I hear people talking about their core. Doing core strength training. Engaging their core. It all sounded like nonsense to me until my core really came into play.

A diagram of some your core muscles.

The thing about being sliced open is that it really makes you consider the importance of certain body parts. For the first week of my bed rest after my hysterectomy, I moved very little. After that, I gradually gained more and more strength. I tried to find one victory for each day. “Today I started to roll over!” “Today I almost rolled over!” “Today I rolled over!”

The victories were small.

Although my incision certainly hurt, my biggest roadblock to doing a lot of things was a lack of any muscle strength in my core. Some things I was surprised to learn used core muscles:

  • Going up stairs is not too bad but going down stairs is quite challenging.
  • Sitting down and getting up in general is tricky, but sitting down on and getting up from a toilet is especially hard because of the small surface area with which you have to work and the erect position in which you typically sit. I had to bring a pillow with which to prop myself up.
  • Getting back to an upright position after sliding down into more of a slouch is a near impossibility. Thank goodness Wonder Boy knew some tricks from his nursing days to help me.
  • Tapping your feet at a concert is almost impossible to do but relies more than you know on your core. (This had me in near tears.)
  • Coughing. Ouch.
  • Sneezing. More ouch.
  • Vomiting. I never did this but I spent one evening crying because if a fear of doing it.
  • Picking up something off the floor, or pretty much anything that involves squatting.

I’m moving about with ease now and only have the occasional twinge of pain, usually along my incision line instead of muscular pain.

When I stand up straight  and try to flex my stomach muscles, I’m aware of it. And consider it a pretty big victory.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.