Spring Into Fitness

Spring is right around the corner! What better time than spring to start a fitness routine? If you are undergoing or recovering from cancer surgery, exercise will help you both physically and mentally. The American Cancer Society reports that physical exercise is safe and possible during cancer treatment, and it can improve your quality of life. Other benefits include weight reduction/control and improved self-esteem. The best news is that you don't have to join an expensive gym or be a tri-athlete to get started. Matthew Goodemote, physical therapist and owner of Community Physical Therapy & Wellness in Gloversville, NY, offers some tips to help you spring into fitness.

Denene Brox: What are the major benefits of exercise for preventing cancer? Has exercise been shown to help with the healing of cancer patients?

Matthew Goodemote: Prevention of cancer is clearly multifaceted. It is not reasonable to expect any one thing to be the end all be all, but it is clear there are several benefits of exercise that are consistent with prevention of disease, in particular cancer.

The benefits of exercise on cancer prevention and rehabilitation are really just beginning to be studied in the medical community. We do have strong evidence, for example, that colon cancer risks are reduced when we exercise. This is likely due to the increased motility of digestion. Exercise helps to assist the food we eat through our bowels and prevents stagnation. This increase in movement prevents the toxins in our foods from settling and interacting in our colons. 

Similarly our liver and kidneys are a part of the filtration process and ridding our body of chemicals. Unfortunately when we overeat these toxins are stored in our fat cells. These toxins are harmful to the cells of our bodies. Exercise is one way to increase the circulation of blood through our body. Blood is the mechanism by which our body delivers the beneficial and not so beneficial particles to the cells of every organ and system in our body. 

One of the main reasons exercise is good preventatively and throughout rehabilitation and remission is the blood flow. The more we exercise the more we provide the environment for our blood to perform the necessary duties, and the more efficient our filtering organs like the liver and kidneys can work. 

We do have studies that have shown how the free radicals produced from metabolism wreck havoc on our cells. Typically associated with free radicals are advanced aging and cancer. 

The effects of cancer due to free radicals are in the breakdown of the telomeres inside our cells. These telomeres are the protective barrier of a cell that ensures the cells reproduce and live a long life. Free radicals damage this protective barrier leaving the cell vulnerable to aging and eventually death, or leaving the cell vulnerable to mutation, which can lead to the development of cancers.

Exercise helps to ensure our bodies are healthy. Exercise increases the blood flow distributing adequate amounts of oxygen and nutrients to each cell. This helps to protect the cells from free radical damage. Nutrition is clearly involved as well, but transportation of proper nutrition is dependent on activity levels.

There is a plethora of research on how exercise assists the healing process. Again blood flow is critical to effective healing. Bed rest and inactivity have been shown to delay and at worst interfere with our body’s ability to heal.  Exercise clearly provides the right environment for prevention through elimination of waste and by providing nutrients necessary for cell health. Exercise also helps healing by providing increased blood flow to the involved area and delivering the necessary ingredients to allow healing to take place. 

DB: If someone is recovering from surgery, what are some good ways to get back into a fitness routine?

MG: The best way to get started is walking. There are so many benefits mentally and physically to going for a walk that if you are able to walk, this is a great place to get started. 

I am a firm believer in “doing a little bit, a lot” so rather than walking for 30 minutes once a day, I recommend walking 10-15 minutes 2-3 times a day. The body handles stress better when spread out over time. The early stages are not about breaking records. My typical statement is, “if you are training to run a marathon, you don’t train by actually running marathons. You train by running shorter distances and gradually increasing your duration as weeks go by.”

There are some mental benefits of getting into a more “normal” routine going to a fitness center, but if your immune system is still shaky, it is better to start a fitness routine like walking at home. 

Depending on the type of surgery and where the surgery is, I would recommend easy exercises for the lower and upper extremities. For the lower extremities I recommend squats, where you sit down in a chair and stand up 12-15 repetitions/ 2-3 sets per day. (Studies have shown that we maximize our results with 2-3 sets.)

For the upper extremities you can start with moving your hands overhead in the “jumping jack” motion, but skip the jumping. Or cross-country skiing motion is another easy to perform exercise for the upper body. Bring your hands parallel to the ground in front and back of you as you alternate, reciprocally, back and forth. Perform for 30 seconds to a minute continuous/2-3 sets per day.

Each exercise should be progressed gradually as the body tolerates more exercise. For example walking can be increased 2-3 minutes per week until the person is walking 30-45 minutes continuously.

Adding resistance with weights or resistive bands but maintaining the 12-15 repetitions for 2-3 sets per day can advance the strengthening exercises from above. Strengthening routines are especially helpful for those who have had muscle loss and negative effects on their bones.  
 
DB: What are your recommendations for a good exercise program (types of exercises and amount/time)?

MG: A “good” exercise program will consist of cardiovascular exercises and weight training exercises and some form of stretching. I believe in combining meditation before and after exercising for the benefits mentally/emotionally on our bodies. A recent study on chronic pain found that deep breathing, by itself, reduced a persons pain levels, do for people dealing with emotional or physical pain from cancer, deep breathing is a MUST.

A good exercise program will consist of:

• Proper warm up: 5-10 minutes of light exercise to increase the blood flow so the muscles and joints are primed and ready for action.
  
• Strength Training: More and more research shows how important strength training is to the body and is an essential part of an exercise program.
• Cardiovascular Exercises are long thought to be apart of a good exercise program and recent research has found that performing cardiovascular exercises after weight training is more effective for the cardio workout and less detrimental to the weight-training program. In addition more calories are burnt. (More calorie expenditure may NOT be the desired outcome for cancer patients so this must be considered in the exercise prescription.)
  
• Cool Down. This is an excellent time to stretch. Perform stretches to all major muscle groups like the calf muscles, front and back of the thigh, buttock, lower back, upper back and neck.
  
• Meditation: Deep breathing can be incorporated throughout any exercise program but taking a 5-10 minute period to focus entirely on breathing is highly recommended. This helps keep the telomere length longer which is important for dealing with free radicals and the healing/aging of cells.

My next post will continue my interview with Matthew and feature more exercise tips to get you on the road to better fitness and overall health. 

Image from The New York Times.