Train your pelvic floor for leakage
Pelvic floor exercise can improve urine leakage, particularly with coughing or exertion.
The number, drawn
Why it matters
These muscles help support the bladder and control leakage. In small trials of women with stress incontinence, 56% reported cure after training compared with 6% without active treatment. That finding concerns existing leakage and should not be read as a prevention effect for everyone.
How to do it
- If you leak urine with coughing or movement, ask how to find and train the right muscles.
- Practise controlled squeezes followed by full relaxation while breathing normally.
- Make regular practice part of your routine and review persistent symptoms with a clinician.
Get pelvic health advice for pain, difficulty emptying your bladder or uncertainty about technique.
Do it
Pick the time you have. Anything beats nothing.
Start with the time you have
1 minute
Recall when leakage happens, such as coughing, exercise or sudden urgency, so you can describe it when asking for help.
5 minutes
Start a request for a pelvic health or continence assessment and describe leakage, pain or difficulty emptying your bladder; ask for help finding the right muscles.
15 minutes
Read the NHS explanation of assessed pelvic floor training and prepare questions about technique, full relaxation and how your progress will be reviewed.
A plan
Get the right routine for leakage
- Stage 1: Describe your symptoms and ask for an assessment rather than assuming every leak needs the same exercises.
- Stage 2: Have a professional check that you can contract and relax the right muscles.
- Stage 3: Follow the routine they tailor to you, using regular daily cues to remember it.
- Stage 4: Review progress with them and seek advice for pain, emptying problems or continuing symptoms.
In real life
- If you leak when you cough or move, tell a clinician what triggers it and ask for a pelvic floor assessment.
- Once you have a tailored routine, attach the advised practice to a regular daily cue such as a meal.
- If you are pregnant, NHS advice is to do pelvic floor exercises even without leaks; ask your midwife to check your technique.
Watch out for
- Common mistakeSqueezing harder despite pelvic pain may be the wrong approach, so seek pelvic health advice.
- Common mistakeHolding your breath or forgetting to relax undermines the technique, so ask for a check of both the squeeze and release.
Trusted guides
Check usSources
- Evidence grade
- A Meta-analyses of randomised trials, or a major guideline consensus.
- Basis
- Cochrane 2018 review, cure estimate from four trials involving 165 women, plus the 2025 Canadian postpartum guideline
- The number
- Stress incontinence trials: 56% reported cure with training versus 6% in controls (Cochrane, 2018)
- Outcome
- reported cure of stress urinary incontinence in trials
- Comparison
- women doing pelvic floor training vs 6% in control groups
- Tier 1 guidelinePelvic floor muscle training for urinary incontinence in womenCochrane, 2018
- Tier 1 guidelineExercise in pregnancyNHS, 2023
- Tier 1 guideline2025 Canadian guideline for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep throughout the first year post partumCanadian Society for Exercise Physiology; British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2025
General health information, not a diagnosis or an individual treatment plan. Personalization changes the order of suggestions; it does not assess your medical risks. Follow the cautions and consult a qualified clinician when needed.