There are several compensation strategies we do with our breathing that can sabotage our core activation efforts and ultimately slow your healing process. Understanding the difference between bracing and engaging is key to your overall success. Bracing is when you tense up a muscle (your core in this case) as a way to stabilize or protect yourself. It is often too much tension for what is needed and leads to muscle imbalance and at times pain. But with the core, it also increases intra-abdominal pressure so that your belly is pushing out on the connective tissue of your linea albea when it should be drawing in and pulling the muscles together. Eliminating bracing from your movement pattern and replacing that strategy with and effective exhale and activation of your transverse abdominis will make a huge difference in your functional core strength and your healing process.