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Bladder Leak Hack

Have you ever peezed (peed a little when you sneezed) or laughed so hard that you wet your pants? Or do you only wear dark colored leggings at the gym, just in case?

  

THAT IS NOT NORMAL!!!! 


Leaking with these activities is so common that we have normalized it as part of what happens to us as women. 


Peeing your pants, even if it’s just a little bit, when you sneeze, cough, laugh, jump, run, etc is a medical condition called stress incontinence.  


Stress incontinence defined by the Mayo Clinic is “unintentional loss of urine when physical movement or activity — such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, running or heavy lifting — puts pressure (stress) on your bladder”


Stress incontinence can happen for a few different reasons, learn why here. The good news is that it is usually 100% treatable.  The first step is to get evaluated by a pelvic floor physical therapist and figure out what exactly is going on with your body.  Once you know, you and your physical therapist will come up with a plan to address the dysfunction and keep your pants dry!


But until you get that appointment set up we want to leave you with a trick that could help keep you dry until you are able to address the real issue and fix the problem.  It’s called “the Knack” and it’s a bladder leak hack! 


The Knack is a well-timed and strong contraction of the pelvic floor muscles. You could also think of it as a perfectly-timed kegel exercise. When all goes well, you could potentially stop leaks from happening altogether.


I know what you're thinking: "Sounds great, but how do I KNACK?"


To start, make sure you're standing or sitting up straight. After that:

  1. Lift and squeeze the muscles in and around your vagina and anal openings - imagine you're trying to stop gas from passing - it should be a strong inward lift.

  2. Hold this contraction as you do a small cough.

  3. After you’ve coughed, relax 


It’s that simple!  Try to Knack before you jump, run, sneeze, (insert activity that makes you leak), and let us know if this Knack Hack just helped you join the dry pants club.  


To building strong, healthy bodies with dry pants!

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