Climb to test editor’s limits

EXTREME CHALLENGE--Thousand Oaks Acorn Editor John Loesing tackles 22,840-foot Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina on the first Prostate Cancer Climb in 2001. Loesing and 22 other climbers from the U.S., Canada, Ireland and South Africa will continue their fundraising efforts next week on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Training for an extreme hike takes extreme measures.

My weeklong expedition starting Sept. 13 up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa will be more like a grueling mountain climb than a hike. And as project director for the Prostate Cancer Climb, the nonprofit group sponsoring the event, I’ve told the members of the team they’ll have to be in the best shape of their lives if they want to have any hope of reaching the 19,400-foot summit.

A group of 26 climbers, including five cancer survivors, will be climbing the highest peak in Africa to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer.

The Prostate Cancer Climb began in 2001 when 15 climbers, including myself and founder Terry Weyman, a Thousand Oaks sports chiropractor, scaled the 22,840-foot Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest point in the Western Hemisphere.

Also on that team was Bob Each, a 56-year-old prostate cancer survivor from Agoura Hills

To date, the Prostate Cancer Climb has raised $300,000 for awareness and education programs.

Although I handled the Kil-imanjaro training well enough—including an ascent of Mt. Whitney, Calif. and several tough hikes in the local Santa Monica Mountains—I needed the services of longtime friend Tom Marshall, a certified Hellerwork practitioner since 1985, to solve my medical issues.

On Mt. Aconcagua, Weyman and I advanced to 21,000 feet, where I was forced to turn back due to fatigue. Most of the other climbers had dropped out earlier. Weyman and one guide were the only two to reach the summit.

While Kilimanjaro isn’t as tall as Aconcagua, the danger of the body breaking down is still a threat. Pulmonary and cerebral edemas occur when the body’s lungs and brain start to swell due to lack of atmospheric pressure.

It takes more than routine training to get the body ready for such an endeavor and that’s where Marshall’s experience has helped.

Introduced by Joseph Heller in 1978, "Hellerwork" manipulates the body’s fascia, or connective tissue, so that tension, stress and pain can be released and full athletic potential realized.

Fascia is the elastic, cotton-like tissue that supports and connects all structures of the body. It’s like a multi-layer stocking that sheathes all muscles and weaves throughout the cartilage and ligaments.

Hellerwork suggests that the physical and emotional stress that bombards us each day—as well as age and gravity—can cause this fascia to become rigid and inflexible and throw the body out of alignment.

Hellerwork is similar to, yet different from chiropractic medicine. "I do the soft tissue work that makes the chiropractor’s job easier," Marshall explained.

In a broader sense, Hellerwork is considered "body, mind and emotion work."

Among other things, Marshall helped improve my posture and gait to ensure better success on the mountain. He did it by expertly manipulating the muscles and fascia from my head to my toes.

After months of intense training, for example, my hamstrings were strung tighter than piano wire.

"If your muscle is short and tight, you’re not going to have much power," he explained. "The power comes if the muscle is loose and long and you get a full contraction."

Hellerwork advocates belly breathing as the best way to let the fascia relax and let go.

Of course, everyone knows how to breathe, but most of us do it by puffing in and out with our chest. Letting the abdomen do the breathing, on the other hand, is more conducive to helping the body relax and perform the way it should, Marshall said.

Being able to breathe properly is one thing that will separate those who reach the summit from those who don’t.

Marshall spent one session just working on my ribs.

"If you loosen up the fascia to free up the ribs and breathe properly, you’re going to function better," he said, which is good to know. Oxygen molecules at 20,000 feet are only about half what they are at sea level. In this sport, smokers need not apply.

Marshall, a Simi Valley resident who practices at Westlake Healing Arts in Westlake Village and Ohana Healing Arts in Santa Monica, said proper breathing is central to all athletics.

"When you belly breathe, your able to let go from the tight shoulders through the pelvic floor and down to the arches of the feet," he said. "It’s one of the best ways I can help a golfer with his stroke, a batter in the cage and a basketball player with his free throws.

"If you’re totally relaxing then your body will go where it’s supposed to go."

Marshall also said, "fear is excitement without breath," meaning that when we become afraid or stressed, the first thing we forget to do is breathe.

The Prostate Cancer Climb is expected to reach the Kilimanjaro summit on Sept. 18. Future climbs are being planned.

For information about Tom Marshall’s Hellerwork, visit via the Internet www.tmarshallarts.com or call (805) 495-8620.

For information about the Prostate Cancer Climb, visit www.prostatecancerclimb.com.