BREAST CANCER RECOVERY

When I was getting certified as a Pilates Instructor, I came across archival footage of Eve Gentry working out with Joseph Pilates. She was one of his first protégés. When she had a radical mastectomy in 1955 she turned to him and his methodology for rehabilitation. She didn’t just want to lift her arms above head, she wanted to return to dancing and she did so within a year. Her recovery was so remarkable that her doctors initially did not believe it.

Everything about Pilates lent itself to her recovery, but particularly building strength and joint stability while increasing flexibility and range of motion. I had seen Eve’s arm circles on the Reformer post-mastectomy. After my own left-breast mastectomy in 2012 (read my blog post, It’s Cancer, Deal!) I thought whatever my journey back to strength and mobility was, I was in good hands.

I had all of my Pilates knowledge, a capable and fit body, and a huge desire to recovery quickly and efficiently. And yet it was still not enough. I did not understand why certain moves were no longer possible. If I was telling my muscles to raise my arm, why wasn’t it lifting? Forget about doing the Teaser, how was brushing my hair going to work? I had Pilates, but no Joe to work with and no protocol to follow for my particular course of treatment and the side effects as I experienced them.  

How much easier it would have been if I had known about the Pink Ribbon Program™, a post-operative exercise program devoted to helping women regain their exercise and health equilibrium from diagnosis to recovery. Reconstruction or no reconstruction. Surgery or lumpectomy. Radiation or no radiation. Chemotherapy or no chemotherapy. There is the Pink Ribbon Program™ and Pilates exercise for every scenario. And as a Breast Cancer Exercise Specialist through the Pink Ribbon Program, I am committed to helping women in treatment for or recovering from breast cancer. Whether it is happening now or it happened seven years ago, I want to be on your journey.

Please CONTACT ME for a free 30-minute consultation about what exercise protocol will work for you and your recovery.