They Call Me Galvez

On Saturday, I went to my first CrossFit session at KDA CrossFit in Miramar.  I wanted to find out why many of my friends were so involved in it!  The camaraderie I found there was very similar to high school sports.  I was a part of some very focused high school teams that were very successful in football, wrestling, and track.  The common denominator on those teams was that everyone was on the same page and knew how each individual’s goals related to the team’s goals.  In college, I found the same similarities in vastly different organizations: Lambda Phi Epsilon: develop a sense of unity among Asian Americans and attaining full national chapter status; Filipino American Student Association:  educate young Filipino-Americans about their roots and develop a sense of pride; 58 Greene a cappella: help establish the group on campus as a legitimate performance organization and explore our personal artistry.  In Physical Therapy school, that same camaraderie was formed very early on in our first year of the program together as future young professionals.  As a physical therapist, I experienced the same type of “professional” camaraderie in continuing education courses and conferences through the professional organization, the American Physical Therapy Association.  I’ve seen hints of this same type of camaraderie in the survivor world, however it is difficult to maintain because other priorities arise once a patient starts to feel better.  Anyways, I’ve re-shifted my focus to health/well-being based on the influences of my experiences:  athletics, ethnicity, creativity, physical rehabilitation, and post-oncology-treatment “thrivership”.  This time, I’m looking to explore the benefits of physical activity/exercise for tumor/cancer patients.  It took me a while to cope with my own physical limitations and establish new goals.  Establishing “functional goals” for ADLs or mobility is great, but for me it wasn’t enough.  My interests are now on personal fitness. At the CrossFit gym, I realized that it is very time consuming for me to move from exercise to exercise due to my mobility impairments.  It requires a lot of help setting up the equipment so perhaps “one-on-one” training is more appropriate. Many of my rehab colleagues cautioned me about overuse injuries.  The coaches do a great job assessing technique, but I can see how the focus can become on the completion of a certain exercise.  I’m liking what I’m seeing in the CrossFit community, but I’m still very cognizant of my functional rehab goal for improved mobility… I still have to check out a few more gyms vs personal training, but a new challenge is coming into focus this year…