Cancer Journal #28 April 3

 I do fitness training twice a week with a trainer who has a space at Banbury Place in Eau Claire.  I've been going to him a little over a year, since before my diagnosis.  I spend an hour there, starting on a rowing machine, a stationary bike and a skiing machine and then I move on to diagonal pushups, planks, elastic band behind the back stuff and various other exercises all designed to put all my muscles groups to work.  He changes things up from session to session so more of my body is doing different things and maybe to keep me interested.

I'm happy enough with the variety but he needn't worry about me losing interest.  I never actually enjoy it.  I get on that bike, I'm less than half way through the goal he has set and my body really wants to stop doing this.  I stay with it, it gets marginally better but there's big relief when I finish.  And then the nice sense of relaxed well-being that follows a workout.  I stay with it, going pretty much all out despite my body's protest.  I still hear my mother's voice saying, "Do it even if you don't want to."  I haven't actually heard that for more than 60 years but in my head, I get the intonation just right and the irritating note of virtuous duty building she would use.  Nary a hint of sympathetic understanding.  And hearing that voice, I keep pushing through the exhaustion.

As for the therapeutic benefits, I have a cancer book that reports a study showing a 60% reduction in tumor incidence and growth with physical exertion...in mice.  But we're like mice.  I'm sure there are significant benefits to fitness training. The book has a lengthy list of the cancer fighting advantages that exercise incurs.  Some are self-evident;  a healthy relaxed body is one that fights cancer more effectively.  Some not so self-evident;  a body hot from exercise creates an uncongenial environment for cancer and also sweats out toxins,  An exercised body gets the lymphatic system flowing without encumbrance, delivering immunity agents to where the cancer is.  Although the list does not explicitly include this, I think that a body that is regularly asked to do hard things, pushing the limits of its capacity and expanding that capacity is a body that will battle cancer better.

Dumb luck--or the Lord--that got me going on this before cancer was ever on the horizon.  Whatever, I'm grateful for it.

Comments

  1. Jan CApril 5, 2021 at 10:35 AM

    That's so great that you got started on this fitness training before your diagnosis! I can only imagine it will yield several benefits.

    Isn't that funny how we hear our parents' voices in our heads, even after all those years? I can still hear my dad saying, "Try to have a little common sense!" :)

    I totally hear ya on having to push through the unpleasant exercise. When I was younger, I used to run--well, actually jog! At least the first mile was often pure torture with the leg muscles burning and me fighting for breath. But then, even though I got into a sort of stride, I wouldn't say I ever enjoyed it. But oh! Did it ever feel great when each run was DONE! Those endorphins too! Now, I walk at a good pace, which seems to suit me better, but even with that, some days I have to loosen up and get used to it the first part of the walk.

    Wishing you all the benefits of fitness training--and lots of endorphins!!

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