You Can Retrain Your Bladder

Retraining your bladder takes work and commitment!

Unfortunately, people like you and I have confused central nervous system (CNS. Our CNS signals the brain when we have to urinate and our is stuck on GO! To get it unstuck you need to retrain the bladder! It can feel like tug of war at times but if your consisting you will win the frequency war!

Depending upon the type and seriousness of your problem, one or more may be right for you. But many doctors recommend trying bladder control training, which means learning to urinate on a schedule, strengthening the pelvic muscles (Kegel exercises), and sometimes biofeedback. Bladder control training can be especially helpful with urge incontinence — the sudden and overwhelming need to urinate, sometimes accompanied by involuntary loss of urine on the way to the bathroom.

These exercises are good for everyone. You don't have to have frequency, urgency or even leakage to do these exercises. Kegels are use d as preventive measures as well.
Don't be afraid to teach your children these exercises (boys too)! We are all susceptible to pelvic syndromes.

You CAN retrain your bladder

There are many approaches to treating urinary incontinence. Depending upon the type and seriousness of your problem, one or more may be right for you. But many doctors recommend trying bladder control training, which means learning to urinate on a schedule, strengthening the pelvic muscles (Kegel exercises), and sometimes biofeedback. Bladder control training can be especially helpful with urge incontinence — the sudden and overwhelming need to urinate, sometimes accompanied by involuntary loss of urine on the way to the bathroom.

Learn to “go” on schedule

The mainstay of bladder control training is timed voiding, which means that you urinate at a set time, not when your bladder tells you to. Here’s what to do:

• Determine your pattern. For a day or two, keep track of what times during the day you urinate or leak urine.
• Choose an interval. Figure out how long you typically wait between urinations during the day. Choose a starting time that’s 15 minutes longer. For example, if you usually go every hour, your starting interval will be 1 hour, 15 minutes.
• Go by the clock. On the day you start, empty your bladder first thing in the morning and not again until after the interval you’ve set. If that time arrives before you feel the urge, go anyway. Remember, you’re training your bladder to keep a schedule. If the urge hits first, do everything you can to hold off going. This can be difficult at first, but usually improves with practice. If the urge is great, try to distract yourself. Practice Kegels (described below), cross your legs, stand still, or breathe slowly in and out for counts of four. Remind yourself that your bladder isn’t really full. If you can’t wait the full 15 minutes, try to manage another 5 minutes before walking slowly to the bathroom.
• Increase your interval. Once you’re comfortable with your initial interval and aren’t having any leakage — this may take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks — increase the time by another 15 minutes. Repeat this process, increasing your time by 15-minute increments. After several weeks or months, you may find that you’re able to wait for 3–4 hours between trips to the bathroom and that the feelings of urgency and episodes of incontinence have greatly diminished.
• Don’t train at night. Get up in the night whenever you need to urinate. Your day training should eventually begin to influence your entire voiding pattern, so that you get up less frequently at night.

Learn how to do Kegels

Pelvic floor muscles are the muscles you use to hold back urination and thus are important to urinary continence. You can strengthen and condition these muscles with pelvic floor exercises, also known as Kegels (named for Arnold Kegel, the physician who first described them).

To perform Kegels, you first need to find your pelvic floor muscles. Pretend you’re trying to avoid passing gas. You should feel the contraction more in the back than the front. Don’t contract the muscles of your stomach, leg, or buttocks. Once you’ve located the pelvic floor muscles, you need to repeatedly contract and relax them. Practice both short and long contractions and releases.

Short contractions are quick squeezes and releases. Mastering long contractions will take more practice. Start by holding each contraction for 3–5 seconds, resting for the same number of seconds between contractions. Build up to 10-second contractions with 10 seconds of rest between contractions. Try to do 30–40 long Kegels every day, divided into groups of 10 contractions each. You may want to do 10 before getting out of bed in the morning, 10 standing after lunch, 10 in the evening while sitting, and another 10 before going to sleep.

Some individuals may benefit from biofeedback using a device that can help monitor progress in learning and doing Kegels. Patches placed over the muscles are connected to a video

Yoga Workout Tips For Starting Yoga Asanas

These yoga workout tips will be useful for starting yoga practice at home. These tips include essential guidelines for maximizing benefits from yoga practice. Yoga is more than a physical exercise. Your mental make up while doing Asanas also matters. Start yoga with faith and determination, it has the potential to change your life and personality.

Time For Yoga

• Early morning, one to two hours before sunrise is best time for yoga as preferred by yogis. Bowels must be passed before doing yoga. You may take bath before yoga practice. Be patient, it takes time to set to new routine.

• Otherwise there is no sacrosanct time for yoga. You can practice yoga anytime of the day. Only precaution is that your stomach must be empty at time of doing yoga. Meals should be taken 3 hours prior to yoga practice, but you can drink water if thirsty.

• Preferably fix a particular time of the day for yoga, it will help you to maintain regular yoga practice.

• All Yoga exercises should be performed on the hard floor, using a rug or mat for support.

• Ideal place for doing yoga is outdoors, if weather permits. For indoors practice, place for doing yoga should be spacious, well ventilated and without any disturbances.

