Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Getting Healthy 265circumstances and the way other people responded to them were forthe most part out of our control. What we could control, and what weneeded to have command of, was our minds and bodies. We neededthe physical strength to be able to move quickly and possibly defendourselves. We never considered overpowering the guards as a group,but if we were in a situation in which we had to engage one of them inorder to escape or avoid execution, it was best to be prepared. Also, ifwe did manage to escape on our own or in the middle of a rescue, wewould have to survive in the jungle and be as strong as possible physicallyto get to someplace where we could then be rescued.With this in mind, we branded our current camp the Exercise Camp.When we arrived there, we were in better shape than we had beenimmediately after the forty-day march, but that wasn’t saying much.We had been so depleted during that bit of hell that even the relativelysmall amount of exercise we were able to do in the barbed-wirecage had improved our fitness level. We were nowhere near where wewanted to be or needed to be.To compensate, we set up our own little jungle gym—carrying oversome of the basic ideas we’d had at the barbed-wire cage. Creating apull-up bar was always the easiest task. All we needed was a piece ofwood long enough to span two trees with low branches. We could alsoput a branch between two parts of the hooch that would support ourweight. With the help of guards who were willing to give us the toolsand supplies we needed, we also built a double-step that we could walkor run up and down on to improve our cardiovascular fitness. Miltonwas going nutty complaining about us wearing a path that could bedetected, so our walking regimen had to be curtailed a little bit. Thestepper was a tougher workout, and Tom and I both had knee pain, sostairs weren’t the best thing for us—at least at the beginning.I found that the more I used the stepper and the stronger the musclesin my legs became, the less my knees hurt. I also used the physicaltraining as a way to give structure to the day, to pass some time, and to