How to Train Your Bladder
If you experience a frequent urgency to urinate—perhaps due to having an enlarged prostate if you’re a man, having given birth if you’re a woman, or having an “overactive bladder”—there may be a practical DIY solution to the problem, referred to as bladder training. It may be worth a try before resorting to medication or surgical procedures.
Though evidence of effectiveness from studies is limited, bladder training is commonly done in clinical practice, with patients often reporting success.
Bladder basics
The average bladder can hold about a pint of urine. It’s common to urinate anywhere from five to eight times over a 24-hour period—though the frequency depends on how much food and fluid you consume, as well as your age and metabolism. Psychological factors also influence voiding: While some people bite their nails or eat when stressed, others urinate a lot.
As urine is produced by the kidneys, it gradually fills the bladder, causing it to expand like a balloon and the “detrusor” muscle within the bladder wall to stretch. Meanwhile, the muscles in and around the urethra (the tube through which urine passes out of the body) help dam up the bladder until there is an appropriate time and place to urinate. Pelvic floor muscles situated beneath the bladder also help keep a lid on the urethra.
But as the bladder begins to reach its capacity, signals are sent to the brain that increase the urge to urinate. Urination—which is normally under voluntary control—occurs when the detrusor muscle contracts and the urethral muscles relax.
An “overactive bladder”—a broad term used to describe a range of symptoms, including urinary urgency and sometimes leakage—occurs when the bladder contracts abnormally for various reasons, triggering a sudden and uncontrollable urge to urinate. Weak pelvic floor muscles can contribute to the problem. Many people who have leakage or accidents go to the bathroom when they don’t need to—“just in case”—but this strategy can backfire. If you often go when your bladder is not full, the bladder wall doesn’t get stretched as much, which conditions it to send out the need-to-urinate signal at a reduced volume of urine.
Go, bladder training!
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