The cancer, the vital monitor and me!

The Vitalmonitor is worth every penny!

Vitalmonitor, Berny and I: The somewhat different love story

After nine titles, 8 of them in a row, in the water polo Bundesliga, I ended my career in 2015. However, as it is with a sportsman, it simply does not go without the beloved sport!

In January 2016, I once again played with the idea of making a comeback. The reason was quite simple. Due to some injuries, the national team ran out of players. After 6 months of water polo abstinence, I would not have been a good reinforcement. That's why I only started training at first. Without any Bundesliga games!

Diagnosis cancer

When the form slowly went back in the direction of before the end of his career, came the bomb! Diagnosis cancer! Better said Hodgkin's disease stage 2 with risk factors. Simplified, no training but chemotherapy and radiation. For me, the worst thing in this situation was that I could not or was not allowed to train.

No matter who I asked, everyone just told me "Do a little exercise! Whatever is good for you! Honestly, if you're used to exercising properly for years, that's the wrong answer! It ate me up inside. I searched the internet for hours on how to exercise during chemotherapy and found nothing really tangible. Most of the statements were along the lines of "exercise moderately three times a week". Sh... there must be more.

With Berny and the Vital Monitor at my side

I don't even remember how I came across the Vitalmonitor. From the discovery of the Vitalmonitor to the order a few days have passed, because honestly the price has deterred me a little. Right away: the Vitalmonitor is worth every damn cent! Initially, I trained based on the training recommendation. It worked well. But only well! At that time my body was not that of a normal healthy person, but one pumped full of medication and infusions.

At one of the Vitalmonitor trainings I met Berny. It was a funny moment during the introduction. Everyone introduced themselves briefly and told about their sport and how they use the Vitalmonitor. When I didn't mention any sport but the cancer therapy, it was rather quiet in the room ;-) After the seminar I simply asked Berny if he would like to coach me. He just said "yes" and that was the beginning.

From then on, Berny told me the daily training plan every day in the morning based on my values. On the days directly after chemo, I was usually too weak for anything. A 500m walk was a marathon for me and I had to lie down afterwards. Unbelievable when you consider how much sport my body was used to. Well, I had to go through it!

It went uphill

Day by day the values got better and Berny even let me do G1 units. I thought he was going crazy. I'm a cancer patient and can't train in the G1 range. But the development of the values proved him right. My doctors were thrilled with how quickly I recovered after each chemo cycle. As I have always said: Sport always helps ;-)

Berny managed with his unbelievable way to make a cancer patient still feel like an athlete. Thanks for that! I will never forget you, because it was very important for me psychologically!

After the end of the therapy I was of course immediately of the opinion that I could do everything again. Two times a week water polo and two times Crossfit! Despite Berny's warning, I gave it a try. Logically, my values went further and further into the cellar! Until Berny and I (more Berny than I) pulled the ripcord. So back to the Vitalmonitor method. For me, this meant that I had to do without Crossfit and could only play water polo on days when I was "fit" for it.

My conclusion

In short: I could celebrate my 10 Bundesliga title not even nine months after the end of my cancer therapy! I think that alone speaks for itself ;-) Meanwhile I can say without exaggeration that Berny is more than my mentor. He has even brought it so far that I now support people myself and train according to the Vitalmonitor method!

Let it rip you VMers!

Bernhard

Krebs