The mugging incident

I feel like enough time has gone by for me to finally talk about this. People always seem to ask “what’s the worst thing that happened when you travel?” Expecting to hear a story like this (or of being poorly kidnapped).

In reality- more bad stuff has happened to me in the states/Canada (email hacked, credit card fraud, car broken into, held at needle-point, assault, sexual harassment, etc) than when traveling. I guess we’re programmed to ignore these facts and just believe that the rest of the world is far more scary than our own. Probably because it’s unknown and unfamiliar.

I’ll get back to that.

I got mugged because I was careless and stupid.

Let me back up.

1. I was walking up an unpopulated hill in daylight (normally- this is fine),
2. listening to Ted talks on my phone. (Again- normally this is fine)
3. but I was trying to pick one I hadn’t heard before- therefore- I was paying more attention to my phone than to what was around me (fatal mistake).

I didn’t even see this hooded figure come up next to me. He tapped me on the shoulder and said something about money. I ignored him, thinking he was a homeless person and went to walk away until he grabbed me and stuck a knife in my side and uttered “don’t scream”.

You know that bit in your lizard brain that tells you to fight, flight or freeze? Mine must be malfunctioning because I thought all 3 at the same time.

He got impatient and grunted “Give me money.”

The thoughts that raced through my head were like a channel-flipper.

• “What should I do?”
• “Seriously? This is happening?”
• “Eh- I’ll just reboot my day back to the last save point.”
• “Oh crap……. This isn’t a dream”
• “I should kick him in the balls.” (This wasn’t a possibility from where he was physically standing).
• “Maybe I should just do what they always do- and give him everything.”
• “Wait- if I do that, I’ll end up with nothing. And besides- that didn’t work out for Batman’s parents.”
• “There’s no way this guy is getting everything. Not without a fight.”
• “He’s looking at me funny…. I should probably do something.”

I had my book bag and phone. On the back of my phone was my my-city bus card (which, by the way, in Cape Town is a master card. So, technically, it’s money.) I gave that to him. He threw that down to the ground and grabbed my phone…. MY PRECIOUS!

To most people it’s just an out of date iPhone. To me it is my camera, my microphone, my journal, my budget notes, my translator, my itinerary… And was it backed up? No. Of course not. That would be responsible……….

(Another lesson learned… Moving on.)

Then he wanted my bag as well.

Here’s where it gets complicated. My brain was saying “LN, you always just give them everything. It’s ok. Nothing is worth your life.” Except my passport, cards, first aid kit and journal was all in that bag! Ok- the first aid kit is replaceable but the rest wasn’t! Not easily! My hand-written journal had all my notes from the past month in it. I hadn’t gotten around to transposing it to my google-drive file (super slow Internet…). Besides- I have almost 95 stamps in that passport! Do you know how much of a bitch it is to get your passport replaced?!? Especially after 9/11?!?

Believe me- it’s a pain. And if you have to pick an option of dealing with homeland security or get stabbed? I pick getting stabbed every time.

So I refused to give up my bag. I gave him my best “back the fuck off” lion-stare that I’ve mastered at bars and in the bush. He grabbed the bag and tried to cut it off me. And this was HIS first mistake- because this is when I found out that his “knife” was as sharp as an envelope opener. I started screaming at this point and jumped after him.

Luckily my bag was heavy with bottled water. He panicked and threw that at me and took off- still with my phone. (My precious!)

I mustered up all my CrossFit endurance and took off after him. (Wearing chacos….) He rounded a corner where, for some miracle of gawd, a bunch of triathlon trainers were sprinting the hills. I was screaming “mugger! Thief! Stop him!” They must have heard me and they, too, took off after him.

Confession: I was impressed by this guy’s stamina. And embarrassed by my own. (If only he ran races for a living instead of getting high off backpacker’s pawned stuff! Yep. I’m passing judgement and making assumptions. This asshat had My Precious. I’m allowed.)

