Like a ton of people in the metro, I spent about 12 hours at Arrowhead last Saturday for the Taylor Swift concert. After hearing conversations of several of the women in my group and observing the bathroom lines for most of the show (and the fact that the bathrooms ran out of toilet paper at one point).. I feel it is my duty to help educate people on things they can do to improve their pelvic floor/bladder health so they do not have to miss their favorite song or a game winning drive next season.
1) Drink at least half of your body weight in ounces of water daily – add electrolytes as needed, especially if you are sweating a lot.
If your bladder is not used to having very much liquid in it (our dehydrated friends) it is going to be more sensitive to anything you put in it and make you feel like you have to pee with small amounts of fluid in bladder.
2) Stop “just in case” peeing….. PLEASE.
Every time you use the bathroom without the sensation from your brain telling you to go, you are interrupting the natural feedback loops that tell you when you need to go. This makes you think you need to go more often than you actually do. And if you are using the restroom without the urge to go, you are most likely pushing your urine out which brings me to point.
3) DO NOT PUSH YOUR URINE OUT!
This just confuses your brain and is completely backward of how urine is meant to exit our bodies. Your feet should be flat on the ground, take a couple of diaphragmatic breaths if you need help relaxing the muscles in your pelvis and let your bladder push the urine out like it is supposed to.
It is almost impossible to improve your bladder health in one day, but the great thing is that there are so many easy changes we can make in HOW we use the restroom to help ourselves. It takes a little conscious attention in the beginning to change habits, but with some up-front effort you too could make it through Taylor’s whole 3.5 hour set list without a trip to the bathroom
Tanner Hampton
PT, DPT, SFMA, Certified Functional Dry Needling L1,
TFA (The Female Athlete), GGS Certified Pre- and Postnatal Coach
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