Exercise after hysterectomy

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It looks like I'm facing a hysterectomy. At the moment I do 3-4 weights/conditioning classes each week at the gym (deadlifts, squats etc) and I run a couple of days a week (3-5km). Obviously these are going to be out for at least a gew months as I recover. A friend is back running 10km about a year after her op but I don't know anyone who lifts to know how likely it is I'll be able to get back to reasonable weights again. Another friend discovered reformer pilates since her hysterectomy and has bever felt better so maybe its about getting my head round finding different options.

Is it a vaginal or abdominal? I had an abdominal hysterectomy 2 years ago. I got really fat and wasn’t doing anything feeling sorry for myself! Just completely let myself go got over 15st.

A year later I decided enough was enough lost most of the weight and I am now able to do pretty much anything and I am building up to stronger weights with no issues. Pilates is amazing for core. I am not experiencing any issues to be honest with my core and strength it keeps improving but I wasn’t fit to begin with. I also have a bad back so I am not a heavy lifter but I think it’s my back that holds me back and not my hysterectomy.

The residual issue I have is a slight overhang of skin that I am not sure I can ever get rid of where the surgeon did the incision it’s given me a new shape I didn’t have before to my very lowest part of my abdomen/pelvis area.

Just take it slowly, it’s not worth doing anything to jeopardise it in the early days. I initially started out swimming and walking and then built up from there. I think I went back to work after 6 weeks but it took another few weeks for the scar to really feel better.

Sounds like you have got yourself back to a good place @Menora . It will probably be keyhole abdominal but as I've had 2x sections before, there's a slim chance of being fully abdominal if things go sideways. My mum had a hysterectomy 30 years ago and has recently been referred for prolapse surgery which is worrying me as while I know I have good lifting technique, it seems to be a real risk factor in the future.

I had keyhole gallbladder removal a couple of years ago. So not such a big operation, but still comparable. I was deadlifting my body weight before - and deadlift more now. Rehabilitation was slow and steady. I was itching to go faster, and probably could have done, but my PT was very conservative and I think that was wise. I was back to treadmill walking within a couple of days of the operation and did only that for 6 weeks. Urgh. Then for a couple of weeks I added in a bit of lifting with a broomstick only, just to do the movements and get my core moving a bit. Then I moved on to machines at the gym for about 12 weeks. Starting at pretty much the lightest settings and progressing in small increments but fast. By the end of the 12 weeks I was doing as much weight as I could before the op. Then back to proper lifting but starting at about one third of my pre op weights, to ease back into the movements. After 8 weeks was back to where I had been. So full recovery period was 28 weeks.

I would add that I trained the hell out of everything leading up to the operation. The stress was relieved by exercise, which was an added motivator but going into the operation in peak fitness was a good thing.