What if you
heard that exercise has a 50% reduced risk of recurrence? That exercise reduces
treatment related fatigue? Reduced nausea?
Well, YES – it does all that and more.
The accepted
treatments for cancer are chemo and radiation – and they are working. What the cancer patient may not be told to do
is exercise. In 2010 the American
College of Sport Medicine changed their guidelines from “bed rest is best” to “avoid
inactivity”. Since that time,
there have been numerous studies on the benefits of exercise through treatment
and recovery. It is gaining momentum but
may not have filtered to your medical team yet. Exercise is known to increase
the efficacy of your chemotherapy – you can use less of the drugs for the same
result. Exercise does reduce fatigue, one of the prominent side effects of
chemo; and nausea. And I believe if you
experienced these side effects you would do anything to relieve yourself of
them. And you can – you can choose to move.
We are not
asking you to train for an extreme event – although maybe we are – your life! Baby steps, small changes –
awareness of your body and proactive decisions you can make every day. If you can only walk to your mailbox, do it!
Tomorrow you will go further.
Have you had
physical therapy? Ask you medical team
to prescribe PT – we see a major difference with those who have had sessions of
PT prior to joining our classes.
‘Believing
you can’ is the first step and knowing your body and accepting your limitations
is key. Knee problems – how about bike riding?
Relegated to a chair – lift those arms, straighten those legs and
contract the muscles.
You can do
this!
Again, there
are many studies and many of them are on aerobic conditioning. Today, there are more studies on resistance
training. Have you seen those resistance
bands?... inexpensive and effective. You
can achieve a full body workout with those bands, and progress to different
strengths.
Are you
fearful of lymphedema? You can
exercise safely, by alternating upper body and lower body exercises you keep
the flow of lymphatic fluids reducing the chance of a flare-up.
Below is a
testimonial of one of our survivors:
“Under the watchful eye and careful instructions of an excellent
personal trainer, I began rebuilding the muscles that
were weakened by four months of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. There were
several other cancer survivors in the group; we met once a week for eight
sessions, and together we struggled with both our physical limitations and our
emotional healing from the dreaded disease called "Cancer".
Strength for Life is a nonprofit organization providing FREE exercise
classes and wellness retreats to cancer patients/survivors on LI. Please visit www.strengthforlifeNY.org or call 631-675-6513.
