Is Peeing Your Pants a Social Taboo?

I have been diligently attending all of my aerobics, weight lifting, and stretching classes. No matter how I feel each morning, I pull on the spandex, lace up the gourmet Asics running shoes, and head off to the gym. I am dedicated. I am also a woman who has given birth. Things in the bladder department are perhaps not as toned as they once were and frankly, all of this bouncing is starting to take its toll. Today as I was bouncing around during my intense 30 minute Cardio Quick class, I felt as though I was going to pee my pants right there on the studio floor. I had gone to the bathroom immediately before the class started. I had limited my water intake to only what I had to drink to survive. I even tried to keep my bouncing to a minimum, which is not an easy feat considering that the class consists of jumping jacks, kicks, knee lifts, and various and sundry other bouncy moves.

Nothing helped. I still felt like I really really really had to pee.

I hadn't felt that way all through my BodyPump class which I had just taken the hour before. I had just gone to the restroom, so I decided to "tough it out." Well let me tell you, clenching your ureter shut is not an easy thing to do while doing jumping jacks, no ma'am, not easy at all. However, I was successful, I did not pee my pants in the gym.

I did however have chills, a lot of panic, a couple of near misses, and a sprint to the restroom the second class was over. I get to the restroom. I am in the stall. I am ready, bring on the gallon of pee that must be lurking in my bladder to have caused such massive discomfort throughout the class....nothing. Oh sure, there were a few anticlimatic drops, but considering how bad I had to go, it was nothing! Now what I want to know is: what's going on here? Why would my body sabotage my efforts for cardio fitness? Am I now going to have to join June Allyson and wear "female bladder protection" during my workouts? I know I'm not the only one sprinting to the stalls once the music ends, I have been elbowed and kneed several times by older ladies as they attempt to be first in the 'good stall' (you know, the one with toilet paper actually loaded in the dispenser and the door that locks). I just thought I had oh, 2, 3, 4 more decades or so before I was the one unable to bounce. I don't really like using public restrooms anyway (this goes along with the public shower phobia).

Then again, considering how small the amount was, I could probably pass it off as just sweat on the gym floor...you know, if I really had to...