1. A Pelvic Floor

2. A body

 

There are lots of expensive things out there- Kegel trainers that you insert and play games with on your phone, Kegel balls that you can insert, leg squeezers, chairs that do your pelvic floor contractions for you. These things are not needed! And also not very functional. And what I mean by that is … Think about what you would do if you were trying to train for a marathon? You run. What do you do when you are training for a swimming meet? You swim. So what do we do when we want to try to stop bladder leaks? Sit on a machine? Insert a ball to try to lift? What is that going to do? 

Let's talk a little more about Kegel balls, Kegel balls are like small weights that you insert into your vagina and practice squeezing and lifting your muscle against the weight of the ball. Sure we lift weights to strengthen our arms, but we lift things up all day like laundry baskets, plates into the cupboard, kids, etc. What are you planning on lifting up with your vagina?

 

The reason most of these devises don’t work very well is because the pelvic floor strengthening they are doing doesn’t really translate into real life activity. We need to use our pelvic floor when we move, we need to use it in coordination with other muscles in our body, we need to teach it how to do those activities you want to be able to do without leaking. So here is what we are going to do instead, if you are someone is suffering from bladder leaks with different movements- maybe its a lift, jumping jack, trampoline, rolling over, bending, standing up. Take note of those specific activities that are making you leak. Make a list. Maybe its one thing, maybe its 20 things- make sure you figure out what is causing your bladder leaks. They likely aren’t happening when you are sitting or lying still?

 

Next, we are going to try to incorporate your pelvic floor into those things. For example, try doing a Kegel as you stand up out of a chair, or as you lift that laundry basket or child. Let's try to incorporate our pelvic floor into functional activities, into our bodies movements, and then also into things that we are doing throughout the day that are making our bladder leak, not just sitting still in a chair doing Kegel’s expecting that to work. 

Your pelvic floor is supposed to work with the rest of your body. It works in coordination with our breathing muscle, some of our deep abdominal muscles, and some of the other muscles around our pelvis. If we are not incorporating our bodies movements and other muscles as we are working on our pelvic floor, it’s not going to learn how to engage with those other muscles, it's only going to learn how to work alone, which is not going to stop your bladder leaks when you are moving. 

 

Now, if you want to take action and start resolving your bladder leaks check out my video next that is going to go through 7 contributing factors to your bladder leaks, that you can check on yourself to see what is causing yours.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ypy3LCU_OQ&t=22s 

 

You can also check out my 12 week pelvic floor educational and exercise program designed especially for bladder leakage. https://www.yourpelvicfloorrestored.com/restore-bladder-leaks-CAD