Episode #38 - 5 tips to stop peeing your pants when you jump
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In this episode, Rhonda shares 5 tips to stop peeing your pants when you jump
The 5 tips are:
1️⃣ Slight lean forward of your torso
This helps to put your pelvic floor in a more optimal position to support the pressure of jumping. Think "tits over toes" as my mentor Brianna Battles would say!
2️⃣ Soft landing
Try to land "quietly" to absorb the force and decrease the impact to the pelvic floor.
3️⃣ Exhale on the landing
Sometimes this can be the easiest way for the pelvic floor to contract to absorb the force of landing. This isn’t the only way however! When in doubt, just keep breathing when you're jumping!
4️⃣ Keep pelvic floor muscles RELAXED
This may seem counterintuitive, but trying to hold a contraction/ kegel as you jump may actually tire out the pelvic floor and lead to more symptoms!
5️⃣ Start with low reps, and gradually work up to more over days/ weeks
Slowly build your body's tolerance to the impact of jumping by easing into it vs. trying to start with high volume.
Plus two bonus tips:
🔹 From Antony Lo - “develop high slow singles” with skipping before progressing to double understanding
🔹 Beth Halford - “wear shoes with a little more cushioning to absorb some impact until you've built a little more strength”
We hope these tips help you have less fear of peeing your pants with jumping!
➡️ We would LOVE if you would share this episode with a friend, drop a star rating or leave us a review!
Mentioned in this episode:
🔹 Antony Lo (The Physio Detective)
🔹 Beth Halford (KW Pelvic Health)
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Episode #38 - 5 tips to stop peeing your pants when you jump
We're excited to have you join us for this episode of Pelvic Health and Fitness. I'm Dayna Morellato, Mom, Orthopedic and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. And I'm Rhonda Chamberlain, Mom, Orthopedic Physiotherapist and Pre Postnatal Fitness Coach. On this show, we have open and honest conversations about all phases of motherhood, including fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, menopause, and everything in between.
We also provide helpful education and information on fitness, the pelvic floor, and many aspects of women's health, including physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Please remember as you listen to this podcast that this is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical conditions. Please contact your medical provider if you have specific questions or concerns.
Thanks so much for joining us. Grab a cup of coffee. Or wine. And enjoy!
Hey friends, welcome back to the Pelvic Health and Fitness Podcast. Rhonda here, I'm going to be doing a solo episode today, all about five tips to stop peeing your pants when you jump. So this can be when you skip, when you jump on a trampoline, when you just jump in general.
Um, this can also apply somewhat to running. So any higher impact movement. So if you're someone that enjoys CrossFit, for example, skipping is typically involved, uh, box jumps, things like that. So I will give you some examples as we go of ways to ideally stop the incontinent symptoms that you're dealing with.
with these movements. Um, I'll start out by saying the gold standard for any issues involving the pelvic floor. So whether that's leaking, heaviness, pain, pressure, um, in and around your pelvis, uh, definitely worthwhile to get an internal pelvic floor assessment done. If you have the means just to see what actually is going on internally with those muscles.
Um, with that said, if that is not accessible to you, these tips. might be helpful. So I would say it's a good baseline. It's a good couple of tricks and tips to try. Um, if it's not helping, then definitely I would say get in for an assessment for those symptoms. So let's get into it. Um, the first thing that I often recommend for clients is try a slight lean forward of your torso.
So this again can apply for skipping, um, even jumping jacks. This is something that I often tell clients if they get, uh, leaking or any pressure type symptoms with jumping jacks. If you, so this is coming from your hips. So if you're, uh, standing up tall, if you just do a slight lean forward from your hips, Um, one of my mentors, Brianna Battles likes to say tits over toes, which is a cute little way to remember it.
So what this does is it helps to just put your pelvic floor in a little bit more optimal position to support that pressure of jumping. So just give that a try. Um, again, this can help with skipping as well. So many of us, I know when I was doing CrossFit, I had a tendency to sort of, um, Arch my back and kind of jut my rib cage out when I was skipping.
Um, and I didn't get any leaking symptoms, but I would, uh, just get really fatigued doing it that way. It's almost a lot more energy versus if I were to sort of slightly lean forward, it's just a little bit more efficient for our system. So give that one a try. Number two, try to aim for a softer landing.
