1. Regularly stopping your flow of urine.
Only use this test OCCASIONALLY to see how your pelvic floor is working. It is important that you do this test in the middle of passing urine. You must never push down on your pelvic floor to empty your bladder; just relax your abdomen forward.
2. Hovering over the toilet.
To empty your bladder fully you must sit tall with your breastbone lifted and completely relax your abdomen and waist. This enables your bladder to contract and empty naturally.
3. Slumping in sitting.
Rolling your pelvis backwards will switch off your ‘core’. This means that your pelvic floor will not be able to engage effectively and you will possibly switch on your upper abdominals. Remember, strengthening your upper abs will not help you flatten your tummy! If you sit in the correct posture then you will strengthen your Transversus Abdominis, lower back muscles and pelvic floor, without even thinking about it!
4. Doing your pelvic floor exercises at the traffic lights.
You are usually in a slumped position – it won’t work!
5. Holding your tummy in.
Whilst you think you may be making yourself look better by holding your tummy in, it won’t help in the long term. You will end up with overactive upper abdominals meaning that the lower abdominals and pelvic floor will not work effectively. It also affects the way that you are breathing. Relax your waist!
6. Doing sit ups/curl ups.
If you do these exercises on an already weakened pelvic floor then you will not recover. The continuous pressure down onto the already weak tissues will make you struggle to engage your pelvic floor. Crunchies DO NOT shift abdominal fat.
*Remember about 50% of athletes with those toned stomachs have stress incontinence.*