fitness - Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts

I watch the clock roll over on the treadmill’s digital display. “30 more seconds,” I tell myself. “I can keep running for 30 more seconds.” My breathing is ragged and heavy but it feels good. My feet pound on the treadmill’s belt in time with my music and my inhalations. The timer keeps counting down until I can rest. The seconds pass rather quickly and I smile. My relationship with time has totally changed since I started working out and finished cancer treatments. The importance of every passing minute has now shifted and yet it has also remained just as vital to me.

During chemo, I viewed every minute that passed as another minute that I was alive. Counting down the days I had left of treatment was incredibly important. Each day that finished was another day towards the end. Was another day towards survival. If I could live for just one week, what’s to say I wouldn’t live one week more? Or two weeks? Or a full month, maybe? If I could show God all the ‘x’s on my calendar maybe then He would see that it was ok to let me live some more.

Now that I’m alive and have thrown myself back into working out, I’m still counting down time. I’m still crossing off the days on my calendar. And it still feels good. This time, every minute longer I spend running is another minute that I’m getting stronger. Every repetition completed with the dumbbells is another check box filled saying, “I’m here! I’m alive! I’m okay!” I push myself to keep going, if I run faster and longer I’ll live longer too. If I keep going to the gym and building my body up, I’ll keep cancer at bay for just a bit longer.

It’s become more empowering to feel that every moment spent sweating is a moment that I’m really living. My days aren’t full of needy desperation to live anymore; I know that I am living. I am alive. I have control over my internal clock. I’m going to be okay and right now I am feeling great. And honestly, that’s the only thing that matters.

I just have to keep moving.

Tweet This Post

I stumbled across Zoe Pablo Smith’s blog the other day and was immediately drawn in and impressed by both her writing and her skills. Who is she? Well she’s a British Olympian and holds the record for the clean and jerk. She weighs 58kg/127.8lbs and lifted over her head 267lbs. You read that correctly. This is what she looks like:

Not what you were expecting, huh? I’m not quite sure how tall she is but she’s not what most people think of when they think of girls lifting weights. Especially big weights. So let me shatter that myth once and for all ladies, unless you set out to look like a body builder, you will NOT “bulk up” if you lift weights. You especially won’t bulk up if you lift stuff that’s more than 5lbs.

I like lifting weights! A lot. There’s something very satisfying in a primitive way of picking up something heavy and putting it down again. And then repeating that a bunch of times. It’s tiring and when my muscles are screaming at me to stop, I feel very powerful putting up that last set with perfect form.

Marital arts has been good for my soul but weight lifting has been good for my body. Extensive research has shown that weight bearing exercise (like lifting weights!) is useful in preventing osteoporosis. Do you hear that, ladies? You won’t Hulk out *and* you’ll make your bones stronger!

I also lift because I love challenging myself and having concrete goals set up. Non-competitive weight lifting isn’t about out lifting the other guy, it’s about breaking your personal record. It’s about setting the bar up a little higher and reaching it. I love seeing my repetitions go down while the weight I’m pushing (or pulling) goes up. I feel stronger and more capable to tackle the problems life sets before me. I can also feel myself walking a bit taller with my head held higher. I know I look good but, incredibly, I believe that. And deeper down, I feel good. I feel good about myself and I feel more optimistic.

I am a lifter! Hear me roar! Except, try not to do that at the gym. It’s can get really annoying. I realize the gym is an intimidating place. Heck, I sometimes feel nervous going to the free weights section because it’s mostly just dudes in there. However, as I’ve blogged about before, no one is really looking at you. And if they are, most folks are looking at your form. An exercise done incorrectly not only is a waste of energy, it can also lead to injuries down the road. Most people who are seriously into lifting weights will often times give a newbie some pointers on correct form.

So get out there and lifting things up! Channel your inner meat head and do it! Lift things up and put them down! Your body will thank you for it.

Tweet This Post

Yes, I’m still in the boot and unable to run. So to make myself feel better, I’ve been rereading John Bingham and Jenny Hatfield’s Running for Mortals.

