womens Health and the International Pelvic Pain Society.There are 19 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 100% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 972,837 times.
Is It Ok For A Man To Sit And Pee
Sitting down is a better option for men with prostate conditions or men who just can’t stand up for a long time, he said. A lot of guys sit to pee if they can’t fully evacuate their bladder. … As long as a guy feels like he’s emptying his bladder standing or sitting, he’s in good shape, he said.
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Locate Your Pelvic Muscles
Several techniques can be used to find the right set of muscles to exercise.
Women:
Pretend you are trying to avoid passing gas.
Pretend to tighten your vagina around a tampon.
Men:
Pretend you are trying to avoid passing gas.
While urinating, try to stop your urine stream.
If you’ve identified the right muscles, you’ll feel the contraction more in the back of the pelvic area than the front.
Pelvic Floor Ball Squeeze
Sit up straight in a sturdy chair with your head lifted and your chin parallel to the ground, shoulders in line with your hips. Place an exercise ball between your thighs. Squeeze the ball and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 10 times. For a challenge, sit up without leaning back against the chair, Andrews says. This will help strengthen the inner thighs and the abdominal muscles, which intertwine with those pelvic floor muscles and can contribute to better bladder control, Howe says.
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Exercises For Urinary Sphincter Muscles
The urinary sphincter muscles are located at the base of the pelvic floor. They help control urine flow as well as prevent leaking of urine from the bladder. Sphincter muscles are circular and surround the opening of the urethra where it connects to the bladder. The urethra is a tubular structure that extends from the bladder to the outside of the body, through which urine flows. As we grow older, our sphincter muscles may weaken. Exercise strengthens this muscle and helps prevent incontinence.
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Medications To Strengthen Weak Bladder:
You might require medications to strengthen weak bladder, especially if other ways of treatment do not work. Antimuscarinics or anticholinergics are the medications used for treating weak bladder. These medicines block some nerve impulses to the bladder, which helps in relaxing the muscles of your bladder, ultimately increasing the capacity of your bladder.
These medications work better if they are taken along with the combination of bladder training. One common plan is that you can try one course of these medication for at least 30 days and if you find them useful, you might be advised by your doctor to continue the same for about 6 months and then after stop them altogether so as to see how you experience the symptoms without the medication.
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Maintain A Healthy Weight
The latest statistics indicate that more than 40 percent of the population in the US is obese. Worldwide the numbers are even higher.
A recent study estimated 27 percent of the US population diagnosed with bladder cancer was categorized as overweight, and approximately 35 percent were categorized as obese.
Notice The Difference Within 3 To 6 Months
As we all know, results dont happen overnight. You may start to notice the difference after consistently doing these exercises for 3 to 6 months. You may then regain control of your bladder, have fewer accidents, and able to do more repetitions. They may also help minimise your risk of associated complications, such as emotional distress and sleep deprivation.
If you experience a little discomfort while youre working out, wear light pads. We have a wide range of pads, from mini, normal, extra, maxi to super. For product enquiries, feel free to contact us.
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Where Can I Find Out More Or Get Help
If there is a problem with bladder or bowel control, it is important to be properly assessed as weak pelvic floor muscles are just one of the many causes of incontinence.
You can search for a list of women’s, men’s and pelvic health physiotherapists on the Australian Physiotherapy Association website and on our service directory.
You can also contact the National Continence Helpline on . The National Continence Helpline is staffed by Nurse Continence Specialists who offer free and confidential information, advice and support. They also provide a wide range of continence-related resources and referrals to local services.
Who Could Benefit From Pelvic Floor Exercises
People who have faecal incontinence or bowel leakage may be helped by doing some specific exercises for the sphincter and pelvic floor muscles. These exercises could help improve the strength of the sphincter and pelvic floor muscles and improve bowel control. Talk to your healthcare professional before doing these exercises to see whether they could help you.
Pelvic Floor Exercises can help both men and women gain more control over bowel movements. These exercises are also used for men and women with bladder control problems.
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Bladder Strengthening Exercises To Control Urinary Incontinence
Do you struggle with urinary incontinence? Well, youre not alone.
Anywhere between 25% to 33% of American adults suffer from this condition, which is probably more than you thought! And interestingly enough, its not just women who have incontinence men do too.
While it can be an embarrassing medical condition, you can decrease the chances of an accident happening by doing bladder strengthening exercises.
Here are 3 exercises to help with bladder muscle strengthening.
Living With Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence does, unfortunately, become a long-term problem for some women. Here are some tips on living with it:
- Use incontinence pads, which are made for urine leakage, rather than sanitary pads.
- Take a change of underwear or set of clothes when you go out.
- Know where toilets are located so you can find them quickly .
- Cross your legs when sneezing or laughing.
- Modify your exercise routine to avoid high impact exercises such as jumping.
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Avoid High Impact Exercise: It Can Make Leakage Worse
If youre looking at losing weight or exercising to help your urinary incontinence, be aware that high impact exercise can actually make things worse by putting pressure on the pelvic floor muscles. Even sit-ups may prove problematic. So skip the aerobics classes and trade in your running shoes for some yoga or pilates. This will help you build core strength, stretch your body, and get a good workout without taking a toll on your pelvic floor muscles. Plus, as we saw, yoga has some asanas that are actually beneficial for the pelvic region.16
References
Do The Right Exercises
High-impact exercise and sit-ups put pressure on your pelvic floor muscles and can increase leaks.
To strengthen your pelvic floor to relieve symptoms, replace high-impact exercise, such as jogging and aerobics, with strengthening exercise, such as pilates.
Pilates strengthens your core muscles, which is beneficial for stress incontinence.
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