Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) gets in the way of physical activity for women of a certain age. The small release of urine during activity can keep you out of the gym.
Your pelvic floor muscles are easy to forget about until they weaken. Putting a pad down to catch the urine doesn’t resolve the muscle weakness.
Those muscles need training so they’re strong enough to control urine flow.
Kegel exercises are the contraction and relaxation of vaginal and anal muscles. You can do them in your chair a few times a day and no one will be the wiser.
There are other exercises for strengthening your pelvic floor. Aligning your breathing with contractions of your pelvic floor may strengthen the muscles even more.
You should have a noticeable difference in your pelvic floor in eight to twelve weeks. You have to do the exercises daily.
Listen as Dr. Sara Terrell joins Dr. Pamela Peeke to discuss SUI and how to strenghten your pelvic floor muscles.
Sponsor:
Smarty Pants Vitamins
Featuring:
Sara Terrell, PhD
Sara Lynn Terrell, PhD, (Eastern Michigan University) is an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science and the Exercise Science Program Director at Florida Southern College (FSC), Lakeland, Florida (2014-present).
She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (2001-present) through the National Strength & Conditioning Association(NSCA), an active member of the NSCA-FL State Advisory Board (2014-present) and holds USA-Weightlifting Level 1 Coaching Certification. She is also a professional member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
Prior to FSC, she was an Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology at Ohio Northern University (ONU) and the Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach (2002-2010) with direct oversight into the design and implementation of women’s basketball strength and conditioning. She worked as a strength and conditioning coach for men’s and women’s swimming (ONU, 2013-2014) and became the Adult Fitness Coordinator for HEALTHWISE, an employee disease state management and wellness program (ONU, 2010-2014), with oversight into the clinical, wellness, and exercise initiatives for campus employees. Sara also worked in the fitness industry as an Exercise Specialist for the University of Michigan MFIT Health Promotion Division.
Sara’s research interests span the multitude of her experiences and involve optimizing sports performance, reducing barriers to physical activity, improving worksite wellness initiatives, and developing high impact pedagogy practices.
