BreastCancerExercises.net

When you’re on the mend from breast cancer treatment, exercise can improve your strength, stamina, and mood.

Exercise can help by:

• Increasing fitness, stamina, and your ability to cope with any side effects of breast cancer treatment
• Boosting quality of life
• Potentially lowering the risk of future cancers or cancer recurrence by reducing overweight and obesity
• Boosting appetite so you can take in the calories and nutrients that you need
• Improving breathing
• Relieving constipation
• Improving mood
• Easing pain and weakness in the muscles and joints
• Increasing energy and reduced fatigue

Exercising during breast cancer recovery can make you feel better because it is helping to actually make you better and improve your physical health. And anything that boosts your mood, particularly when dealing with the rigors of breast cancer treatment, is a welcome therapy to help get you through.

The Right Amount of Exercise for Breast Cancer Recovery

Consistency is important and, while you need to listen to your body to figure out just how much you should exercise during your breast cancer recovery, you should work out to the degree your body can handle and still feel good. Aim for about four hours of exercise in total each week for the greatest benefit to your mental and physical health during breast cancer treatment and recovery.

This doesn’t means you have to exercise for four hours a week right away. Take it slowly and gradually increase your exercise sessions until you’re able to achieve the weekly goal. Just 5 or 10 minutes of walking at a time with a total of 15 minutes each day is a great way to get started on the road to a good exercise routine.

What’s most important is that you figure out what types of exercise work for you — activities that you really enjoy and look forward to doing, as well as those that feel good for your body. Aerobic exercise is the most beneficial, as it gets your heart pumping and the blood flowing, but mixing in strengthening exercises is beneficial, too.

If running or other high-impact exercise feels too jarring for your body, here are other exercise options to try during breast cancer treatment and recovery:

• Walking, even around the house, to the end of the driveway, or around the neighborhood
• Swimming
• Yoga, tai chi, or other slow-moving routines, great for maintaining balance and flexibility
• Working in your yard or garden
• Gentle stretching or range-of-motion exercises

Getting Started Wit Exercise for Breast Cancer Recovery

Are you nervous about how to begin or unsure of what kind of exercise to do? Here are some suggestions to help you get started and figure out the right exercise routine for you:

• Talk to your doctor. She will be able to offer suggestions on exercises for you to do or about groups or classes geared toward people recovering from or undergoing breast cancer treatment. Be sure to discuss your specific concerns about healing surgical scars, radiation skin changes, swollen areas, or intravenous ports you may still have implanted in your chest or other area, and if there are any exercise restrictions related to these or any other conditions, such as anemia or low white blood cell or platelet counts. If you are on blood thinners or have nerve damage from chemotherapy, you may be at risk for injury from falls; be sure to discuss the safest ways to exercise.
• Join a gym. Gyms offer a variety of equipment and classes, allowing you to vary your routine to keep you from getting bored and to challenge yourself as you get stronger. You can swim in the gym’s pool, take a yoga class, walk on the track, or do some light weight training.
• Try a DVD. If you’re more comfortable exercising in the privacy of your home, buy or rent exercise DVDs. When you feel up to it, pop one in and do as much as you can.
• Work with a personal trainer or ask your doctor for a referral to a physical therapist. These experts can help you set goals and achieve them at your own pace. They can help design an exercise routine for you and your abilities and increase the difficulty as your body can handle it.

Always remember to listen to your body — while you should want to push yourself, it’s important to take note of warning signs like feeling sick, weak, or dizzy. Slow and steady is the best advice when it comes to exercising during breast cancer recovery. Eventually your body will respond, get stronger, and be able to keep up with your goals.