So I always say, I remember as a gymnast, my coach would say land quietly. So when we're skipping, we shouldn't necessarily hear loud pounding every time we land. Um, again, if I go back to my CrossFit days, when I was first learning double unders, and this is super common. Because again, we don't quite have the technique down, had a tendency to really have a hard pounding land with each rep.
So just try your best to have that softer landing. So this can again apply for something like a jumping jack instead of sort of like stomping. Through that movement, just try to be a bit gentler. Um, this definitely really applies for if again, you're someone that enjoys CrossFit, uh, box jumps. So box jumps is a common one for people to jump and have that really hard land.
What that does, it can just put a little bit of more added pressure up through the system. So up through the pelvic floor, it's just a lot more force to absorb. If we're having that hard, uh, fast landing versus if we do that. soft, quiet landing, the forces get absorbed a little better all the way up the system.
So it's not as much strain and pressure, uh, through the pelvic floor, which could then potentially minimize leaking symptoms or heaviness or pressure with that movement. So number three. So Dana and I talk a lot on this podcast about breathing and the importance of breathing, um, how to use our breath to potentially minimize symptoms and help us again just move a bit more efficiently.
So one way, sort of the easiest way to access this is thinking about exhale on exertion and on exertion with a jump would be exhale on the landing. So sometimes this is just the easiest way to help the pelvic floor with timing to sort of contract at the right time to absorb that force on the landing.
Um, And I will say with all of these tips, this is not the only way to do it. So also I tell my clients, don't get obsessed and, you know, beat yourself up of, Oh, I didn't breathe out on that one. Right. So don't, it's not a hard and fast rule. Again, these are just little tips and tricks to try. Um, but one of my mentors, Anthony Lowe, he always likes to say, try all the ways.
So if that's not working for you, try. Inhaling as you land, try exhaling as you take off. There's no, again, right or wrong way, it's just little tips and tricks that might work, um, and just doing it differently than what you were doing to see if that helps to minimize symptoms. So again, if you're thinking with skipping, um, this is more so if you're doing like a slower skip, it's hard to exhale with every breath as you get into faster skipping.
But yeah, nice, slow, skip and try breathing out as you land. Same thing with jumping jacks. Jump out and land. Okay, and then box jump, same thing, take off and then as you land on the box, breathe out and just see if that does help. Um, again, these can apply to being on a trampoline as well. Um, just again, focusing on that breathing with every landing on that trampoline.
Um, number four is this one sounds counterintuitive, but we want to keep the pelvic floor muscles relaxed. So super common and understandable. If we are someone that pees our pants when we jump, it only makes sense that we're going to clench and grip and squeeze anything possible to not pee our pants. Um, The thing that happens with this though, is if we are constantly gripping and squeezing our pelvic floor, especially for example, if we're doing a lot of skipping, so say again, you're into CrossFit and you're doing a workout with like a hundred skips, a hundred double unders over time, that strategy is going to fatigue those muscles and might not necessarily help to keep that urine in.
So we, again, Dana and I use this example a lot. If I were to grip and squeeze my bicep. Throughout an entire workout, it's going to get pretty tired and it's not going to be able to contract any further to help me do whatever movement it is that I'm doing. Same thing with the pelvic floor. If I'm gripping and squeezing throughout that entire workout, as I get more fatigued, as those muscles get more fatigued, that is when, um, leaking can happen because they just don't have that endurance to sustain that contraction.
And they're also fully contracted. So they can't contract any further to absorb that force to prevent that leaking. Um, this again can translate into symptoms like pressure, prolapse symptoms as well or pain. So as hard as it is, and this is again something you can practice and build like stamina for it.
Try to keep your pelvic floor muscles relaxed when you jump, which again, you're like probably thinking Rhonda, you're crazy. That's not going to work, but trust me on this one. And again, just take your time to work on it. Same thing goes, this is a big one with runners. Um, a lot of runners that deal with incontinence do have that habit of gripping their pelvic floor and also gripping their abs.
So just be mindful. Um, this also is a big one with skipping, check in with yourself and see if you're squeezing your belly too. Cause typically if you're squeezing your belly, you're very likely contracting and gripping your pelvic floor as well. So just give yourself a little shake. And shimmy reset, try to do those reps again with a more relaxed body.
