Bladder training: How to train your bladder to empty completely

Incontinence issues such as overactive bladder and frequency incontinence can leave people of all ages struggling to stay in control of their bladder. A major cause of these issues is the weakening of the bladder muscles, which help you control when you urinate. These muscles can weaken for various reasons, however you can take matters into your own hands and rebuild your bladder control and confidence. 

Bladder training is an effective way to regain strength and functionality of the bladder muscles, which can help prevent various forms of urinary incontinence. 

Bladder training exercises can help you achieve greater control by: 

• Increasing the amount of urine your bladder can hold 

• Increasing the amount of time between toilet use 

• Increasing your control over feelings of urgency (the need to urinate) 

Together with other therapies such as Kegel or pelvic floor exercises and behavioural modification, bladder training can be an effective way to make problems like urge incontinence, overactive bladder and stress incontinence more manageable. 

Bladder training has a few different aspects, but the most important is developing new, healthy bladder habits.  

A good example of this is avoiding ‘just in case’ visits to the toilet, as well as last minute rushes. When undertaking bladder training or retraining, the bladder muscles are gradually forced to hold increasingly larger amounts of urine as you lengthen the time between toilet visits. There are a few techniques you can use to make this work, but the main technique is distracting yourself from the urge to urinate and squeezing the pelvic floor muscles to strengthen your bladder, instead of immediately running to the toilet for relief as soon as you feel the urge to urinate.  

Of course, this takes practice and it can be difficult to deal with the anxiety that may arise when bladder retraining, so it’s important to take gradual, structured steps. We will look at these below.

Whilst it is proven to be effective, bladder training takes time and persistence. To make it work, you have to learn to think in a new way and try to ignore the urge to go to the toilet for as long as possible. If you can successfully do this, over time you will find that you are able to take control of the bladder and it will become less irritable. 

As you become more comfortable with supressing feelings of the urgent need to pass urine, gradually, over a period of weeks and months, you will increase the amount of time between toilet visits.  

We also recommend that you keep a bladder ‘diary’ where you can record the frequency of your toilet visits, the time you ignored urgency feelings, as well as your fluid intake – by this we mean, what and when you drink. This will give you an oversight of your bladder habits and help you to create an accurate schedule as described below.

Once you have started resisting the urge to use the bathroom and have started a bladder diary, you can apply the insights you gain to see how often you go to the toilet. And at which times of the day! 

You can then start adding a short period of time to increase how long you resist the urge to use the bathroom. Perhaps add 15 minutes – to train your bladder and strengthen it.  

By being this accurate and sticking to a tangible, structured schedule, you’ll start to see and feel improvements in bladder control which is both rewarding and empowering. 

As the name suggests, behavioural modification involves adapting your lifestyle to reduce, prevent, and treat problems with incontinence.

This includes various examples of taking control such as:  

• Creating a schedule for toilet visits  

• Making sure you don’t drink too much or too little   

• Avoiding drinks that can irritate the bladder, such as coffee and energy drinks.  

You can also set up a training regimen and change eating habits to lose weight, which sometimes contributes to incontinence. Another behavioural modification can involve ensuring you have healthy toilet habits in order to avoid bladder control problems. 

Pelvic floor (Kegel) training involves strengthening the supporting muscles around the base of the pelvis, urethra and bladder by doing repetitive voluntary contractions. These exercises build strength and endurance in the pelvic floor which help to prevent urine leakage and further improve bladder control. Many people also use Pilates as part of a self-help incontinence treatment. 

Learn more about pelvic floor training. 

In addition to bladder training there are several other treatment options.  

Biofeedback is a method for gathering and measuring information, for example by using sensors and computer monitoring during pelvic floor training, it’s possible to tell if the correct muscles are contracting. Speak to your doctor to learn more about biofeedback therapy. 

While bladder exercises for female incontinence issues are effective, there are additional options. One approach – in particular for women - is to use a device for vaginal support, to support the urethra, bladder, vagina, uterus and rectum. Other potential treatment options include injections of bulking agents around the urethra to add supportive bulk, or various types of surgery. 

If you want extra security against urine leakage during your bladder training, TENA has you covered. We offer a full range of effective, comfortable and discreet products, including washable, reusable underwear for both men and women. These will help you deal with urine leakage and give you peace of mind as you go through your bladder training journey. 

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