Here is a Guest Blog Submitted By David Haas.
Get Up and Move!
The obvious thing about the body is that it needs exercise. Public Service Announcements love to remind us to get up and get moving for an hour a day, but what do cancer patients need to do? Would exercise benefit or hurt them?
Do not let cancer keep you in your seat.
Exercise does more for cancer patients than one expects. The goal is not to get into shape. Research has shown that exercise improves the quality of life for those undergoing treatment and those who survived the cancer.
Quality of life is improved in two ways through the exercise. First, the body image is improved. Many people struggle with accepting how they look when going through and recovering from cancer. Body composition, the second improvement made here, is a part of the body image. With the exercise, the body composition will become regular again.
There are four types of fitness to focus on when exercising, and the way you accomplish work in these four areas varies by the type of cancer and what stage you are in. The four types are aerobic exercise, strength training, balance, and stretching.
Aerobic exercise is best used to maintain body weight and build lean muscle. This is important to do in some way for those patients stuck in chairs; lean muscle will keep the body strong. Walking exercises tend to be the safest start for cancer patients and survivors. Aerobic exercise can build up from there.
Strength training with weight training is equally important, especially for women. Bone density when undergoing treatment, and when recovering from treatment, decreases. This type of training will not increase bone density, but it will help maintain it.
Balance training helps keep the patient safe. A lot of medication impedes balance and with the mentioned loss of bone density, it only takes one moment of imbalance to get seriously injured. These exercises will protect the patient from the risk of falling and not being able to get up.
Stretching helps strengthen target spots of the body that might feel weaker after undergoing treatment. This type of training will make that target spot feel so much better.
Whether you are undergoing mesothelioma treatment, recovering from breast cancer, or wanting your strength back from another round of chemotherapy, exercise is important for you. Exercise is by no means a cure for cancer. However, it is a good way to make you feel better. Exercise is an excellent way to cope and an excellent way to keep up your strength before and after having cancer. Do not let it keep you in a life of inactivity. Get up, get out, and go exercise.