Um, again, practice it, give it a go. And the last one is try to start with low reps and slowly build your tolerance to more reps without leaking. Over weeks, days, um, days, weeks, months. This is gonna depend on the person. So I wish I could give you a hard and fast rule of do this many reps on day one. This, you know, I can't do that because we're, our bodies are all different and how our body adapts, um, is different.
But that is typically a good way to, again, just progress and build that capacity of your tissues to tolerate the load. Of jumping, skipping, running, that type of thing versus, um, you know, we talk about athlete brain a lot on this podcast. I was guilty of this, of, you know, getting that eight week or six week checkup.
All right, good to go. And go right back to like a heavy volume workout and just expect our body to tolerate that. Um, we just can't expect our body to do that. So that is why I am all about. Sort of that slow, gradual return to exercise because it gives our body that chance to continue healing, continue adapting as we slowly add volume to our movements.
So again, this, it's hard to give you hard and fast rules here. I can't. So https: otter. ai If you're struggling with this one and you would appreciate guidance, definitely recommend working with a postpartum fitness coach just to give you somewhat of a plan to follow, um, and just give you that feedback and that guidance along the way, if symptoms are arising with workouts that involve running, skipping, jumping, or just day to day life, if you're someone that pees your pants when you're jumping on the trampoline with your kiddos.
Working with a postpartum fitness coach, working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist will just give you that, um, that guidance and that support and that encouragement that you need to get you back to that activity without peeing your pants. It is possible. I know it's how some of you that maybe have dealt with this symptom for so long might think it's impossible, but 100 percent is possible.
So those are my five tips. Um, of course there's nuance to this conversation. And again, this might not work for everybody, but it is a really awesome place to start. Um, I do have a couple bonus tips. So this actually was a post that I, I put up long time ago that, uh, a lot of people really appreciated. Um, so a couple of my friends and mentors messaged me as well to give me some bonus tips.
So Anthony Lowe, the physio detective, what he recommends when it comes to skipping is develop, um, a capacity for high, slow singles. So if you're a CrossFitter. Trying to get back to double unders and you're peeing your pants, try high, slow, single. So jumping sort of as high as you can nice and slow and work on all of those techniques above, um, and just see how your body adapts to that.
Before you get back to double unders double unders typically is just a higher, um, demand skill. Um, there's more technique involved. There's more sort of things that can go wrong when we go from a single to a As many of us know. So if we get really proficient and symptom free with those high, slow singles, that is typically a good indication that we can start working into some, some doubles.
And what I used to recommend as a coach is, um, if again, you're symptomatic with double unders do a mixture of the two. So try like single, double, single, double, see how you do with that. And then slowly progress back to full double unders. And then my friend Beth Halford, who, uh, on Instagram, and I'll post these in the show notes, is KW Pelvic Health.
She also recommended wearing, wearing shoes with a little bit more cushioning in the beginning to help absorb some of that impact. Until you build it back, build back a little bit more strength. So this is good for those postpartum people that are just getting back to exercise. Or if you're someone who's been away from exercise for a while, haven't built that capacity, that strength for that movement yet, give yourself just a little bit of cushioning with a softer shoe to see if that will help absorb that landing until you get back that strength that you need for the movement.
So again, I'll just reiterate. It is always good, uh, beneficial to work with an internal therapist just to see what's going on with your pelvic floor individually, um, to see if these symptoms or see if these techniques are going to help you and see if there's anything else that they can recommend to minimize those symptoms.
Because you don't need to leak when you jump, that should be something you can do without peeing your pants. So just to summarize, um, wrap this up, the tips, five tips for, uh, minimizing leaking with jumping are number one, that slight lean forward of your torso. Number two, try that soft, quiet landing.
Number three, trying to exhale. So breathe out on your landing number four, try to keep your pelvic floor muscles relaxed in your tummy, relaxed as much as you can. And then number five, start with low reps and gradually work those up over several days, weeks, et cetera. So hopefully that helps let me know if this is helpful for you.
I would love to hear from you. You can message me on Instagram. Let me know how it goes. Thanks for listening to today's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you liked what you heard, we would love if you could share this with a friend, leave us a review, or subscribe to anywhere that you listen to your podcasts.
Thanks for being here.
