Can yoga help with bladder control?

Be it bladder incontinence, a frequent urge to pee, or a struggle to fully empty the bladder, the mindful somatic skills of yoga can help improve your experience in the bathroom! Along with practical tools like elevating the feet on a stool or blocks to help relax your pelvic floor muscles, building a greater sense of body and mind awareness can improve your experience with bladder control.

Pranayama (Breathing) Practices

There is a crucial piece of information missing from many’s understanding of bladder control, and that is the connection between the diaphragm of the lungs and the pelvic floor. Many people learn to breathe in their chests, where their shoulders rise up and down - this is known as chest breathing, shallow breathing, or reverse breathing. Breath that fully engages the lungs is called diaphragmatic breath, or belly breath, where the lungs expand downwards and out, which in turn shifts the belly downwards and out, and ultimately, expands the pelvic floor as all of the organs of the torso and pelvis subtly shift with each breath. With the exhale, the pelvic floor relaxes and subtly moves upwards, as does the diaphragm. Try placing a hand on your upper belly, and inhaling slowly so that the hand moves outwards. As you exhale, notice how the hand draws inwards. With practice, you can tune into the movement through the whole belly, into the pelvic floor. You might start to notice that when you breathe in your chest, breath is more limited and the body feels tighter - which can make it harder to relax the pelvic floor as well!

This breathing practice builds self awareness of the subtle sensations of the pelvic floor, and how it feels when engaged vs relaxed.

Asana (Physical) Practices

Once you understand the mechanics of diaphragmatic / pelvic floor breathing, you can apply this breath to movement practices as well. Try this short yoga practice that focuses on setu bandha sarvangasana, bridge pose, and notice how this breath technique engages your core and pelvic floor:

Mindfulness Practices

You can take these breathing and movement practices into the bathroom! Mindfully emptying your bladder can help with experiences like frequent urges to pee, difficulties emptying the bladder, and bladder urgency. Using deep belly breathing can relax the pelvic floor and encourage fully letting go once you are on the toilet. Likewise, developing greater core strength and a mobile, responsive pelvic floor can help with incontinence during coughs, sneezes, or laughter.

Shelly Prosko, the founder of PhysioYoga and an industry leader in Yoga Therapy, has developed a mindful toileting meditation that I strongly recommend to people struggling to fully empty their bladders. Read the following excerpt from Shelly’s blog post, and check the link if you’d like an audio version!

A = Awareness: a brief body scan from head to toe simply observing sensations that you may be experiencing both externally and internally, without judgement. You may include awareness of thoughts and emotions, without elaborating on a story or analyzing.

I = Imagination: use your visualization skills to imagine your pelvic floor and the general area where the PFMs are located: they expand across the inside of the front, sides and back of the pelvis, the tailbone and sacrum. Visualize where the bladder and bowel are positioned and imagine them emptying and that the PFM’s spanning across the pelvic floor are healthy and functioning optimally.

R = Release & Relax: let go of any tension in the PFM’s as best as you can. Releasing and relaxing these muscles can sometimes be difficult for a variety of reasons. Letting go may take courage, trust, concentration and practise.

B = Breathe: allow your natural breath pattern to emerge. Sometimes when we ‘try’ to breathe, we create more tension that results in unnatural patterns that don’t serve a relaxed state. As you quietly inhale, the belly will naturally go ‘out’ and the pelvic floor will descend. As you exhale, the belly and PFM’s will return to their resting positions. During toileting, see if you can simply allow the quiet rhythm of the abdomino-pelvic diaphragmatic breath to happen on its own without trying to change it.

A = Allow: this ‘allowing’ is a little more than just releasing and relaxing or allowing the breath to happen on its own. See if you can really give yourself permission to trust that your body knows what to do and when to do it. Perhaps you feel the need to ‘push’ gently (do not strain) or you do feel like you want to take a deep breath or lean forward or place your feet in a different position. The more refined your awareness skills are, the more you can trust what feels right, and not always what you think you should do.

G = Gratitude: I think it is a healthy practice to not only be completely present and mindful when toileting, but to also honour this sophisticated and truly complex function that our body does for us on a daily basis without us even asking it to. So each time you complete your toileting event, see what it feels like to send a little gratitude to your body and all its incredibly phenomenal parts to end your toilet meditation (TM)!!

If you are looking for one on one support, yoga therapy can create an integrative plan for your unique body and experiences. I am accepting new clients via interest list. Want more accessible, welcoming yoga classes? Join us for a group class online or become a member for unlimited group classes and members only workshops!