Straining to Pee?Here is how to Relax Your Pelvic Floor and Empty Better
I love it when patients are in my office and they say, how is it possible that I have made it all these years and apparently do not know how to pee. This comes after being told by their physician that they pee wrong and need to see me, a pelvic floor physical therapist.
Many people grew up rushing to pee so they started pushing their pee out early on in life. However, pushing or straining is not healthy for your bladder or your pelvic floor.
Peeing should be a fairly passive process. You relax your pelvic floor muscles and your bladder muscle does the work. When you push or strain, you make your bladder muscle lazy.
Pushing to pee puts undue strain on your pelvic floor muscles and in turn that may start to increase pelvic floor tension. Between your pelvic floor becoming tense and your bladder muscle becoming lazy, this can lead to incomplete bladder emptying.
Many women also start a habit of pushing urine out because they believe they need to get every drop of urine out or they may end up with a UTI or they may leak urine. In truth, it is actually normal to have urine left in your bladder. You could have 50-60cc’s left after peeing and that would be considered normal. That is not an amount our brain or bladder should be aware of and it is not going to cause someone to have a UTI.
🌟Signs you may be pushing urine out without realizing it. Look for:
-A stop and start urine flow
-Feeling like you did not empty well
-Tightening your abdominal muscles
-Bearing down
-Believe you need to get every drop of urine out
If any of these sound familiar, your bladder and pelvic floor may need a rest.
🌟How to Empty Your Bladder Without Pushing
Sit up tall with legs wide open (may need to drop pants below knees)
If urine stream does not start initially, you may lean forward a little or a lot to provide a little intra-abdominal pressure without having to strain. However, once stream starts, it is important to sit back up nice and tall
Relax your pelvic floor muscles. This may require that you GENTLY squeeze your pelvic floor muscles so you can then feel yourself fully release your pelvic floor muscles.
Try and think of keeping your belly relaxed, your pelvic floor and inner thigh muscles relaxed
Follow with 1-2 deep diaphragmatic breaths
👉Check out our FREE Pelvic Health & Nutrition Guide pelvicpathways.com/freeprogram
You can learn more extensive tips to empty your bladder without straining as well as many other bowel, bladder and nutrition tips to help support a healthy pelvic floor.