Spin Cycle Cancer center director must keep own health in mind, too

By Garth Bishop

As CEO of the James Cancer hospital, Dr. Michael Caligiuri spends much of his time focused on the health of others.

But Caligiuri is careful not to neglect his own health, giving his fitness regimen an important place in the schedule he prints out and carries with him throughout the day.

Caligiuri has been with The Ohio State University since 1997, and has been CEO of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – the Arthur G. James Cancer hospital and richard J. Solove research Institute – since 2008. he and his wife, Ani, live in Upper Arlington; they have three grown children.

The Caligiuri Laboratory was founded by its namesake in 1990, when the doctor was at the roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., and moved to OSU in 1997. In the last two decades, the laboratory has trained more than 100 students, and Caligiuri himself has published more than 400 original works on leukemia and immunology.

When not taking a direct role working to fight cancer in the lab, Caligiuri finds other ways to combat the deadly disease. One of his prominent efforts to that effect was his role as one of the driving forces behind the development of Pelotonia, the annual Columbus-to-Athensand-back bike ride that raises money for cancer research at the James.

The goal was to put together a fundraiser that was grassroots in nature but that could generate large sums of money, and the idea for Pelotonia –which sees 100 percent of its proceeds go to research – was born. That money goes to grants, pro- viding funding that keeps young researchers in the industry and working toward ever more advanced solutions.

“That’s keeping young, very bright people in science,” Caligiuri says.

Though he was one of the key players in formulating the idea for Pelotonia, Caligiuri gives full credit to Tom Lennox, the event’s executive director, for building the event.

Caligiuri is not just a founder – he’s also a participant, having taken an interest in cycling as his primary form of exercise around the time he became CEO of the James. It replaced racquetball in Caligiuri’s life – an elbow injury had ended his amateur career in that field – and took him some time to get used to.

“I hadn’t been on a bike in at least 22 years,” he says. “The first time I got on that bike, I rode around the block, and I was completely out of breath.” he started out slow – two blocks, three blocks, one mile. Eventually, Caligiuri graduated to the 15-mile Prospect ride north of the central Ohio area, then a series of longer evening rides, then a few 100-mile summer rides, then a 160-miler, before finally feeling prepared to tackle the 180-mile full Pelotonia ride. he is more motivated to exercise when part of a group, so he makes all of his bike workouts group efforts – spin classes in cold weather, lengthy bike rides in warm. Sometimes he’ll even take a meeting during a spin.

Fitting exercise into a hectic schedule isn’t easy, especially for someone like the CEO of a world-class cancer research facility. But Caligiuri makes sure exercise is a priority and a part of his regular schedule.

“That’s what we call ‘working in parallel,’” he says.

Caligiuri takes his spin classes at the OSU recreation and Physical Activity Center on Saturday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Each of the onehour rides is preceded by stretches and a few minutes of slow warm-up.

That’s followed by about 40 minutes of upper body work – at the center on Saturdays, and at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. his workout begins with shoulder work, followed by vertical sit-ups with weights. After that, it’s more shoulder work, then bench presses, then curls, ending with shoulder and neck work.

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For those home workouts, he keeps the weights right outside his bedroom to ensure he always does his exercises 20 minutes before bed.

Physical fitness isn’t the only benefit of Caligiuri’s cycling regimen – the camaraderie of the rides deepens friendships and builds connections with employees.

“I’ve heard there are more CEOs biking than there are golfing,” he says.

The No. 1 excuse for not biking is the classic “but I don’t have a bike,” Caligiuri says – an easy argument to overcome.

“You can buy a bike for $25,” he says. “The police auction them off because they’re left on buses.” his wife makes the granola Caligiuri eats every day with soy milk, as well as healthful dinners drawing on either her Puerto rican heritage or his Italian roots. After that, it’s half a glass of wine and no dessert.

Outside of his workouts and rides, Caligiuri tries to fit in good habits when he can – like eschewing elevators entirely, an impressive feat considering his schedule and the position of his office at the James.

“I go up the stairs eight or nine times a day, and that’s five flights,” he says.

Of course, good nutrition is also a major factor when it comes to fitness, and there, Caligiuri has something of an unfair advantage – his wife, Ani, is a registered dietician. Not only does she make sure he gets plenty of fruits, vegetables, anti-oxidants and other important nutrients, she’s also, her husband says, a fantastic cook.

“She changed my whole life in terms of what I eat,” says Caligiuri.

All of these efforts and exercises are aimed at improved physical fitness. After all, Caligiuri knows very well that keeping fit is an important step in staving off cancer.

“One of the most important underlying causes of cancer is obesity,” says Caligiuri. “We’re not evolved to be 5’10” and 250 pounds.”

While it might take 100,000 years for people’s genes to change, our habits have changed much more swiftly during the last few centuries – factors from stress and pollution to fast food and ready transportation have made our lifestyles sedentary. Our slow-to-evolve genes haven’t caught up, leaving us more susceptible to serious health issues like cancer, Caligiuri says.

And though Caligiuri and his colleagues at the James are working every day to find a cure, no cure in the world can be as effective as prevention. cs

Garth Bishop is editor of CityScene Magazine. Feedback welcome at gbishop@pub groupltd.com.