Restore the Core can also help with bladder control

Guest Author: Mary Beth Knight, President of StrollerFit

Many women experience bladder control issues during pregnancy and after childbirth. Our babies sure are cute, but do we have to suffer? NO!

The pelvic floor, or a weak pelvic floor I should say is the reason for such problems. If the pelvic floor muscles lose their strength the bladder loses control.

Did you know that there are TWO types of muscle in the pelvic floor? One is slow twitch and its job is to support the pelvis for long periods of time, just like your calf muscle which allows you to stand for long periods of time.

There is also fast twitch fibers found in the pelvic floor, and these fibers act as an "extra closing force" to prevent leakage from the bladder when you sneeze, laugh, cough, lift heavy objects or have to "hold it" before finding a bathroom near by! IT is these muscles that can be damaged and forced to become inactive during and after childbirth.

The fast twitch fibers of the pelvic floor fire as a reflex. Meaning, you don't think about contracting them, they just do it. Before childbirth, if you had to sneeze, these fibers contracted prior to your sneeze to prevent leakage. However childbirth and something called "reflex inhibition" can render these muscles useless after the baby is born.

Reflex inhibition is a protective reaction the body has towards injury. Your pelvic floor muscles were injured during delivery, if allowed to be called into action before they healed from the birth, further damage to them could have taken place. Therefore, to allow them to heal, the body shut them down... but what happens to a muscle when it isn't used for a long period of time? We lose it!

This is exactly why we HAVE to retrain the pelvic floor, and every other muscle that was mistreated, underused or overused during pregnancy!

Not only does pregnancy and childbirth weaken the pelvic floor, but so does being overweight! Every extra pound that a woman carries is felt by her pelvic floor. Extra weight causes the pelvic floor muscles to fatigue and increase the risk of incontinence.

All of this information was taken into consideration for the exercises found in restore the core. It is why we place a the mommymuscle fit 'n fun balls between our knees and squeeze them!

Women all over the country are able to run, jump, sneeze and hold it! If someone you know has these issues, RTC can solve them! (but only as long as they CONTINUE to perform the exercises) the issues will return after a few months on not exercising the muscles!

Hope that gives you some insight into why RTC really helps with bladder control!