Bladder training may be used by cognitively intact and motivated people with urinary incontinence
to increase the time interval between voids and to reduce the sensation of urgency. Two main components
of bladder training are urge suppression and urge control. Urge suppression involves pausing; sitting down, if possible; relaxing; and contracting the pelvic floor muscles repeatedly in order to diminish
the urge to urinate, inhibit detrusor contractions, and prevent urine loss. While waiting for the urge to subside,
patients can practice urge control techniques— that is, they can try to distract themselves from the
urge to void by focusing instead on a problem-solving challenge or counting backwards from 100 by nines.
After the urge to urinate has subsided, patients walk at normal pace to the toilet. A bladder drill procedure
imposes a progressively lengthened interval—from five minutes to four hours, depending on patient
tolerance—between voids over the course of days or weeks.