Say Goodbye to Bladder Leakage: Understanding Causes and Solutions Part 1… All About Intra-Abdominal Pressure

Many times during an initial evaluation, a patient has told me that they have been doing kegels every day but they are still having leakage. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to feel that something so simple as contracting your pelvic floor like a bicep curl every day wouldn’t be able to ‘fix’ a very sensitive problem. When we begin to understand the many causes for bladder leakage, we can start to use a variety of solutions to say goodbye to leakage!

Sometimes it is just as simple as doing kegels, however, in my experience, there is much more going on than weakness in the pelvic floor that is causing leakage. Research shows this as well, especially for my CrossFit ladies! This is part 1 in a 6 part series talking about causes and solutions for bladder leakage.

One reason why leakage could be happening is that you may have difficulties with maintaining appropriate pressures in your abdomen during functional tasks. What the hell does that even mean??

Well, think of your abdomen as a piston and when you move, the piston moves accordingly. Sometimes, the piston can’t handle the pressure associated with the movement and the system becomes less efficient. Have you ever seen those stress balls that look like animals and when you squeeze the stress ball the eyes pop out?? It's like that.

​Here are a few techniques to help keep pressures under control:

• Practicing diaphragmatic breathing is a good place to start.

  • When we are stressed or not intuned with our body, we may inadvertently hold our breath to manage stress. But holding your breath puts A LOT of pressure on your pelvic floor.

  • One way to practice getting your diaphragmatic breathing reps in is to perform breathing whenever you go to the bathroom!

• Breathing while performing tasks or during exercise.

  • As a heads up, there are a variety of breathing patterns that can work for you. The most well known is exhaling on the hard part of a movement. For some, this type of breathing actually makes their leakage worse 🤦‍♀️

  • The lesson here really is to play around with what works for you! As Antony Lo says, learn all of the ways!

• Perform pelvic organ decompression

  • The point here is to offload the pelvic floor and let it get some rest. You can do this in a variety of ways!

    • Laying on your back with your legs supported on a wall.

    • Straping yourself into an inversion table

    • Supported handstand holds where your knees are on a plyo box and your forearms are on the ground (this is also amazing for my third trimester mamas!)

If you have any questions, you can email me at chrissy@dualitypelvichealthandwellness.com!

With love