• To get better results, earmark about 30 minutes to one hour daily for yoga practice.

Yoga Workout Tips For Making Up Your Mind For Starting Yoga Poses

• The yoga asanas must always be approached in a peaceful state of mind.

• Fill your mind with thoughts of peace and serenity, turn your thoughts inward and away from materialistic world.

• Make sure you are not tired to the extent that you are unable to concentrate on asanas.

During The Pose

• Concentrate deeply on the asana you are doing. Focusing your concentration on the body part being affected by a particular asana will bring maximum benefit.

• While doing an asana, your breathing is very important. Follow the specific instructions for breathing if applicable for a given asana. Otherwise, practice normal breathing which must be rhythmic.

Yoga Workout Tips For Beginners

• In the beginning, you may start with rhythmic breathing and pranayama.

• Practice shavasana for relaxation.

• Approach your task with patience and perseverance. If your body is not flexible, you may find it difficult to do most of the asanas. Do not worry if at first you cannot the asanas properly, it will become easier with repetition. Stiff muscles and joints will gradually ease up.

• Always remember to rest between two asanas.

Upavesasana - Squat Sitting Down Pose

This pose is beneficial to IC Patients who have Pelvic and rectum pain.

The pelvic floor can be contacted easily in this position, where it works synergistically to initiate exhaling, and releases some tone in response to the downward pressure exerted by the thoracic diaphragm when inhaling.


Working
Pelvic floor: Obturator internus, levator ani. Isometrically: piriformis, obturator externus, two gemelli, quadratus femoris, biceps femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus, adductor magnus (long head). The legs should stay active; otherwise the deep fexion tend to collapse the hip joints, making it more challenging to activate the pelvic floor.


Foot: Lumbricals, quadratus plantae, adductor hallucis, flexor hallucis brevis flexor digitorum brevis, opponens and flexor digiti minimi, abductor digiti minimi.


Lengthening
Adductor longus, adductor brevis, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, soleus, and plantaris.


Obstacles and Notes: The inability to dorsiflex the ankle deeply enough to keep the heels on the floor can be due to shortness in Achilles tendon (specifically the soleus, in this position); however, restriction can also be in the front of the ankle. A quick fix is available by using support under the heels, but it's important not to become too reliant on it, because it will prevent activation of the intrinsic muscles of the feet, which stabilizes the arches, allows deeper flexion in the ankle, and aligns the bones of the foot and knee joint.

Remember to breathe while performing your pose(s). This pose offers opportunity to powerfully lengthen all three curves of the spine. By definition this usually engages the deep support in the arches of the feet which energetically feeds into the lifting action of the pelvic floor and lower abdominal muscles. The bracing of the elbows against the knees allows for the strong lengthening of the spine and lifting of the base of the rib cage and respiratory diaphragm.

Before you get into a squatting pose practicing some deep breathing.

Next practice a standing pose.

Standing Pose

• While inhaling, clasp your hands as shown and raise both hands slowly upwards. Both the palms are facing upwards.

• Retain breath, slowly lift your heels so that you stand on your toes. Stretch all of your body upwards as far as possible. Keep your legs and arms straight (no bending).

• While exhaling, slowly bring your hands down. Bring your heels on the floor as in starting position.

Practice

• Repeat this asana 2 to 3 times. Try to increase the duration you can stay in this asana.

• After sufficient practice, while you are standing on your toes, take 4 steps forward and 4 steps backwards. This will improve your grace while walking.

Benefits

• This asana increases height.

• The vertebral column and heart are strengthened. Good for regulating the menstrual cycle.

• Cures indigestion.

• Strengthens arms and legs and helps to remove lethargy.

If your pregnant or you have a physical issue it is best to use pillows to squat.


Instructions

1. From a standing position with the feet 3 feet apart, bend the elbows at shoulder height and turn the palms facing each other. Turn the feet out 45 degrees facing the corners of the room, and as you exhale bend the knees over the toes squatting down.

2. Press the hips forward, press the knees back. Drop the shoulders down and back and press the chest toward the front of the room. Keep the arms active, as if they were holding a big ball over your head. Look straight ahead with the chin parallel to the floor.

3. Breathe and hold for 3-6 breaths.

4. To release: inhale and straighten the legs, reaching the fingertips to the ceiling, then exhale the arms to the sides.

Benefits + Contraindications

Benefits: Goddess Squat pose opens the hips and chest while strengthening and toning the lower body. Goddess pose stimulates the uro-genital, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Contraindications: Recent or chronic injury to the legs, hips or shoulders.

Yoga Benefits

You've probably heard that yoga is good for you. Maybe you have even tried yoga and discovered that it makes you feel better. But what are the specific health benefits can you expect to enjoy from doing yoga regularly?

Physical Benefits
Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg (such as in Tree Pose) or supporting yourself with your arms (such as in Downward Facing Dog). Some exercises require you to move slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.

Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.

Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car. That can cause tightness and spinal compression, which you can begin to address with yoga. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits
Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.

Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are doing yoga. This provides a much-needed break from your stressors, as well as helping put things into perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help relieve stress, as you learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the future. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started.

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.