More Pelvic Floor - Lesson 3 - 8-to-15 P - Let it Flow
More Pelvic Floor - Lesson 3 - Hold It, Let it Flow
Potty training for Grown Ups
The topic this week is the taboo subject of continence. It’s starting to become fashionable to address, finally:
New York Magazine’s The Cut - Why Did No One Tell Me About the Pelvic Floor
October 20, 2020, “In Her Words” column in the New York Times, two professional women who survived postpartum incontinence discuss the books they wrote on the topic.
Did you know that, according to the Mayo Clinic, urine incontinence, or the involuntary leakage of urine, is a common symptom that affects 1 in 4 women. Prevalence of this problem increases with age, as up to 75 percent of women above age 65 report urine leakage.
NIH Council on Aging wants you to know that as you get older, the bladder changes. The elastic bladder tissue may toughen and become less stretchy. A less stretchy bladder cannot hold as much urine as before and might make you go to the bathroom more often. The bladder wall and pelvic floor muscles may weaken, making it harder to empty the bladder fully and causing urine to leak.
I do not wish to join these statistics.
image source: www.myhealth.alberta.ca
This week’s lesson is dedicated to leak prevention. Did you know that a healthy stream lasts 8-15 seconds. Less than that and you are peeing too often. You might need to recalibrate your nervous system for less frequency. Over 15 seconds and you are waiting too long.
More Pelvic Floor - Lesson 3 - 8-to-15 P, is supine (lie on your back) lesson with a lot of pelvic rocking to establish a kinesthetic sense of the pelvic floor. First come the abs, then gradually we add contractions of the anus and ureter. This is the first step towards letting if flow, or not, as you want.
In the science nerd section, we delve into the mechanics neuroscience of of mictrition (peeing).
Female Pelvic Floor Muscle – 3D animation (muscles of peeing)
How Do We Pee – 3D Animation. (Science art – includes nervous system up to 1:50))
You might also want to review these anatomy 3D simulations of the pelvic floor musculature and fascia: