I love riding a bike and running marathons, but I can’t urinate… 3 tips to relax my pelvic floor muscles

Be careful when riding a bicycle or running a marathon for a long time. Be careful of improper posture or excessive exercise, as prolonged compression of the pelvic sphincter may cause damage to the urinary system, leading to stiffness of the pelvic floor muscles and symptoms of urinary incontinence. Doing warm-up exercises before exercise can help relax the pelvic floor muscles!

Be careful of excessive exercise that may cause damage to the urinary system when riding a bicycle or running a marathon for a long time

A 40-year-old Mr. Chen has increased his running mileage in recent months and started participating in marathons. From half marathon, ultra half marathon to full marathon, I didn’t expect that I would have a recurrence of difficulty urinating recently. Sometimes I even have to wait a long time before I can urinate, so I went to the doctor immediately. After detailed examination, it was found that the dysuria was caused by stiff pelvic floor muscles.

Another man, Mr. Zhang, who is in his 40s and is a cyclist, started training more intensively for a competition a few months ago. At first he only felt that his urination was a little bit difficult. After one intensive training session, he had to wait for more than 10 minutes every time he went to the toilet before he could urinate, so he went to the doctor immediately. Examination revealed that the pelvic floor muscles were stiff due to long-term compression of the pelvic sphincter. After physical therapy and recommendations for thickening the seat cushion, doing adequate warm-up exercises before riding a bike, and taking adequate rest between exercise training, the symptoms gradually improved.

Inappropriate amount of exercise can cause pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and lead to urination difficulties.

Du Yuanbo, chief physician of the urology department of Shutian Clinic, said that exercises such as running and cycling have become almost universal sports, but inappropriate amount of exercise can cause abnormal function of the pelvic floor muscles and lead to urinary system diseases such as difficulty urinating.

Causes of pelvic floor dysfunction, such as prolonged stress and emotional tension, holding urine, and frequent compression of the pelvic floor, can cause muscle damage and inflammation. Pelvic floor dysfunction is easily accompanied by bladder detrusor weakness, external sphincter spasm and sexual dysfunction. Common symptoms include slow urination, thin urine stream, intermittent urination, a feeling of residual urine after urination, dripping after urination, difficulty in defecation, suprapubic pain, pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction, etc.

Pelvic floor dysfunction, multiple treatment options

Current treatments for pelvic floor dysfunction include: behavioral therapy (regular urination training, urination posture training), physical rehabilitation (magnetic wave chair rehabilitation therapy, electrical stimulation), medications (muscle relaxants, blood circulation drugs, anti-prostate hypertrophy drugs, etc.), botulinum toxin injections, surgery, pelvic floor muscle training, etc.

Dr. Du Yuanbo said that the correct urination posture is helpful to the health of the urinary system. When urinating in a standing position, bend your big toes and step on the ground, bend your knees slightly forward, and do not force yourself to urinate, just urinate naturally. When urinating in a sitting position, sit in the middle of the toilet with your knees parallel to or slightly higher than the pelvis, so that the pelvic floor muscles such as the sphincter and prostate can relax.

[3 tips to relax your pelvic floor muscles]

Dr. Du Yuanbo pointed out that doing moderate warm-up exercises before exercise can not only prevent sports injuries, but also relax your pelvic floor muscles. The 3-step warm-up exercise for marathon is as follows:

Tip 1: "Swinging and Loosening the Hips"

Tip 2: "Support your body and pull your waist"

Tip 3: "Horse Stand Basin"

【Doctor's Tips】:

Reminder: remember to do enough warm-up exercises before exercising, exercise moderately, take appropriate protective measures, and do what you can to avoid suddenly increasing the amount of exercise, which may affect urination and cause damage to the body's urinary system.