The particular neighborhood that I was in has “neighborhood watch” towers. Little boxes where a paid guard sits, texts all day, and makes sure nothing happens during his shift. Normally I disregard them and think they are a waste of money. Not today! Before I knew it, a guard came running out of one, and sprinted after the guy. (Mental note: South African security guards do not eat donuts on the job!) They rounded the corner and the next thing I knew I saw the guard come towards me with my phone.

MY PRECIOUS!

I offered to buy the guard lunch- but he declined and took off for his guard post which was un-manned during his act of amazing heroism.

I don’t know what happened to the thief- this seems to be a big question for people. To be honest, I don’t really care what happened to him because I ended up ok and all he ended up with a my-city bus card with 3$ on it.

Don’t let my hyperbole fool you, though. Afterwards I felt violated. Hyper aware of everything (glances, bumps and bulges in people’s coats/bags, weird smells, my gut feeling) and felt foolish for being so careless. Cape Town reminded me so much of San Francisco mixed with Melbourne that I just took safety for granted and didn’t even consider myself in a third world country (see my craptastic Internet moaning above).

The irony is that bad things happen all the time to people who aren’t paying attention. More has happened to me at “home” because I take safety for granted- when, in fact, desperate people who are looking for easy marks are everywhere.

I realize that there are heaps of exceptions to this opinion. I also realize that it’s exhausting to be hyper aware all the time- and the thought that if you let your guard down for an instant you’ll be a target is enough to make people never want to ever leave the house. So I’ll leave off with the advice I follow and keeps me sane and keeps me traveling with limited fear:

1. Never travel with your passport if you don’t have to.
2. There is (usually) power in groups, or advantages to walking quickly.
3. Always back up yer crap. (Phone, journal, whatever.) Make this a weekly ritual.
4. If you are already drawing attention to yourself (ie- if you’re the only white girl around) draw MORE attention by screaming, barking, talking to yourself/a sock puppet/whatever. What do you have to lose?
5. A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

Femme Fatale Silks/pole/circus/dance

I needed a break from crossfit, so I decided to try something else entirely. When I was in the Philippines, I met a girl who gave me a (very) brief lesson in pole while we drank rum and waited for the typhoon to hit. (as you do). I quickly realized that my core is laughable and I needed to work on it. I also wanted to get better at coordination and flexibility. So I signed up for some classes.

My first class at Femme Fatale was a stiletto pole (I don’t own a pair of stilettos, btw). I left feeling sore but accomplished. Sadly, my schedule didn’t allow me to take this class anymore.

I did take the “circus workout” every chance I could. It’s basically TRX (but with silks, instead of the expensive straps). If you’ve never done silks class before, I highly recommend it. In Circus (taught by a suuuuuper bubbly teacher named Melissa) you do all sorts of floor exercises, TRX-like exercises on all sorts of equipment and you’re exhausted by the end of the 30-40 min session. The time at the end is for you to fool around on silks/hoop/trapeze and get new profile pics! 😛

Flex and Stretch, taught by a ballet-professional named Layla, is basically yoga/pilates on crack. You think it’s just going to be glorified stretching, but I have never sweat this much (even during hot yoga in India during the summer!) Because of this (and work on my own) I ended up getting the splits. (yay!)

The other “drop-in” class that I took was “dance fusion”. Think Zumba- but with jazz, ballet, hip hop, contemporary and dance-central video game all mixed into one. Taught by (the one and only amazing) Cassie, was probably one of the most fun classes I’ve ever taken. If you like to dance and want something that will keep your heart-rate up- just try it. You’ll be overwhelmed the first 2-3 times, but after that you’ll pick it up. Just go and have fun.

Femme Fatale does either membership or drop-in classes. If you get a membership (100$ a month) you get access to all the registered classes plus all the drop-in classes. Otherwise you pay 10-15$ a class and don’t get access to the registered classes. The classes can range anywhere between 5-15 for the drop-ins and 5-8 for the registered classes.

With that said, I signed up for the registered classes and took pole dancing and silks. Pole helped me on my core, for sure, but didn’t make me feel as graceful as silks- which I instantly took to. Climbing up, wrapping a piece of fabric around your body and hanging upside down just makes you feel like a bad ass. (doing a human-flag-pole will eventually make me feel bad-ass as well…. but I’m getting there).

