I started out as a sports PT here at Sports Performance, and I have worked with a number of athletes and clients. My specialty is more in the endurance and barbell realms. And a lot of my clients in those fields tend to struggle with issues with leaking urine during competition or training, especially with longer endurance or high impact workouts. And that's something that everybody seems to be worried about, and we really want to dispel the myths surrounding that. And also, if you're experiencing it, that's not something to be ashamed of; that's something to work through with a health care provider, a PT, or someone like me who can help you work through that. So today I'm going to teach you a few different exercises for a few different reasons so that you can strengthen those muscles or move those muscles so that they're a little bit more mobile, so you're not having any tension. I frequently see that my clients who struggle with this have either too tight, too weak, or a combination of both muscles in that area. So it's a strength or mobility challenge. So what you can work on is strengthening the entire lumbopelvic complex, so anything from your rib cage down to your thighs, and training that core strength, the glute strength, the adductors, all of that. You also want to think about those muscles of the pelvic floor, which act like a hammock to hold all of your pelvic contents. So if you think about fatigue over time, that just starts to strain and put more pressure on it. So it's much harder to hold that urine in. So it can cause that leakage during activity, and so a lot of my clients will say that towards the end of my workout, towards the end of the metcon, is when I start to experience these issues. So what we need to talk about is how you can mobilize and strengthen, and we'll go over those now.

You can use an easy-to-medium band, and what you're going to do is take that and put it right around both of your feet. You want to find a bench or an elevated surface, and you're going to end up on a plank, on that elevated surface. Focusing on engaging those lower abdominals and making sure that your glutes are engaged so you're not piked back or sagged down too far. Find your high plank position, and you're going to pull through your hip flexor in the front of your hip, bringing your knee forward. So very much like a mountain climber, but you're going to hold that for a good second. From there, you're just going to alternate, up and down. And I like to do this one for time. So I'll do 15 seconds on one side, and 15 seconds on the other. Here, we're looking for stability and control. So you don't need to be going fast. It's all about control and timing. Once you're comfortable with that position, you can walk it down to the floor, and do it from here. But starting from the floor is going to be harder, so I always recommend starting at the top. That's going to be your band-resisted hip flexor march, with a loop band. You can do two or three rounds of those 15 seconds on each side.