Blooming heck - this thread's brilliant for making me think! It's hard to remember what's not immediately obvious if you're not knee deep in fanjoes all day, so, thanks.
Penguin - well spotted, there are two main types of muscle contraction from your pf. Some muscles have lots of slow twitch fibres (marathon runners) which are the ones that let you "hold on", whereas some of them are full of fast twitch muscle fibres (sprinters) which are the ones which kick in when you do something that causes a sudden spike in your intra-abd pressure - coughing, sneezing, laughing, puking, shouting, jumping.
That's why the first exercise is a long hold, and the second one is fast twitches.
If you don't leak, apart from when sneezing etc, then, you probably need to concentrate on the 10 quick twitches.
Try to really clench, and then really relax, about one second apart, ten in a row. And, when you get the hang of it, you can clench along to music on the radio. Passes long car journeys rather nicely.
Aquaflex is good, but, tends to work the slow twitch fibres as you hold the cones in place.
Katnip - yep, toilet posture is an issue, but, I don't think I've seen anything saying it's a cause. I'll have a look through the papers I've got. Squatting helps straighten out the "kink" in your rectum, so poo comes out straight down. Sitting means the "kink" stays in place, so you have to work against gravity - which can be a problem if you are constipated or have a rectocele (prolapse at the back of the vagina) when part of the rectum can sag forwards into the vagina. That just wreaks havoc with your pooing. There's stuff you can do to help - but, the easiest thing is to adapt posture into a squat, either a couple of yellow pages under your feet, or a squatty potty yep, that's a thing if you're feeling flush baboom tssssh
Good luck in your race!
But, yep, the anatomy's flawed. It's the evolutionary price we pay for bipedal gait and big brains inside our not-very-developed babies' heads.
At least in the West there is help available. Watch any footage of women in developing countries and you'll see someone sitting with the heel of her foot wedged into her crotch. That's how women support their prolapse in places where there's no one to hoick it back to where it belongs. In some cultures these women are shunned. Really sad.
And, don't get me started on fistulae www.fistulafoundation.org/
That's partly why I witter on about this so much. If women's health had a higher profile in the West then these charities who do so much abroad would find it easier to fundraise. Well, I assume they would.
Milly O' - yep, some people DO find it improves. That's partly because of increased general muscle tone and weight loss, and also because when you run your core muscles are working hard (assuming you have good posture). In general though, most women find the opposite. Am pleased for you - but, still, #doyerblardyexercises!
TracyK - the work that these folk are doing is great. It's old news from a medical perspective, but, presented in a really engaging and accessible way with quite a lot of appealing products you can buy to support you. It's perfectly valid, but, I'm wary of anything that says "do this, it's good for everyone".
You could argue that runners would benefit from really working on their warm up/stretch/train/cool down/stretch/stretch/stretch - that would sort out a whole lot of gait issues. Without having to resort to fugly shoes. Honestly, I just can't take people seriously with their weird big rubber feet shoe things on. I get the theory, and I understand it works for loads of folk. Looks daft.
Fin - these are great links. Huff post are really good at promoting Cinderella issues. Why look, here's a blog from last August's Fringe....(listed in reverse order) (says pretty much everything I've said here, only, in the Huff Post, which makes me awfully chuffed with myself) www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/elaine-miller/