Physical therapy pelvic floor exercises and tips to help new moms stop the uncontrollable peeing and incontinence.
You know you need to do some pelvic floor exercises to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles because your panties are becoming wet when they shouldn’t be. You just had a baby, and now you find that you are wetting yourself with no control of holding it in to make it to the bathroom. Yikes!
This is common, but this is NOT normal. And I want you to know it is fixable with pelvic floor exercises and that you don’t have to live that way. Today we are going to take three steps to fixing this, starting with pelvic floor exercises. Let’s go.
Get Back To Normal With 3 Quick Tips For Pelvic Floor Exercises
Wetting yourself has become normal because no one knows how to fix it, or no one told you that it can be fixed.
Amy Rosenman, MD wrote that, “Labor and delivery may stretch, strain or even tear the muscles and the supporting tissues that hold the uterus, bladder and rectum in their proper place. The nerves may also be stretched and injured, weakening the signals allowing muscles to work properly. Some women have no damage from labor and delivery, some have damage to the nerves; some have damage to the muscles and supporting ligaments; some have damage to every one of these areas.”
Feel Great About Your
Pelvic Floor Again
But you can go ahead and laugh, sneeze, and work out without peeing your pants or wearing pantyliners “just in case“. You can do this and feel great about yourself again. It’s all about trusting your pelvic floor to hold your pee in.
You can have your confidence back and drink your 8 glasses of water a day and make it to the bathroom… without having to run to it, but rather walk at a normal speed.
Normal is the key word here. Let’s get you back to normal with these 3 quick tips regarding pelvic floor exercises you can do now so you stop peeing your pants.
1. Remember that strengthening your pelvic floor is just like strengthening the rest of your body.
If you have weak pelvic floor muscles, then your pelvic floor organs are going to continue to prolapse, or protrude out. You will continue to have dysfunction, and you will continue to leak.
If you think that your muscles will improve over time without exercise, you’re wrong. You need to train your muscles just as you would train your leg muscles if you are preparing for a marathon. If you continue to do nothing for your pelvic floor, the incontinence could last for years.
So let’s take the time to retrain your muscles, strengthen them and fix them to be in working order.
But how do you do that? Let’s talk about what pelvic floor exercises you can do now.
2. You can perform pelvic floor exercises anywhere and any time!
This is great news!
If you are waiting in line at a store, if you are sitting at the doctor’s office waiting to see your doctor, if you are driving in a car and stuck in traffic, if you are watching a movie on the couch with your husband… no one has to know.
You can do these pelvic floor exercises anywhere.
So, what are they? They are called Kegels.
Kegels are one of my all time favorite exercises for postpartum healing. They are simply the contraction of your internal pelvic floor muscles (inside your pelvic bone, if you can imagine that).
And the contraction of these pelvic floor muscles is the same contraction you would do if you were to stop the flow of pee from coming out into the toilet.
So pretend you are peeing and then all of sudden just stop the flow. You should feel that contraction within your pelvic region.
That’s the Kegel. Practice it a few times. Pause and try doing 10 right now.
3. You can change up the duration in which you do your pelvic floor exercises
SO… if you took the time to do 10 Kegels right now, how fast did you perform them?
Did you do them in rapid fire time and go like this, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” or did you contract and slowly release so it was more like “1 Mississippi , 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi”… and so on.
You didn’t do it wrong, but the good news is, you have options. I want to encourage you to hold each contraction for 8 seconds or longer. To make it easier for you to remember, just stick to holding it for 10 seconds.
Can you do it?
It may not be as easy as it sounds. You may fatigue, just like you would with any other exercise. And that’s ok. Your muscles are weak and not used to this training.
I want to encourage you to build up to that tolerance of 10 second holds or longer based on your tolerance and try to achieve 10 reps a day. This is a good starting point for this week to get you going as you navigate your road to postpartum recovery.
Pelvic Floor Exercise Tips To Help You Recover After Pregnancy
1) Remember that strengthening your pelvic floor is just like strengthening the rest of your body. If you continue to have weak pelvic floor muscles, then you’re going to continue having problems with incontinence.
2) Performing Kegels is the best way to get started with strengthening your pelvic floor, and the good news is… you can do them anywhere.
3) Kegels should be progressed to longer durations…long holds, not short durations.
What You Can Do Right Now
So if you’ve made it this far reading this and you’re saying to yourself, “Yes, wetting myself in public is so embarrassing. I need this to stop!”
Then I want you to try doing the following pelvic floor exercise:
Do 10 Kegels for 10 second holds at a time.
Let me know in the comments or in the Facebook group where your favorite Kegel location is. Or you can tag me on Instagram at livecorestrong and let me know where your favorite place to do your Kegels is. Is it at the kitchen sink while doing dishes, the car ride like me, or some other random place? Let me know and tag me!
If you are looking for a way to stay accountable in your postpartum recovery, my free Facebook group 30-Day Ab Challenge For Women is a great place to be. It’s a community for fitness-focused moms to stay encouraged in their postpartum journey. I can’t wait to meet you in there!
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
**It is important to always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program and get medical clearance. Always warm up thoroughly and stretch after all workouts. LiveCoreStrong.com and Jena Bradley will be not be responsible or liable for any injury sustained while exercising at home, gym or elsewhere. Perform exercises at your own risk.
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