Anyway- if you’re a lady (sorry guys- women only!), over the age of 18, want to have a fun place to go and kill some calories while having a fun atmosphere to do it in- I would recommend Femme Fatale in Kettering.

TRX – Fitness institute, Troy, OH

After my last post I, admittedly, haven’t been back to crossfit. I am doing a lot more things, physically and decided to spend more time on those.

One of them is TRX with the Fitness Institute, in Troy Ohio. “What the hell is TRX?” I hear you ask- Well, let me tell you!

According to the story I heard from Ron (owner of Fitness Institute), a bunch of Navy Seals were on a mission. It was only supposed to last a day or two so they holed up in a bunker of some sort. Well, the mission got delayed and they ended up staying in that bunker for a lot longer than anticipated. Months, I think. During this time they had to keep their shape, but had no gear to train with. So they got creative with belts and para-chord and looped some stuff over hangers and started doing exercises. After the mission, one of them embraced his inner entrepreneur and TRX was born.

“What does that really mean, LN?” I hear you ask: It’s a couple of straps, hanging from a bar and you use your body weight to do standard exercises (like pushups, rows, situps, etc.) The straps force you to balance in strange/new ways that you don’t really expect- AND (best part) it’s totally scalable to your skill level.

So I took a class. It was only 30 minutes- to which I was thinking “huh. I wonder if I’m going to even feel it.”

After the class, I felt like I was just introduced to Terry Crews and we did Euro-training.

The workout wasn’t high-intensity like crossfit pushes to be. It wasn’t “OMG, I’m going to die”. Chris went “easy” on us, and was patient, energetic, motivating and encouraging to be around. Did I say it was easy? No- I’m saying that Chris took it easy. The workout wasn’t easy at all. Doing pushups and renegade rows while balancing is effin’ hard. I woke up this morning feeling sore in strange muscles that I didn’t expect to be sore- mostly in my core. (YAY!)

I dragged my dad and brother to the class and we went to breakfast afterwards. We all agreed that, “for just straps hanging from a pole/door frame” it was a pretty serious workout. True, you could also do a lot with a deck of cards, but this gave you a lot more freedom and scaleable difficulty. So much, in fact, that my dad wanted me to buy a pair for the office so we could keep working out together.

——-

As for the Fitness Institute, it’s owned by Patty Rose and managed by Ron Darrow. It is a renovated church but they kept the stain-glass which, along with the high-ceilings, adds a lot of character. (It also makes you think twice before you start cussing at the trainer.) Upstairs has all the machines and free-weights. In the “choir hang” are the cardio machines. Downstairs is where they hold the classes. My family also went to a bootcamp workout (held on saturdays) which introduced bicep curls. (Crossfit doesn’t “do” bicep curls, so guess which part of my body was wrecked the day after?).

All in all, if you’re in the Troy area, looking for a gym to work out at, take a class, try something new, be around a bunch of really high-energy folk who also just want to see you succeed in life- check out the Fitness Institute! TRX is every Tuesday and Friday mornings at 6am (as of June 6th, 2014) and you’ll be seeing me there until I leave town again. 🙂

Why I Crossfit

I read this article this morning.  So much of it rang true that I had to stop myself from screaming “YES! ABSOLUTELY!”.

But then I remembered another article I read– and remember the community of crossfit and how powerful it is. (Note: I’m currently working on a podcast about community).

With all this- I want to share a story:

Monday was “Memorial Day Murph”- which I’ve been looking forward to for months. It’s a hellacious workout (run a mile, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, run a mile). “prescribed” is to do it while wearing full gear (or a 20lb vest). I wanted to do it while wearing a gas mask until the final mile and then seeing how long it takes me to run a mile.

I’ve done “Murph” 4 times now. It takes about an hour. The story behind the hero is actually pretty amazing and inspiring. Even though I’m not a military person- this story hits me in the feels every time I read it.

