Yes, You Have to Exercise with Cancer
While there are many important aspects to cover in a complete natural healing cancer program, or general healthy lifestyle for that matter, I believe exercise may likely be the most commonly overlooked. When I interviewed Chris Wark for the upcoming The Stern Method Podcast series (sign up for our email list to be notified when episodes are released!), he summed it up nicely when he said something along the lines of “whenever I’m talking to people going through cancer they always ask me ‘do I have to exercise?’ And I say ‘yes, you have to exercise’.”
How Exercise Helps Heal Cancer
We’ve talked about the importance of moving the lymph system in our videos on dry brushing, rebounding, and deep breathing, but it bears repeating. The lymph system serves two very important functions. It carries toxins in the lymph fluid to be excreted from the body. It also traps harmful microbes, viruses, and even diseased cells in the lymph nodes so white blood cells, also circulating in the lymph system, can catch up and dispatch of them. So this is clearly a vitally important system to keep moving, but the only problem is unlike your bloodstream, the lymph system does not have automatic pumps. It requires YOU to move it! Far and away the best way to move the lymph system is through exercise.
Exercise is also going to boost your blood oxygen levels and elicit beneficial hormonal, metabolic, and even epigenetic changes. Study after study links routine exercise to a lower risk of practically every disease, including cancer.
On a more metaphysical level, I believe a component needed to stay alive is to show the universe, and possibly yourself, that you want to be here. That you’ve got stuff to do so to speak. I put this on the same order as studies consistently showing those that live the longest have tend to have the highest sense of purpose. At a base level there’s no better way to show you want to keep living and using your body than getting up and moving around!!
How to Incorporate Exercise into Your Day
And on that note while this article and video is on exercise specifically, it should be noted that studies are also now showing the more movement throughout your day the better. It’s for this reason I ditched my chair altogether at my desk, bouncing around on the balls of my feet while at the computer and doing a very light jog around the room while on the phone.
You can even incorporate a higher intensity of exercise into your day without ever really setting aside time “to exercise” at all! Sprint to get the mail, do a set of pushups at the mailbox, and sprint back. Put a pullup bar either in a certain door frame or room in your house and make a rule that every time you pass it you have to crank out as many pullups as you can. Abandon elevators and take the stairs. Speaking of stairs if you work in an office sneak out a few times a day to walk or run up them.
And on this note, exercise doesn’t have to be some long drawn out thing that we all picture it as. Even though I love running, biking and swimming (and competing in the occasional triathlon) I don’t really have the time to be counting on long going out and doing these activities in their traditional form that often, which is why I employ High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). The concept is essentially going as hard as you can for a quick bursts with very short rest periods in between. You can do this with just about anything – pushups, burpies, jumping lunges, stationary sprints, a bike trainer if you have one, and so on. YouTube is your best friend for ideas for this style of workout. I particularly like Funk Roberts’ channel for inspiration.
Also for adults, a single piece of equipment that has changed my life along these lines in terms of being able to get in a solid workout in a fraction of the time you’d typically think is the kettlebell. Onnit makes the best value kettlebells in my opinion (the plain ones… or the fancy designed ones if you’re looking for extra inspiration!). Again, YouTube is all you need for learning how to work out with a kettlebell.
Exercise Even WITH CHILDREN!!!
Exercise is like anything else in life. If you really understand the value and commit yourself to doing it you WILL find a way to get it done. Fortunately our children are much more naturally inclined to this type of movement throughout the day I just described (when Ryder wants to get something in the next room, he RUNS to get it), but I still believe it’s important that they really exert themselves with actual exercise every day as well which is why it’s officially on our schedule to do something active such as the routine in this video every day after I get off of work.
This philosophy of finding a way to get it done applies both to getting a workout in EVEN IF YOU HAVE KIDS, which as we know makes everything ten times as challenging, and also making sure your kids get a workout themselves. Putting these concepts together, I try on most nights at the very least to get in a quick HIIT workout in with Ryder, using Ryder himself for my weight to make sure my intensity level stays high and keep him engaged at the same time as shown in this video. This checks off the exercise box in the health checklist for the both of us in the now and is also making it a normal thing for him at an early age to set him up for a lifetime of healthy practices. Same with his diet and cold shower routine ☺.
