When experiencing incontinence your pelvic muscles become weaker, but as with all muscles they can be strengthened again. Pelvic floor exercises are a great way of achieving this.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

- Carry out pelvic floor exercises for 5 minutes 3 times a day. This will help to strengthen your bladder, therefore giving you more control.

- Be careful not to exercise other muscles at the same time, as this can put more pressure on the bladder.

- The exercises: Lie on the floor, pull in the pelvic floor muscles and hold for a count of three, repeat this 10-15 times.

- Do you pelvic floor exercises three times a day.

- Most people begin to notice a difference after 3-6 weeks, so be patient, the results will be worth it.

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According to an Italian study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, incontinence keeps many women from taking part in sports.

In a survey of 679 Italian young and middle-aged women, researchers found that 1 in 7 were bothered by urinary stress incontinence.

Dr. Stefano Salvatore from the University of Insubria found that being overweight or having children boosted the likelihood of having urinary stress incontinence.

One in 10 women said the problem led them to give up their favorite sport, while one in 5 women said they limited the way they engaged in the sport in a bid to reduce leaking.

Sports with repetitive bouncing, such as tennis and squash, were associated with the highest incidence of incontinence episodes.

Researchers of this study say it shows that urinary incontinence, even when mild, can have a harmful impact on the quality of women’s lives by limiting their participation in sporting activities. Despite this, few women seek help.

Salvatore adds: Women ‘should be given information and offered diagnostic and conservative therapeutic options,’ including pelvic floor exercises, which have proven to be very effective in alleviating urinary incontinence.

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The pelvic floor muscles are a group of muscles inside the pelvis that forms a floor in the body. They surround the urethra, vagina and rectum and should, along with the sphincter muscles, maintain control over these openings.

If the pelvic floor muscles are weak the urethra can fall during exertion, resulting in leaking.

To strengthen the pelvic floor it is important to do appropriate exercises, which are especially good for stress incontinence and can reduce the effects of this condition considerably.

Pelvic floor exercises can be done pretty much anytime or anywhere. Once you have learnt to tighten your pelvic floor muscles, you can squeeze them and hold when you sneeze, lift or jump to prevent leakage.

It is important to do pelvic floor exercises for a few months before any improvement can be noticed.

In order to find your pelvic floor muscles try interrupting the flow when you urinate and feel which muscles you are using to do this.

The right contraction of the pelvic floor muscles feels like a small lift under the pelvis up into the body. There should be no accompanying movement of other parts of the body, e.g. the buttocks, stomach or the inner thighs.

If you have a problem identifying the correct muscles or if you are not sure that you are training correctly contact your doctor or physiotherapist.

For examples of pelvic floor exercises please click here.