I digress.

The gym breaks down into groups. The head coach, knows that I wanted to do this with a gas mask. He knows my physical goals (of wanting to climb mt. kilimanjaro, training with a gas mask, etc.) He has allowed me for countless practices to use the gas mask while working out. No problem. I know my limits, I’ve never had problems, etcetc.

That morning, his wife, who is “medically trained” told me that I couldn’t wear it because “she’s concerned for my safety”.

I told her that I signed a liability form.

She said “well, but your mother would sue us if anything happened.”

I didn’t feel like arguing. I gave up and started the workout without the mask, pissed off because my whole visualization was thrown off.

After the run is pull-ups. A guy next to me was hammering out the reps and then, all of a sudden, slipped, fell off the bars and right onto his back. He spazzed a little, his eyes rolled back, he blacked out. My WFR training kicked in and I was first on the scene. I secured his head and checked for bleeding. I directed someone to call 9-11 (found out later that my dad was the one who finally got 9-11 on the phone… Not the head coach. Not his “medically trained” wife. She was “trying to” but “couldn’t get the phone to work”. Not the doctor who works out there…. My dad. A patron. An Eagle Scout. I digress again.) He came to, opened his eyes (they were PERRL) but he was still unresponsive to verbals. I asked someone what his name was and asked if he could hear me to open his eyes. He opened them. I pinched his ear, he winced. Good. I explained what happened in small, slow words (not hard for me seeing that my vocabulary is tiny, anyway). I asked him if he could move his fingers and toes. I asked him if I could palpate his body for injuries. I got down to his waist and the “medically trained” staff member came onto the scene and encouraged him to sit up and drink water (funny- I wasn’t taught that in WFR training….)

The paramedics arrived, I delivered my “SOAP report”. They seemed thankful that someone on-scene was trained enough to give such a report. (heh).

He walked to the ambulance and that’s when I continued my workout.

Where was the “medically trained professional”? She showed up on scene when the paramedics did- which was 10 minutes after the incident. The head coach- as soon as made sure that 9-11 was called, continued his workout.

I couldn’t be more disgusted by those decisions. The people who said, not 15 minutes before, that “our member’s safety is our number one concern” were too busy working out and not paying attention to what was going on.

Part of me is glad that I didn’t wear the mask because what would have happened if I *DID* pass out? Would the “medically trained” individual sat on me with a plastic bag? I shudder at the thought. I’ve been debating what to say to the head coach in explaination of why I’m canceling my membership. “Sorry- but I was (poorly) kidnapped in Ecuador and survived the worst Typhoon in history but what makes me really scared is your gym.”

I’ve been to 42 boxes in the world and as much as I didn’t want to agree with it, I find a lot of truth in the first article. It *does* only take 16 hours to get “certified” to teach crossfit level 1. In some countries in the world, you don’t even need that. The lack of safety and the push of “go bigger, go stronger” is prevalent and obvious. Sometimes, this is a key part of the culture. Personally, I had been lifting overhead stuff incorrectly for the past 3 years and it took a Clinical Myotherapist  (my flatmate when I lived in Oz) to diagnose what was going on after my arms went numb after running a 10k (not the 35 crossfit coaches that I had trained under at some point……)

HOWEVER! There is a sense of community that can’t be ignored. Crossfit is this place… this safe haven… where everyone wants me to do well. Where everyone is cheering for me. Where everyone experiences the same terribleness and gets through it, together. THAT is why I “do crossfit”. 

I think this paragraph (of this guy’s blog) sums up my attitude nicely:

CrossFit is a cult!

You’re damn right it is!  Look up the definition of cult.  CrossFitters DO care about what they do a lot.  We ARE very dedicated to our passion.  If that’s wrong, then I don’t want to be right!  I LOVE my CrossFit family.  There is no more supportive, more highly motivated group of people that I’ve ever met.  Go to a college football game and see all the ugliness from opposing fans.  Curses, derogatory names, threats of physical violence, all are very present.  Go to a CrossFit competition and watch everyone cheer for each other. It’s that simple.  CrossFit is love people.  If you want to hate on love, I guess you’ve told me everything I need to know about you.

