If you’re pressed for time, or just a well-hydrated person who pees a lot, you might be tempted to hold all that liquid in for a while—and then beam it out fast when you finally hit the toilet. But this kind of fire-hose-style peeing, a.k.a. “power peeing,” can, well, backfire.
It’s just the opposite of how we were designed to pee, which is by relaxing the pelvic floor, or the sling of muscles that runs from your pubic bone to your tailbone, Sara Reardon, PT, DPT, WCS, a New Orleans–based board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist, author of Floored, and founder of pelvic floor workout app The V-Hive, tells SELF. Read on to learn the problems with power peeing and how to break the habit and embrace a gentler flow.
Understanding what happens in your pelvis in a normal peeing scenario can help illustrate why power peeing is so counterintuive—and problematic. When you sit to pee as usual, your pelvic floor softens, allowing your urethra (a.k.a. pee tube) to open, and at the same time, your bladder muscle naturally fires, squeezing urine down and out through that channel. But if you’re pushing, you interrupt that chain of command: Your pelvic floor muscles can’t fully relax, so you’ll wind up forcing pee through a partially closed urethra, Dr. Reardon explains.
That act creates a surge of pressure in your abdomen, which can, over time, “stress and weaken your pelvic floor muscles and the surrounding ligaments,” Dr. Reardon says, “increasing your risk of incontinence [pee or poop leakage] and pelvic organ prolapse,” which happens when one or more pelvic organs slip downward and bulge out of your vagina or butt. (It’s one of several reasons you also shouldn’t strain hard to poop, BTW.)
Because you’re trying to funnel pee through what is essentially a half-closed door, you also might not completely empty your bladder—which could mean you need to pee again soon, negating any time you might’ve initially saved by hurrying things along. While it’s normal to have up to 50 milliliters (mL), or roughly three tablespoons, of urine left in your bladder after any given pee, if more than that remains in there due to power peeing, you could also be at higher risk of a urinary tract infection (UTI), Dr. Reardon points out. Extra residual pee allows for a potentially greater bacteria count in your bladder, she explains.
Your best bet is to let nature quite literally run its course. Sit fully on the toilet—hovering, like pushing, won’t allow your pelvic floor to relax—and just chill out for a few seconds, Dr. Reardon says. After all, it might be one of the few moments of the day when you get to be alone and at peace. Your pelvic floor and your psyche will appreciate you taking advantage.
If your stream seems reluctant to start, rather than bearing down, try leaning your torso forward a bit and take a few deep, diaphragmatic breaths, Dr. Reardon says. (Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth for five seconds each.) That will naturally help the muscles in your pelvic floor relax and the floodgates open.
And if you’re more tempted to push at the end of your stream—say, you feel like those last few dribbles won’t come out without a bit of force—Dr. Reardon has a couple tips. One, remember that it’s normal to have a small amount left in there, so it’s okay if it doesn’t seem like every last drop has exited. And two, try double voiding: First, wiggle your hips; then, wipe, stand up, and sit back down to pee again. Usually, a bit more will naturally flow out, and you can feel confident that you don’t need to do any pushing to finish up, she says.
Religious power-peers may find that it takes a few days of practicing the gentle-pee lifestyle to break the habit. But if it feels like you routinely have to push to get your flow of pee started, or your pee stream is suddenly weak or stop-and-start, it’s worth checking in with your doctor. You may have a supremely tense pelvic floor that makes it difficult for your urethra to fully open, a form of pelvic organ prolapse that has shifted the positioning of your bladder, a weakened bladder muscle, or in very rare cases, a blockage in your urinary tract, Dr. Reardon says. Your doctor can get a sense of the problem and refer you to a urologist, a pelvic floor physical therapist, or both, depending on your health history.
But in the majority of scenarios, power peeing is a fully voluntary behavior—and avoiding it is as simple as letting go and letting pee happen.
