BUILD: Fitness for Cancer Survivors

Normally, Saturday's are my active rest day. I go to spinning class in the morning and take a walk later in the day. This week I received an invitation to join Sami Mansfield and her BUILD team for their Saturday morning class. I was more than a little anxious as I drove up to The HillKC and in retrospect I had good reason. After a warm-up on the rower (1000m plus some sprint intervals) we proceeded to go through drills that included medicine ball slams, overhead press, bench press, frog planks, sled push, farmer's walk and more. It was awesome!!

Let me share a little bit about the awesome team that welcomed me into the fold today. BUILD is a functional fitness program for cancer survivors. The program is the brain child of Sami Mansfield and is designed to focus on improving all aspects of health and well-being. While physical strength may be what you see when you first observe the class, it was clear that the class members were there to support each other along the journey. We talked about cooking brussel sprouts while we warmed up. Karen, my BUILD navigator kindly showed me the ropes throughout the morning class including the correct form on the rower. I was doing great until we got to the sled....it's been a while and Sami gave me some great tips on how to correct my form but it was a very challenging workout.

Some of you may be thinking "...cancer survivors? Functional fitness? Sled? Farmer's walk?" Stop thinking and take a look at the testimonials on the website. This program is designed to help you BUILD on your own innate strengths and allow you to become stronger, physically and mentally. You can check out Cancer Wellness for Life to learn more. The HillKC will be hosting Survivor Saturday on September 16, a FREE class for cancer survivors, family, caregivers and healthcare providers. I hope to see you there!