Healthy Bladder Habits for Everyone

To start, here are some key Bladder Facts:

1. Bladders are not supposed to hurt
2. Leaking urine is not normal or necessary
3. Incontinence is not a normal part of aging
4. Pelvic Health physical therapy can help restore normal bladder function for continence and eliminating pain

Far too many people have been told that bladder problems are a normal part of life. It doesn't have to be that way! Here are a few simple things you can do right away to try and help relieve your symptoms of heaviness, urgency, leaking urine, or too frequent voiding.

Get your water

The old adage of “drink 6-8 8-ounce glasses per day” has been recently replaced with “drink ½ of your body weight in ounces”. This means that a 180 pound person should get roughly 90 ounces of water throughout the day. Be sure to stop drinking liquids at least 2 hours before you want to be asleep.

Watch the urgency!

Normal bladder function means urinating 6 -7 times a day, for 6 to 8 seconds with a good, strong, uninterrupted stream.

The “urge” level, or how bad you feel you need to go, should match the volume. A strong urge should precede a void with a large amount of urine, and vice versa. You should have time between when you feel the urge and when you sit on a toilet (or squat in the woods, or whatever your situation requires) without pain or leaking.

Practice urge deferment:

When you get the urge to void, take a slow comfortable breath in. As you breathe out, lift the pelvic muscles (see below). Repeat that 3 times.

If that turns the urge off, try to delay using the restroom for 5 minutes.

If you can not stop the urge, go ahead and go to the bathroom- but make sure to pay attention to the volume that comes out. If it seems to match the strength of the urge, that is fine! If the strength of the urge and the volume of urine do not match, drink some more water and see if you can delay the next time.

Pelvic muscle training:

You have most likely heard of Kegels. They are an exercise named after the gynecologist who did a study about how to contract the pelvic floor muscles. The idea is to do a “lift and squeeze” and there are different cues to help that make sense:

• Imagine you're in an important meeting and you don’t want to pass gas, what do you do?
• Imagine you need to pee and you’re not close to the toilet, what do you do?
• A study on gentlemen found imagining trying to “shorten the penis” was the most effective for the muscles around the urethra in males. 
• “Imagine you’re lifting something up with your vagina” is one that always makes me giggle. 

To help control your urge, try this exercise:

-Contract for 1 second, relax, wait 1 second before contracting again.

-Contract for 10 seconds, relax, wait 10 seconds before contracting again.

The speed of the relaxation should be as fast as the speed of the contraction for good muscle function in real life activity.

Aim for 60 reps per day, a mix of 1 and 10-second holds, spread throughout the day.

Make time for Constructive Rest:

Try to find 20 uninterrupted minutes to sit down and rest with your legs elevated above the level of your heart and supported by a pillow or cushion, ideally in the afternoon. 10 minutes may be long enough, longer than 20 isn’t necessary.

This must be done more than 2 hours before you want to go to sleep so that the last pee of the night empties your bladder.

Most importantly, remember there is help and you don’t need to leak or be bound to stay close to bathrooms.  If you have problems that these tips do not help, give us a call and we can get you on your way to being dry and confident! 

Sandy Hilton, PT

shilton@swphysicaltherapy.com