Let's not #normalizeleakage
I came across an ad recently that made me nearly lose my shit.
It was for adult underwear.
The tagline is : "When you choose Poise, you're taking control of your LBL (Light Bladder Leakage)"
Ladies. You are all too smart to fall for this... But no. If you pee when you workout you are not a badass. You have urinary stress Incontinence. And you need to see a doctor. Not me, not a trainer, not even your ob/gyn. Please do not buy the trendiest, sexiest brand of adult diapers, go see a pelvic floor therapist.
What truly saddens me is how far we have come since I started training pregnancy and postpartum nearly 10 years ago... And now this. I came across this ad in Shape magazine. Which is marketed to young, fit, and impressionable women. Women who have either had babies or are hoping to have them someday, and who may see this and think, "hmm... This must be normal." It. Is. Not.
Regardless whether or not you have had a vaginal delivery. If you are experiencing pelvic pain, incontinence, prolapse, or discomfort, please go see a professional. Just doing a kegel isn't going to fix things down there, necessarily. There can be a solution.... And buying adult diapers isn't one of them.
In my many years of teaching jumping jacks in outdoor bootcamps, I came to notice they were often skipped by many of my female participants, and frequently followed by an emergency bathroom request. For whatever reason, jumping jacks are extremely triggering to those experiencing urinary stress incontinence. Same goes for many standing plyometric, high-impact exercises. I highly encourage my fewer than 6 month postpartum clients to avoid such exercises. The pelvic floor is usually still recovering at this point, and frankly, there are just better exercises out there!
If you're looking for a completely safe, butt-kicking workout you can do in 20 minutes, check out my spin program. All you need to do is download it, bring it to the gym, crank up your playlist, and go! There's no impact and it's safe for pregnancy as well. For examples of workouts and exercises that you can do at home, I have loads of them here. I hope this helps! Again, please GO see a pelvic floor therapist if you're still experiencing incontinence after 6 months postpartum. Don't be one of many who are assuming this is normal.
xoxox