Pelvic Floor 101
Pelvic Floor 101

Lesson 6: Mind Over Bladder

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We are going to talk about urgency, urge incontinence, bladder training, and how to overcome all of these problems.

Taking control of your Urinary Urges:

  1. When the urge hits, STOP where you are.

  2. SIT. If you are sitting—stay sitting. If there’s a chair nearby, sit down. Go ahead and cross your legs, squeeze your thighs, just don’t get up! Running to the bathroom will only increase your risk of leakage.

  3. SQUEEZE your pelvic floor muscles. Every time you turn the pelvic floor on, it tells the bladder to relax and stop squeezing. In other words, it inhibits the urge.

  4. BREATHE. Do not wiggle. Do not do the potty dance. Just relax the rest of your body, breathe, and try to either remind yourself you are in control or distract yourself. Count backward from 100 by 7’s. Ride out the wave of the urge.

  5. Once the urge calms down and feels mostly if not fully under control, CALMLY WALK to the bathroom to empty your bladder. If the urge returns halfway there, go back to Step 1.

Key Takeaways

  • Remember that an urge is your bladder actually contracting or squeezing, meaning that it is trying to empty no matter where you are. If you try to get up or walk (or run!) to the bathroom you have little power to keep it from emptying before you get there.

  • Your pelvic floor directly tells your bladder to calm down. Use it!

  • The GOAL is CONTROL.

  • Avoid using the bathroom “just in case”. This teaches your bladder that it doesn’t need to fill. Remember it is a storage tank! Be mindful of triggers: your bladder doesn’t suddenly fill the moment you...[put the key in the door/pull into the driveway/turn on the water/fill in the blank for your own trigger.]

  • At night, get control of the urge then roll over and go back to sleep. Trust that your bladder will calm down & you will fall back asleep. If you doubt it will, it won’t! If it won’t go away, or if you wake up shortly after, go ahead and go.

Goals

  • 6-8 voids/24 hours

  • 0-1 voids/night up to age 65 (1-2 is normal after age 65)

  • 2-5 hours between voids

  • Water intake should be ½ your body weight in fluid ounces (ex: a 160 lb person needs 80 oz)

  • Each void should last about 10 seconds (counting from the start of the stream to the end)