 

 

Now… If only I can find a safer way to do it….

I <3 Kickboxing! (Alpha Martial Arts, Seattle, WA)

I was invited back to Alpha Martial Arts to try an I ❤ Kickboxing class.

“It’ll be 60-minutes of cardio! You can totally do this.”  Carissa, the kickboxing coach but also my partner in the 14.5 jab crossfit class I took. “You’ll be fine!”

While she was right, I was totally fine, I was pooped! WIPED OUT! EXHAUSTED! But the whole thing made me feel bad ass.

Let me back up: 

Alpha Martial Arts, if you didn’t tune in last time, is a dojo with kickboxing, Muay Thai, Karate, and Crossfit all in 1 location. They also cater to kids, which gets the whole family involved.

The last time I took a kickboxing class was on a cruise ship and was catered towards people that needed a way to burn off calories from the all-you-could-eat pizza bar that was available 24/7. (Don’t judge). So I thought it was a good time to try this again.

After expressing my concern/worry to Carissa that I’m a total n00b, she waved it off and said “Just show up. It’ll be great.” I was mostly worried that my technique would be terrible, that I would be holding up the class because I didn’t know what I was doing, blah blah blah. (all the typical CDO stuff that happens). I showed up anyway.

SO Glad I did!

Kickboxing classes (at AMA) are exactly as Carissa said: 60 minutes of cardio with a crap-ton of new techniques thrown in. (Jab Cross, Uppercuts, roundhouse kicks, etc). You have gloves and are going against a pad or buddy the whole time. She sets timers for 2 minutes and then you have 30-seconds of rest while she explains the next exercise. Basically, it’s a Tabata on steroids… for 60 minutes.

Not to mention that taking your aggression out on a pad is really satisfying. 😀

The other class mates were a hodge-podge of experience levels. Some had been there for 4 years and some were new like me. However, none of that hindered the class because you move at your own pace and do as much as you can. The more classes you attend the more you’ll know the moves and the more you can just jump right in.

After the class I was drenched and shaky (blood-sugar went through the floor). Carissa explained that I had probably just spent 600-700 calories. (read: you should eat breakfast before you work out).

Carissa is a great coach who had the best formula of encouragement mixed with tips on how to correct form. I walked out of the gym with even more confidence (which is saying something because I’m pretty cocky already). So if you’re in the Seattle area and want to try something new to get your heart going, I would totally recommend one of the drop-in classes at AMA!

Jab Crossfit (Alpha Martial Arts) Seattle, WA (USA)

Today I went to Jab Crossfit near the University District in Seattle, WA. My friend Carissa works here (I’ll be taking her kickboxing class next week- so wait on a follow-up blog on that!) and convinced me to do the last wod of the open with her.

14.5…. guh. 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 thrusters and burpees. I’ll kevetch about that later.

Alpha Martial Arts is a kickboxing, karate dojo and crossfit box all in 1. They have kid classes and multiple spaces so nothing seems chaotic, but it’s awesome that you can drop your kids off and go work out yourself. (FAMILY WORKOUTS!).

They are a small box, so my class size was perfect at 8 athletes and one amazing coach (Tyler) who’s take on crossfit is that it should be fun, “yes, we’re getting a workout, but it doesn’t have to be so serious.”

As far as the culture, Jab felt like a mini-family that was there to have fun. To work out and get the “that kicked my ass!” accomplishment feeling while smiling. Not many (if any) are there to compete, but instead to build a healthy life balance.

In regards to the community that it spawns: everyone knew everyone and the intimate details of their lives. Exhausted and out-of-breath cheering occurred during the WOD, everyone got fist-bumps at the end. I will say that I always feel like Crossfit is a great way of networking and this box is no different. I met a bunch of people that I wouldn’t mind grabbing coffee (hey! It’s Seattle, after all!) with at some point.

