Exercise After Cancer: Ep 2 What is Moderate Exercise?

Welcome to episode 2 of the ABCs of exercise after cancer with cancer physical therapy specialist Dr. Leslie Waltke.

Cancer survivors should be exercising 150 minutes per week. Why? Exercise after cancer has been thoroughly researched and the results clearly show that people with cancer that exercise does better during treatment, recover faster after treatment, live happier, have less fatigue, less weakness, less depression, less lymphedema, live longer, and may have less recurrence than cancer survivors who don’t exercise.

People should target 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise spread over most days of the week, preferably 5-6 days. This 150 minutes should include both aerobic and strength exercise. If you are super fatigued, super weak, or just really out of shape you can break your daily exercise time up into 2 to 3 sessions a day of 5- 10 minutes of exercise.

Moderate exercise means pushing your body enough that you get slightly breathy when you exercise.

AND... moderate means moderate for you, and it means moderate for how you feel on that particular day. And yes, being busy is an issue for most of us. Yet there are 10,080 minutes in a week, so you can schedule 150 minutes for exercise!

Remember how much time your cancer treatment costs you a week? But you found a way because your life depended on it. Well, guess what, the quality and length of your life now depend on how much exercise you get.