Say Goodbye to Bladder Leakage: Understanding Causes and Solutions Part 4… All About The Musculoskeletal System

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.

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 4 of 6 discussing other reasons you could be having urinary leakage.

Today we are going to talk about musculoskeletal function! This means, we check the entire body (not just your pelvic floor) to see where the demand of life is affecting your bladder.

A typical musculoskeletal assessment from a pelvic health PT's perspective includes:

• Leg, core, and pelvic floor strength

• Pelvic floor coordination (we need to let it go baby!)

• Hip, low back, mid-back, neck, and TMJ mobility

• Posture in sitting and standing (as a heads up, there is no one perfect posture)

• Fascial and organ mobility

• Balance and foot mechanics

• How you perform functional movements such as squatting and strict pressing

This is exactly what the physical therapy profession is all about!

Here are a few musculoskeletal tendencies that increase the likelihood of leakage:

• Hip tightness and/or weakness

• Pelvic floor tightness and/or weakness

• Decreased low back and mid-back mobility

• Tension in the neck and TMJ region

• Decreased balance

• Limited foot awareness

• Not being able to feel comfortable in certain postures against gravity

• Fascial restrictions (especially in the belly)

• Less efficient techniques during lifting