In general, everyone has to go through a fundamentals class so nothing is new/scary for the new victim athlete. Tyler has the eye and drive to make your form more efficient, effective and perfect before moving onto something more difficult which I greatly appreciate. He also loves to make his programming fun. Like incorporating the PeeWee Herman dance into kettlebell swings. (Yea, you read that right!)

The WOD we did was the Open’s 14.5. It was terrible. Awful. Dreadful. I’m going to do it again tomorrow. 😛

Lastly, I won’t spoil it for you- but the cool-down was my favorite part. Especially after that wod.

 

So if you’re looking for a box that will treat you like family and that you can have fun with- go check out Jab Cross(fit)! I highly recommend them. 🙂

(CF) Chelsea playlist

My birthday is coming up. I’m going to be thirty(coughcough..something). My flatmate was playing an amazing 80’s playlist and it gave me the idea to have the top song of the year for the past thirty(coughcough…something) years. Then I thought to put them in order and change every minute, on the minute, so I could do a birthday-wod.

 

(Why yes I have a big brain and yes I went to college and yes I’m single and gorgeous and talented with audio-post-production. Thankyouverymuch!)

 

So here ya go: My birthday-playlist. Complete with pictures of thirty(coughcough..something) boxes that I’ve been to during my travels. Do this with me on August 24th!

 

Chelsea:

Every Minute On the Minute (or whenever the bell dings):

• 5 pullups
• 10 pushups
• 15 squats

 

LN:  (or… my modified one since I couldn’t make it to the box today)

• 3 HSPU
• 10 situps
• 15 squats

 

Infinity Fitness (Tipp City Crossfit) Tipp City, Ohio USA

I’ve been to Infinity before as it is owned by an old High School friend of mine. I actually really like this box. It has the perfect mix of “hard-core workouts” and “the friendly place that you go where everyone knows (or wants to know) your name”.

I decided to go here to workout with my dad and ask Heather Lyons about Infinity. What makes them different (besides location/name/etc) and the normal questions that I ask… She completely surprised me when she said “well, we’re a corporate box.”
“huh?”
“This is a sister location of Regal Crossfit which is a corporate box.”
“What do you mean by that?”

Apparently, Regal is located with-in the Regal Beloit corporation which helps the company grow in multiple ways:
1) Their health insurance premiums go down by offering crossfit to their employees.
2) When normally the president of the company wouldn’t talk to a floor-worker, they do now! Everyone has a team mentality and works together better than they could have ever imagined.
3) There is a mutual enemy– and her name is Fran.

Other things that make Infinity different is that on Monday I learned how to link my double-unders. Something that I’ve been working on for ….oh….2 years. It just takes practice and a good musical beat, apparently!

Reebok 5th Ave Crossfit, NYC, USA

I was walking around aimlessly in NY with 3 hours to kill– when I stumbled upon Reebok 5th Ave. From the outside, it looks like a Reebok Crossfit retail store. Shoes, socks, shirts, jackets, etc litter the inside of the shop– but if you go downstairs you start to see and hear the familiar sounds of blood/sweat and tears.

I asked a lot of people what makes 5th ave different than all the other boxes in NYC… Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) said “the trainers are the best in the world”(end quote). Of course, I’m skeptical. I informed them that I have been traveling around the world and, no offense, but the world is big… I mean, how can one even make such a claim? So I asked Bobby– the head coach.

“We’re the best in the world and we work hard to be the best.”

From what I gathered, all the trainers meet every week and we go over a principal. A lift/stretch/mobility exercise/something. Then they break it down, analyze the anatomy of the body when doing the principal, the muscles that are actually being used vs what we (humans/athletes) THINK are being used, what words should and shouldn’t be used when describing what is being done, scaling options, everything. This takes several hours. All the trainers contribute and they talk about the best way to teach this to athletes.

Because Reebok 5th Ave has anywhere from 10-40+ people per class, they have multiple coaches teaching each class so it’s necessary to have uniformity between all of the coaches.

This weekly coach-breakdown helps get that and helps them all grow significantly every week/month.

“If you don’t grow as a coach- you are a bad coach. That’s my opinion, anyway.”-Bobby.

