Stop Leaking When You Run!

Authored by The Bodyful Team

Leaking Urine While Running? You’re Not Alone—and There Is Help

You may have gone through the process of giving birth, given yourself time to heal, and now feel ready to return to the activities you love.

Or, you may have never given birth and still notice urine leakage when running or exercising.

You might leak urine while running or jumping without an urge to pee.

Or you may feel a sudden, compelling urge to urinate during running or jumping—even if you just went to the bathroom.

Maybe you pause, try again, and the leaking continues.

This experience can be frustrating, discouraging, and confusing—but pelvic floor physical therapy can help.

Why Leaking While Running Happens

Running places unique demands on the body. Unlike walking, where shock is shared between both feet, running is partly a single-leg activity. When only one foot contacts the ground at a time, this means higher impact forces must be absorbed through the pelvis, hips, core, and pelvic floor.

The pelvis is a central hub for shock absorption and force transfer.
If pressure is not being distributed efficiently, the pelvic floor may become overloaded—leading to urine leakage while running, jumping, or sprinting.

This leakage does not always mean your pelvic floor is “weak.”
Often, it reflects coordination, timing, posture, balance, breathing patterns, and load management across the whole body.

How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Helps with Running-Related Leakage

Pelvic floor physical therapists are trained to look beyond symptoms and assess how your entire movement system supports continence during impact activities like running.

A pelvic floor PT assessment may include:

• Posture and how it changes with coughing, sneezing, laughing, jumping, and running

• Core muscle strength and coordination above the pelvis

• Balance and single-leg stability

• Hip and gluteal muscle strength and timing

• Breathing strategies and abdominal pressure management and activation during load transfers

A pelvic floor specialist may also guide you through an internal pelvic floor assessment, if appropriate and with consent. This allows your therapist to evaluate:

• Pelvic floor muscle coordination

• Strength and endurance

• Ability to relax and lengthen

• Flexibility and responsiveness under load

You will learn how your pelvic floor functions during running—and how to train it so that urine leakage when running can decrease or resolve.
Your care is always individualized. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

What If You Feel Urgency When Running or Jumping?

If you experience a sudden, strong urge to urinate during running—even after recently peeing—your bladder may be overly sensitive.

In this case, pelvic floor physical therapy may include:

• Bladder education

• Bladder training

• Guidance around hydration, timing, and habits

• Nervous system resourcing approaches

These practices help your bladder become less reactive so that urgency does not interrupt movement or exercise.

Posture, Balance, and Pelvic Floor Support

Posture plays a significant role in how well your pelvic floor can respond during impact.

Try this short exploration:

Stand and feel your weight resting into your heels. Perform a pelvic floor contraction.

Now shift your weight slightly forward from your ankles, keeping your heels down. Perform the contraction again.

Notice any difference in strength, clarity, or ease.

Even subtle shifts in weight can change pelvic floor engagement.

Now try balancing on one leg. Close your eyes.
Can you maintain balance for 30 seconds?

If this feels challenging, your pelvic floor may be compensating for reduced balance input from your feet and hips. Over time, this compensation can contribute to leaking while running.

Why Whole-Body Retraining Is Foundational

Running-related urine leakage is rarely about one muscle acting alone. It reflects how your feet, hips, pelvis, spine, breath, and nervous system work together under load transfers and impact.

Working with a pelvic physical therapist who understands movement patterns and nervous system supports can be transformative. Short-term, mindful retraining often leads to long-term changes that feel sustainable, confident, and enjoyable.

Return to Running Without Leakage

At Bodyful Physical Therapy and Wellness, our goal is always to support your return to movement and activities that bring you joy.

We offer comprehensive assessments and dynamic treatment approaches designed to help address urine leakage when running, jumping, or exercising.

Change is possible—and you don’t have to navigate this alone.

If you are in the state of California, book a discovery call to learn more about treating leaking while running.
We offer Telehealth and in-person pelvic floor physical therapy, and our office is located in Oakland, CA.