Exercise during Chemo

pondee629

Starting Chemo tomorrow, 3/3. Rectal cancer. Anyone else undergoing, having under gone, treatment and continued/started an exercise program? I'm interested in your experience, insights or anything else you might have to share. Thank you

AnnPT77

I did go through chemotherapy for stage III breast cancer, starting over 20 years ago. Each cancer type (including sub-types) has a different type of chemotherapy, with different side effects, so it's difficult to generalize. Even with a particular chemotherapy, individual responses can be extremely varied. (I'm saying this based on having been active in a breast cancer support group for a couple of decades, plus being a trained peer-support volunteer for several years, so I've heard a lot of individual stories about breast cancer treatment effects. I'm not knowledgeable about specifics of other types.)

With breast cancer, it's now encouraged to exercise, when feasible, during chemotherapy. I believe that some of that is because of the effect of exercise on estrogen specifically, but my understanding is that exercise can help moderate the fatigue that's a common chemotherapy side effect. What I've read is that exercise tolerance should be the guide (how intense, how often, for how long), so it may take some experimentation.

I hope that you're asking these questions of your treatment team, also. If you're being treated at a good-sized cancer center, there may be opportunity to consult with specialized resources (such as physical therapists). If you have support groups available to you (virtual or real-life), those can be a good experiential resource, besides.

Beyond that, I found that the chemo nurses were often more helpful and knowledgeable about things like this than the doctors . . . not to deprecate the doctors, but because the chemo nurses especially had lots of interaction with a huge range of patients, when folks were there for multi-hour infusions, so just had heard more stories and variations about the less medical parts of people's lives and routines.

Sending strength and wishes for a smooth course of treatment, and an excellent outcome!

Chieflrg

pondee629 wrote: »

Starting Chemo tomorrow, 3/3. Rectal cancer. Anyone else undergoing, having under gone, treatment and continued/started an exercise program? I'm interested in your experience, insights or anything else you might have to share. Thank you

Are you first receiving 5FU chemo 24/7 for 6 weeks straight coupled with radiation 5 days a week before surgery strategy?

ninerbuff

Ensure you talk to your medical oncologist about this.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

panda4153

First check with your doctor, but if you have the green light medically, I have not had cancer but I did listen to a speaker recently who’s cancer is in remission, and while she was undergoing Chemo she set herself a habit of exercising at least 10 minutes no matter what. Then she had an out is she was too tired or not up to continuing she would let herself quit for the day. What she said was that most days she was able to go longer because once she got started she started to feel better. Her reasoning was 10 minutes was nothing for her in normal circumstances, she was a professional athlete, but she also knew chemo would wipe her out so it seemed reasonable she could tell herself it’s just 10 minutes. Maybe you could try setting something like that for yourself, maybe it’s just 5 minutes, but getting started would probably result in you being able to keep going.

NorthCascades

I don't have anything to add except a virtual hug, and well wishes.

🫂