Stop Leaking When You Run!

Authored by The Bodyful Team

You may have gone through the process of giving birth and you have given yourself time to heal and you are ready to return to the activities you love. Or, you may have never given birth but you leak urine when you exercise. 

You may surprisingly leak urine while running or jumping, without an urge to pee. 

Or you may experience strong, compelling urges to urinate during jumping or running, even if you have just peed. 

Maybe you take a break and try again, but the leakage continues to happen. 

Pelvic floor physical therapy can help!

How? 

• Pelvic floor physical therapists will look at your posture and how your posture changes in response to coughing, sneezing, laughing, and jumping. 

• A pelvic floor physical therapy visit would include testing the strength of your core muscles above your pelvis, how well you balance, and the strength and coordination of your hip stabilization muscles including your gluteal muscles. 

• A pelvic floor expert can also guide you through an internal pelvic floor exploration. During an internal pelvic floor assessment, your pelvic therapist will assess your pelvic floor muscles coordination, strength, endurance, relaxation, and flexibility, and will teach you how your pelvic floor muscles can be trained for running so you stop leaking!

In order to more comprehensively support the pelvic floor, your whole body and your movement system will be considered.

You will receive an individualized “prescription” for pelvic floor exercises, or “kegels.”

One of the first things to consider when leakage occurs primarily with running is the mechanics of running itself. Unlike walking where shock can be distributed through both feet, running is a relative single leg activity where only one foot is making contact with the ground at any given time. When considering pelvic health, it is important to understand that the pelvis is a central area of shock absorption and movement. 

Your pelvic floor physical therapist will see how your feet, knees, pelvis, hips, breathing patterns, and head position are all working together to decrease or stop leaking urine while running. 

Do you experience a sudden compelling urge to urinate when you are jumping, even if you already peed? 

Your pelvic physical therapist will guide you through appropriate bladder training and more optimal bladder habits so that you can understand what your bladder is asking for and to train it to be less sensitive. 

Have you had a baby? Very commonly with postpartum people, there can be a shift in your posture, exacerbated by carrying your kiddos, and this posture can cause strain on your pelvic floor.

Take a moment to experience this:

• Stand up and feel your weight in your heels. Now try to perform a pelvic floor contraction. 

• Now try to shift your weight forward from the ankles, keeping your heels down. Perform a pelvic floor contraction again. Notice if you felt anything different.

This guided experience may show you how shifting your weight can change your pelvic floor awareness and sense of strength.

Now, try to balance on one leg. Close your eyes. Closing your eyes requires that you use your feet more. Can you balance for at least 30 seconds? If not, your pelvic floor is likely compensating for the lack of balance from your feet. The compensation can cause weakness and cause urinary leakage when running. 

Working with a pelvic physical therapist focused on movement patterns and nervous system retraining can be invaluable. Taking the time to invest in mindful movement retraining for the short term can create sustainable and pleasurable movement patterns for the long term.

At Bodyful Physical Therapy and Wellness, our goal is always to help you return to the movements and activities that bring you joy. We are comprehensive in our assessments and dynamic in our treatment styles. Consider booking an appointment if running with leakage is something you are struggling with- you can absolutely make a change and we would be honored to facilitate that change alongside you!

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