Core Specialist, Cheryl Coppa with what you need to know before treating your unitary incontinence and how to stay safe (#3 will shock you)
By Cheryl Coppa
Surgery Should be the Last Resort
1. Most physicians will recommend solving this with surgery or will refer you to a PT. If surgery can be avoided, definitely make this your last resort, and explore all other avenues before opting for surgery. Surgery is not going to address WHY you are having this problem in the first place. You have to find out WHAT it is you are doing or not doing in your daily life that is causing this issue. Besides injury, childbearing, and aging, it does come down to what you are doing in your daily life. If we do not address this issue, it does come back, regardless of surgery. Our bodies are amazing machines and while certain things cannot be avoided in childbearing/birth and aging, there are steps we can take before, during, and after, even years/ decades after to fix this for good! Modern-day life has us more sedentary than ever and this 100% contributes to pelvic floor dysfunctions such as incontinence. Maybe you are really active and fit and still suffer from incontinence. This is actually very common and brings me back to WHAT are you doing or not doing? This is what we need to find out and correct in order to solve this issue. The pelvic floor muscles are muscles. So they can be trained and rehabbed, just like any other muscle.
"You have to find out WHAT it is you are doing or not doing in your daily life that is causing urinary incontinence. Besides injury, childbearing, and aging, it does come down to what you are doing in your daily life. If we do not address this issue, it does come back, regardless of surgery." Core Specialist, Cheryl Coppa
PT Sessions may involve Inserting Devices Into Your Vagina 2. Physical Therapy referral. When you seek physical therapy for a pelvic floor issue, make sure you are seeing someone who specializes (very important) in the pelvic floor. This will get you the most for your time and money since you are limited on sessions by most insurance companies. On average, the co-pay for physical therapy can range anywhere from $50- $250 per session. You also have limited time spent with your PT each session. It will be most helpful if you have the basics already understood and in place so you can truly get the most out of your sessions and not have to spend time learning them while with your therapist. I personally think PT should be available for all of us as an annual check-up, a good check-in to see how we are doing. As long as you don’t mind an internal examination or insertion of devices that are sometimes used. I know many women are not comfortable with this so something to be aware of. Kegels can Make Your Situation Worse 3. Many professionals will recommend Kegels which can make your situation worse! Yes! This is a big one, for 2 reasons; 👉🏽 First, 74% of women who are “taught” how to do Kegels, do them incorrectly. 👉🏽 Second, if you have a tight or hypertonic pelvic floor, Kegels will only make it worse. If you are experiencing urinary incontinence, you have a tight pelvic floor. You can’t strengthen a tight muscle. You first have to relax it. I like to compare it to a bicep. Imagine you are holding a bag of groceries for years (with your arm up - see below) of course, your bicep is going to get tight and hurt, and eventually, the pain will travel to your shoulder and then your neck and your back, and even headaches! I want to fix this, so I pump my bicep to get stronger. No, of course not. This would only make it worse! The same is for your pelvic floor. Left unaddressed, it does not go away, it only gets worse and other problems start to arise. So before you can strengthen this muscle, you must first put the groceries down and extend the arm and release all those tight muscles. This too must be done with the pelvic floor.
Your Issues Will Reoccur if You Don't Continue Strengthening Your Pelvic Floor
4. Problems will reoccur if the strength and releasing tension are not maintained. As with any muscle in your body, use it or lose it! This is why it's so important to choose a program that is with you long term. So once you have fixed the incontinence, you continue to strengthen your pelvic floor to handle whatever life throws at you, and more importantly, how to release tension as you encounter it. We easily fall into old patterns that can trigger tension to return. Life is life and we will encounter stress. Many of us carry and hold on to stress in our hips and pelvic floor, so it is crucial to RELEASE it!
This is the type of service we provide. Start immediately before going to PT or during to complement that service and get the most out of it and after to maintain for LIFE.
Our mission at Ola ka Ola is to provide support to all women at an affordable cost. We understand the struggles, and have lived through the same pains until we have addressed the cause and kept it in check! You don’t have to live with it, we designed a program that specifically accommodates a busy lifestyle. Designed so that you can easily fit this into your busy routine so you can do all the things you want to do, leak-free, worry-free, and pain-free!
Yours,
Cheryl
🌐 Thinking of joining the Pelvic Floor Program? Contact Cheryl to schedule your FREE assessment today: cheryl@olakaola.com
About Cheryl Coppa
✔️ A certified Core Confidence Specialist (Core and Pelvic Floor retraining)
✔️ A certified Personal Trainer specializing in women's fitness over 40
✔️ Low-Pressure Fitness / Hypopressive certified by creator Dr. Tamara Rial
✔️ Pre/postnatal corrective exercise specialist
✔️Instructor of the Pelvic Floor Health program, Ola Ka Ola
✔️ 40 years young, wife & mother of 3