Peeing your pants, also know as urinary incontinence or urinary leakage is common. Research is a little all over the place, but anywhere between 1 in 4, to 1 in 2 women over 30 years old, struggle with urinary incontinence. 

Urinary leakage can be triggered by:

High pressure activities such as coughing, sneezing, or laughing

High impact activities like running, and jumping

High load activities like squatting, and lifting

In normal circumstances, as pressure through the core increases (whether it be with coughing, jumping, or lifting), the strength through the pelvic floor muscles (the muscles that sit in the bottom of the pelvis) should also increase. 

However, in many situations, the strength of the pelvic floor isn’t enough to keep up with the pressure demands that are placed on it. When the pressure on the pelvic floor is greater than the strength of the pelvic floor, you will leak, or pee your pants.

In other situations, the pelvic floor strength may be normal, however it isn’t coordinating well with the other muscles such as your core and diaphragm. In these situations, leakage happens more because as your core pressure increases, your pelvic floor relaxes, instead of tightens. 

Whether the pelvic floor is simply not coordinating well with other muscles, or whether the pelvic floor is weak, proper pelvic floor training is necessary.

Pelvic floor training is best done with a pelvic floor physical therapist. Pelvic floor physical therapists are specialty trained physical therapists that can help you retrain the pelvic floor muscles.

Despite what many think, pelvic floor muscle retraining is a full body effort. The pelvic floor muscles work with the diaphragm, core, gluteal muscles, and hip muscles to help stabilize the pelvis and keep us from peeing our pants.

Therefore, pelvic floor training that only focuses on repetitive contractions of the pelvic floor is missing the key piece of coordinating the pelvic floor with other muscles.

Urinary leakage is rarely just a pelvic floor problem. So it is important that your pelvic floor rehab consist of full body, functional movements that are meaningful to you.

It is important that your pelvic floor physical therapist investigate exactly why the pelvic floor muscles are not functioning well, and provide an appropriate treatment plan to get them recruited with the rest of the surrounding muscles. 

In summary, urinary leakage, or peeing your pants, is often caused because the pelvic floor is not able to withstand the extra pressure that is placed on it. Working with a pelvic floor physical therapist to help improve strength and coordination of the pelvic floor in functional, meaningful ways is the key to relief of your symptoms.

Other resources for urinary incontinence:

• Treatment for Urinary Leakage

• Am I Leaking Urine or Discharge?

• Why Is My Bladder So Weak All Of a Sudden: Uncovering The Reasons For Your Urinary Leakage