Are you worried about your bladder control after prostate removal surgery?
Unfortunately, up to 80% of men suffer from bladder leakage after this surgery.
But the really good news is that the exercise I'm about to show you can help you
quickly overcome bladder leakage and get back to your normal life.
Hi, I'm Michelle, and today I'm guiding you through pelvic floor muscle training to help
you prepare and recover your bladder control fast after going through a radical prostatectomy. Now,
please feel welcome to let me know in the comments below if you have questions or
comments about this training, or you might like to share this video with someone that you know
who's undergoing this type of surgery. Now, recent research has shown that these exercises
work much faster than traditional pelvic floor training after prostatectomy. Until recently,
pelvic floor training for men has been based on exercises
for bladder leakage actually for women. Now, this current research found that men who
used a new pelvic floor training regime and this is a regime designed for men, actually,
and these men started their training before surgery, these guys regained their bladder
control significantly faster than the men who did the traditional pelvic floor exercises.
Now today, I'm going to share this new training method with you
to help you stop later leakage fast and this is regardless of the type of prostatectomy
surgery that you have. Now we're going to go through this training really thoroughly.
We're gonna cover when to start preparing the best trained positions to use, and the most
effective technique to use as well. Then finally, we'll cover how many exercises you need to do
before I just share three little helpful tips to make your bladder control training exercises
more effective. Now, first question is when to start preparing? Well, according to the
research that I've mentioned already. Try to start these preparation exercises around five
weeks prior to surgery if you can. But I'm going to add to that, even if you only have a week
or two before your operation. It's really worth starting these exercises now. And this is why you
can still feel your pelvic floor muscles working rather than waiting until after your operation
when the exercises are just going to be more difficult to feel. So start as soon as you can.
The three best training positions are as follows. If you're able to do the exercises,
do them lying down and standing and sitting as well. So you're going to use all three positions
during the course of the day. If you can't do your exercises, sitting or standing, start with the
line put down position, and then progressed your training to upright positions when you're able to.
Let's now talk about the most effective exercise technique to use the pelvic floor
exercise technique that you use to prepare is really vital for your success.
If you want more information, you can also check out my beginner's
Kegel exercises linked above. But I'm going to go through this now with you as well.
Now these preparation exercises are for the pelvic floor muscles located in this area of your body.
These muscles wrap around the base of the penis and a little deeper in around the tube the urine
tube that carries urine out of your body. The correct technique for exercising these muscles
is to stop the flow of urine and shorten the penis while continuing to breathe. Now that might
sound a little challenging at first, let's break down that technique to make it easier for you.
I'd like you to start doing this exercise gently. When you're starting out. Try
to get your technique correct before doing stronger exercises when you can manage them.
Now, here's the first part of the exercise. Practice along with me if you'd like to at home,
start by gently contracting your muscles as if you're trying to slow
or stop the flow of urine and now relax these muscles back to resting.
Next, I'd like you to try to gently shorten your penis or retract it drawing it inwards
towards your body. If you're not sure about this action, think about the way a turtle
shortens its neck when it moves its head back in towards its shell. This is a small movement.
Now you try gently try to shorten the penis and try to keep breathing as you do so
and now relax back to resting. How did you go with that exercise is not always easy,
and it can take a little practice before it starts to feel more natural to take your time with these
exercises. Now finally, let's put both actions together to complete the whole exercise gently.
I want you to stop the flow and shorten the penis while continuing to breathe and now relax.
Now, let's talk about how many exercises you need to do. Before your surgery your going
to be practicing using a combination of quick fast exercises, and long, slow exercises. The
quick exercises are one second holes. Let's do that now together, contract for one and
now relax. That's your one second hole. Now let's practice a long slow exercise, holding your
muscles contracted and you can do this for up to 10 seconds while you're breathe. Here's your turn,
try to stop the flow of urine, shorten the penis, keep contracting for one and two, and keep holding
gently if you can, keep breathing and holding, and now relax. So that wasn't quite 10 seconds,
but you get the idea of doing the slow, long exercises. When you start out doing your
exercises, just do them gently and just for the length of time that you can manage. Even if it's
just for a couple of seconds, you're doing really well. Now you'll find that over with practice over
time, and over the coming weeks, you'll be able to hold these contractions longer and stronger.
So here's your daily training guide before your surgery,
and I'll also list this in the description below for you to access this information as well.
Now let's talk briefly about training after surgery and how many exercises you need to do.
After surgery, most men recommends their exercises after their catheter has been removed and not
before. Now, if you find that you're leaking urine with your exercises after surgery,
maybe start them lying down for the first two to three weeks, and then gradually progress to
sitting and standing exercises as you can. After your operation just do the
number of exercises you can manage and hold each exercise up to 10 seconds for your longer holds
and do your short ones as well. You may find that the exercises aren't as easy as they were
before surgery. But don't worry, your ability will usually return with practice over time.
So how long until you die this results after your surgery? Well, you may notice
your bladder control improves between two and six weeks after your operation. And many
men find that they almost dry with no better leakage at all after three months of training
after their surgery and this is what's there without regular pelvic floor muscle training.
So finally, let's go through the three important bladder control tips that I mentioned at the
outset of this video. Tip number one is to limit your caffeine intake to one server day and this
includes coffee and tea. Unfortunately caffeine irritates the bladder. It makes you want to empty
your bladder more frequently and urgently and it's also a diuretic so it increases the bladder
contents and makes the bladder fill up faster. Number two is to reduce your alcohol intake
as well and for the same reasons that I basically already mentioned for coffee.
Three is to try to wait for at least two hour intervals between emptying your bladder. So
what this does is it helps to retrain how much your bladder can actually store? And this is
especially helpful after having a catheter for a week. So we've gone through quite a lot, haven't
we? I really hope this information helps you understand how to prepare for your prostatectomy
and improve your bladder control really fast afterwards. If you have questions or comments,
please feel most welcome to post them below and I'd really appreciate you liking this video if
you found it helpful below too. Thanks so much for watching today. I'll see you next time.