In addition to having cool coaches (one dressed up as Rafael (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) during their explanation) they also hold Civilian Military Combine competitions and offer up their box for training for anyone who is signed up for tough-mudder/spartan runs, etc.

I should also note that, for downtown NYC, this box is HUGE! I can’t imagine what their rent is. Luckily for them, they have 450+ monthly members and have only continued to grow since opening up 9 months ago.

I was there on Wednesday– which means “partner wod” day.

Before the wod, though, we did a Split-Jerk skill for 20 minutes. Even though there were a lot of people, it was a great opportunity to practice muscle memory or PR (depending on where you grouped yourself). The coaches, like they promised, broke the exercise down into great “muscle-memory steps” that everyone (from beginner to advanced) could benefit from. The description of how to do the split-jerk (shown on PVC) was spot-on and thorough, which this (hopefully someday) trainer appreciated.

After 20 minutes of work, we got into the WOD. I found an awesome athlete (Jacqualine) who kept me excited and feeling accomplished the whole time— which just added to my overall “bad-ass/welcome feeling” of this box.

50-40-30-20-10
lunges
hand-release pushups
situps
double-unders

I should note that the following day I had to get on a plane and sit for 24 hours while I make my way to Australia– so lunges were a terrible idea… BUT! I’m so glad that I went and I’m sad that I can’t stay longer and hang out with this crew more often. I will definitely be returning when I’m back in NYC– and highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting/living there.

Exercise Can Help to Reduce Fatigue in Cancer Patients

This is a guest post from the fantastic Melanie Bowen. As someone who has had multiple friends/family members diagnosed/die of cancer, I hope this message gets out.

————-

High energy levels and an overall sense of wellness can seem especially elusive when a person is facing a cancer diagnosis.  Going through cancer treatments can have as big of an impact on the way a person feels as the disease does itself in many cases.  Numerous people who are facing a cancer diagnosis often find their lives in upheaval as they face fatigue, pain, financial dilemmas, family concerns and an on-going round of treatments.  Adjusting to the diagnosis and maintaining a sense of wellness can potentially be accomplished by using exercise and fitness as an ally to traditional treatment regimens.

Exercise and nutrition plans can have a big impact on how well a person feels each day.  Research has shown that even very minimal amounts of exercise each day can contribute to a person feeling stronger and being able to sleep better at night.  Many people may have no other choice but to exercise in very small increments if they are dealing with extreme fatigue levels and chronic pain.  However, with each minute exercised, a person is taking positive measures to improve the way he feels on a daily basis.  Gaining new strength and reducing fatigue is important to ensure the vitality and quality of a life of a cancer patient until the disease is defeated.

Setting goals and meeting with a medical provider to discuss the best type of fitness schedule is ideal because this allows the patient to begin a fitness routine under professional monitoring.  Friends and family members can get on board and be supportive to the cancer patient by joining in the same fitness plan and helping to prepare healthy meals and snacks that will provide nutritious antioxidants and appropriate protein intake.
If setting a fitness plan seems like a challenging feat, consider looking at just one week at a time.   For example, making a commitment to walk ten minutes each morning and then perform yoga ten minutes each evening can be a big benefit to a cancer patient.  Swimming and bicycling are also healthy activities that can help to reduce anxiety and build muscles.  Speak with your doctor to develop a fun and beneficial plan based upon your physical condition, diagnosis, and treatment schedule. There is a long list of activities to choose from so find what is right for you!

Exercising and promoting a healthy heart will help a patient progress physically and emotionally, which will go a long way in cancer treatment. It is important not to overlook the emotional benefits of exercise. Often, cancer patients are faced with depression and anxiety in the wake of their diagnosis, both of which can be combatted with exercise. Physical exertion releases endorphins into the body, which have mood-boosting effects and consequently are extremely beneficial for someone fighting for their life.

No matter what form of cancer you are fighting, whether it be breast cancer or mesothelioma, or anything in between, it is important to take all of the possible steps to get healthy. Start today and make some changes!