Bladder leakage with exercise is NOT normal.
I had the opportunity to help a patient awhile back. Let’s call her Ashley. When I met Ashley, she told me her story, an all too common tale for many women. Here’s her story… […]Bladder leakage with exercise is NOT normal.
I had the opportunity to help a patient awhile back. Let’s call her Ashley. When I met Ashley, she told me her story, an all too common tale for many women. Here’s her story…
Ashley is a 31 year old mother of two kiddos under the age of 3. Her youngest was born 6 months prior to the time she came in to see me.
In the past, she exercised a few days per week varying her activity from walks around her neighborhood, to boot camp and strengthening classes at the gym, to the occasional run.
At 6 weeks postpartum, when she was cleared to return to exercise from her OB/GYN, she returned to regular walks pushing a double stroller. Her body felt pretty good overall.
At around 8 weeks postpartum, she returned to the gym for her first boot camp class. She realized quickly how little strength she had in her body, especially her abdomen. What startled her most was that she could not seem to do any jumping exercises without a trickle of urine coming out.
Ashley fully admitted she figured the leakage was a fluke- maybe she hadn’t emptied her bladder fully, or she drank too much water before class… but it wasn’t a fluke.
Ashley explained to me that her urinary leakage continued to happen every time she would jump during boot camp— jump squats, jumping jacks, even with mountain climbers. Then she noticed leaking urine when she would cough or sneeze. Her problem seemed to be getting worse, not better.
She was frustrated.
She couldn’t exercise like she wanted to, nor could she let out a cough or sneeze without fear she would pee herself. She eventually stopped going to boot camp classes and started wearing a pantyliner “just in case.”
Then one day, scrolling through social media, she read a post on how physical therapy could help with bladder issues. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. That’s when she called me at 6 months postpartum.
She told me her goal was to be free of leakage again— to not leak urine when she jumped, coughed, or sneezed. She wanted to return to bootcamp classes 2 times per week and potentially run a 5k in the future.
She did not want to wear a pad every day. She did not want to feel limited by her bladder problems.
Ashley met with me for weekly appointments to start, then phased down to appointments every few weeks as she saw improvement in her urinary leakage. We worked together on focused strategies and exercises to target her specific problem areas.
By the end of our time together, she wasn’t leaking any longer with a cough or sneeze. Ashley had returned to boot camp classes without fear of bladder problems.
Ashley told me at her final visit, “I am so grateful that I found pelvic physical therapy. No woman should have to live in fear of her bladder. And I’m thankful I no longer have to.”
If you have a story similar to Ashley, we want you to know that you are not alone. 1 in 3 women will experience bladder leakage some time in their lifetime. You DO NOT need to live with it. Pelvic Physical Therapy can help. If you are experiencing bladder leakage with exercise, contact us at 636-225-3649 to set up a free discovery session to see if Pelvic Physical Therapy is right for you.
