Archive for the ‘Fitness and Cancer’ Category
Fitness for the Cancer Patient
Exercise is essential for good health and well-being. It sparks the creation of endorphins, increases one’s heart rate, helps build muscle mass and burns calories. Everyone, including cancer patients, needs to maintain a consistent fitness regimen. Exercise can actually help prevent the recurrence of cancer. Even mesothelioma patients can have a better prognosis if exercise is a regular part of their lives.
Every cancer patient has different fitness needs. Generally, exercise should begin as soon as possible after diagnosis and treatment, although many people become sedentary due to depression and fatigue. Any exercise that the patient can do is good exercise. The patient just needs to get moving. Because different patients have different needs, no one should begin a new fitness routine without assistance from a doctor and ideally, a personal trainer who has previously worked with those battling cancer.
Exercise routines should ideally include three aspects. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, help a person stay mobile. They can also help a person ease into a more rigorous routine after being sedentary for awhile. Yoga in particular can help a cancer patient have lower stress and a better sense of well-being, in addition to stretching the body. Besides flexibility exercises, good fitness also includes aerobic workouts. Aerobics are exercises that increase the heart rate such as running, power walking, swimming and dancing. Finally, fitness regimens also should include strength-training. Cancer treatment sometimes causes patients to lose muscle mass but gain fat. Weight-lifting and resistance workouts all help to build strength and muscle. Many workouts include all three elements. For example, during a dance class, someone might stretch during a warm-up and cool-down, and do a combination of resistance and aerobic exercises during the majority of the class.
No matter what combination of exercises a cancer patient does, one must find something enjoyable to do and a support system to hold him or her accountable. The more exciting and fun a workout is, the more likely a cancer patient is to maintain the fitness routine in the long term, which is what is most important.