This book should be subtitled, “Running for the un-athletic.” I was the slowest kid in school and in high school I would get Cs in gym class for not changing. Senior year, I wised up and got an A in gym all because I just changed into the stupid uniform. I liked some of my gym teachers, I just didn’t like how slow I was and how obnoxious my classmates were about the in class volleyball games. Here I am now at a young 27, a cancer survivor to boot, and I’m trying to relearn how to run.

John Bingham would laugh at me.

He decided pick up running at the age of 43. And 75lbs overweight. And a smoker. And a bit of a drinker and lover of junk food. It was awful and he failed. But he kept at it and used a walk-run program (it’s outlined in the book). He’s now preaches about what he calls the “slow running” movement. He regularly runs marathons using his run-walk program.

These are the books core strengths. The authors weren’t Olympians nor were they gym rats since childhood. They’re normal people who had to work hard to get (and STAY!) in shape and wrote a book about it. If they can do it, so can you is their mantra.

The other strength is their learn how to run/eat/train program in the middle of the book. The running program is similar to Couch to 5k in that it recommends you walk for a bit, run for a bit, walk some more. Lather, rinse and repeat. Next week you walk a bit less and run a bit longer. Unlike C25k, they have three different programs. Level 1 is for someone who does not work out ever. Level 2 is recommended for the person who does some form of exercise once or twice a week. And Level 3 is for gym rats who hate to do cardio. Pick your level and away you go!

There’s also a sensible guide to learning how to eat well. What I like is that it isn’t confusing to me, there aren’t a whole lot of calculations one has to do (I really don’t want to spend most of my mealtime doing arithmetic to find out of I can even eat!) and it’s not a rigid plan. This is a lifestyle you’re adopting and your eating needs to change for the long term. Think diet as a noun, not a verb!

Lastly, there are very clear pictures of what to do the days you don’t run. They cover both weight lifting (it’s good for your bones!), other cardio (helpful when injured) and how to stretch (good for your tendons). And all of their info is distilled into bullet points at the end of each chapter.

I miss running (shocking!) and I can’t wait to get back to it. This book has been the gentle reminder that it’s okay to go slow. It’s okay to not love it at first. “The miracle isn’t that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start at all.”

Tweet This Post

I’ve been blogging about my weight gain and my current struggle with anxiety and depression. I’ve been slowly doing the things I’ve needed to do except for one big thing: exercise. I haven’t done any martial arts since September 2009. I have been sedentary for one year. Obviously, this was not by choice but I haven’t really broken a sweat since February.

So yesterday, I finally decided that I was going to just do it. I was reaching for my wallet to pay for a subscription for Interweave Press’ Piecework Magazine when I stopped myself. I had just finished updating this blog and whining about not owning a single pair of jeans that fit to my sister when it really hit me. I was going to go for a run, damnit, and if/when I did that subscription would be my reward. And I stuck to my word and now the newest issue is on its way to me!

Run, Forrest! Run!

I did day 1 of the Couch to 5k program which is a 5 minute warm up walk, 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes and end it with a 5 minute cool down walk. I didn’t really jog too often (I was on a treadmill and the fastest I went was 4.8 miles per hour) because I realized just how much “damage” my endurance and cardio-vascular health has taken this year. I’m chalking it up to a combination of chemo and bedrest as to why it was much harder doing the program this time than when I was just a couch potato. It’s made me realize that while in many ways, I’m not sick any more but in other ways I still am.And if my cancer were to reoccur, I wouldn’t be able to handle any sort of treatment at the fitness level I’m at now. I didn’t really think of things that way, but our good friend Lee pointed that out.

Now, I have a bigger reason to move my butt. After some expenses have been paid for, I’ll be on the serious hunt for a new martial arts studio and I need to be at a better fitness level than where I am now at if I want to have fun in class. Or just not die from exhaustion. Now that I’m getting back into running, I need to knit up some accessories but I have no idea what would be. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery are most welcomed!

Tweet This Post

Timing the Cancer Patient and the Athlete

Why I Lift Weights…

Book Review: Running For Mortals

I did it!