Something we never really talk about with others, but a large section of the community suffer from bladder or bowel leakage when under load from sneezing/lifting/reaching (stress incontinence) or simply find it difficult to control their urge when they “really need to go, RIGHT NOW!” (urge incontinence).
Most common in women who’ve had children, particularly difficult births, and in men who’ve had prostate surgery, but can happen to ANYONE who has had disc injury in their lower back (L5/S1).
In most cases, this is *entirely* retrainable with progressive pelvic floor exercises. These start with learning how to feel where the muscles contract and engaging them for increasing periods of time, and then gradually adding in leg and arm movements to teach you how to hold them while moving. Eventually, they will turn on automatically, without you needing to think about them.
This is an embarrassing problem for those who deal with it. Often people wont drink before they leave home to reduce the bladder load, and this can lead to dehydration and kidney stones.
If you suffer from this uncomfortable problem, please talk to your physiotherapist about how you can fix it!