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What are the Coordination exercises?
Coordinating squeeze and cough:
What is the Squeeze Before you Sneeze exercise?
Whenever you feel a sneeze, cough or laugh coming on, squeeze and hold your pelvic floor muscles as tightly as you can until the sneeze or cough is over. This exercise adds additional support to prevent urine leakage during a sneeze, cough or laugh.
What is the Squeeze & Relax exercise?
The Squeeze & Relax involves tightening the pelvic floor muscles inward and upward as tightly as you can, holding the squeeze for 3-5 seconds and then relaxing for 10 seconds. You will do 10 repetitions of the squeezing, holding, and relaxing.
Don’t worry if you cannot hold for very long or cannot do 10 in a row. As you get stronger, you will be able to hold the squeeze longer and do more squeezes. Work up to your goals at your own pace, remember that as with any exercise program, you will get better with practice.
What is the Quick Flick?
To do the Quick Flick, you contract your pelvic floor muscles rapidly and then let go immediately and completely, bringing the muscles back down to a relaxed state. You will do 10 quick flicks in a row.
What is the Pelvic Floor Elevator?
With the Pelvic Floor Elevator you imagine that there is an elevator at the bottom of your pelvic floor.
How does fluid intake affect the bladder?
Everyone knows that the amount of fluid we drink impacts our bladder symptoms. What not everyone knows is that drinking too little fluid can be just as bad for bladder symptoms as drinking too much fluid can be.
If you drink too much fluid, you will notice that you go to the bathroom more often than other people - but that is probably because you are making more urine than they are. A sign that you may be drinking too much fluid is that your urine will look very clear, like water. You can cut back on fluid by drinking only when you are thirsty, and drinking smaller amounts than you normally would. If you have a history of kidney stones or frequent bladder infections, your doctor may recommend that you drink lots of fluid. If your doctor has recommended that you drink lots of fluid, don't cut back without talking to him or her.
If you drink too little fluid, you may also go to the bathroom more often than other people, but not because you are making more urine. If you are not drinking enough fluid, your urine will be very concentrated (dark yellow in color, with a strong smell). Concentrated urine irritates the bladder lining and makes the bladder feel full when there is less fluid in it. Even though it sounds crazy, drinking more fluids will actually help your bladder hold more urine, because the urine will not be so irritating.
Drinking too little fluid can also worsen constipation. Constipation fills the space in the pelvis with stool (poop) so that there is less space for the bladder to store urine. Increasing your fluids will help with constipation, and empty some of that space so that the bladder can store more urine.
How do types of fluids affect the bladder?
How much urine should the bladder hold?
A comfortably full bladder should hold about 1 1/4 cups of urine (10 ounces). If you are curious about how much urine your bladder holds, you can measure it by peeing into a container when your bladder feels comfortably full (not painful, but you are ready to go to the toilet). Then mark the container and pour the urine into the toilet. Pour water from a measuring cup into the marked container to see how much urine was there.
Food triggers: Sometimes specific foods can be the cause of uncomfortable bowel and bladder symptoms. We can do an experiment to see if this is the case:
First, remove the food item from your diet for one week. Really pay attention to your symptoms and note if you feel a difference.
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If your bowel symptoms improve, that food (and other similar foods) may be a trigger, and we should continue to avoid it.
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If our bowel symptoms do not change, that food is probably not a trigger, and we can put it back into our diet.
To help with stool seepage after bowel movements, try the following before wiping:
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Place your feet hip-width apart, and place your hands at the outside of your knees.
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Push your knees out while resisting with your hands. While still pushing your knees out against your hands, squeeze the anal sphincter hard and hold for 10 seconds
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Relax for 10 seconds and move your hands to the inside of your knees
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Push your knees in while resisting with your hands. While still pushing your knees in against your hands, squeeze the anal sphincter hard and hold for 10 seconds
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Relax for 10 seconds
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Then, as you wipe, squeeze the sphincter hard, as if you are squeezing the remaining stool out onto the toilet paper.
Information used with permission from Michigan Bowel Control Program Patient Education by University of Michigan Health System is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Increase total fiber and fluid intake
Goal consistency,
maintain fiber amount
Type 5
Type 6
Type 7
Increase total fiber intake to bulk up stools
When we concentrate we often tend to hold our breath, it is important to breathe comfortably and evenly before, during, and after the exercises. Take 2 minutes before you start your exercises to focus on breathing. Relax your body, making sure your pelvic floor muscles are also relaxed and that you are not holding in your abdominal muscles.