Exercise after mastectomy
Hi all, I am almost 7 months after SMX. I have been diligent with rehab exercises, and I approached exercise very gently. After 6 months I was able to return to the rock-climbing level I was once (21 grade at the gym). and I can also run for 5 km (although not at a previous pace), and lift weights. with perseverance and discipline, we can get back to our routines. I do have another surgery coming up (tissue expander expand), as I decided not to have an implant. So I will likely start from 0 again, and again baby steps...but I least I know that the rehab journey works. Good vibes to everyone!
ENCORE - Hunter Region
Hi ladies, Many of you may be familiar with the YWCA ENCORE program. Just a quick one to let you know we're still going strong in the Hunter region, NSW! ENCORE is a FREE eight week program designed specifically for women who have experienced breast cancer at any time in their life. Incorporating exercises, relaxation techniques and information. It is safe, fun and therapeutic. The exercise program is specifically designed to target areas that have been affected by breast cancer surgery and treatment. These exercises improve strength, mobility and flexibility whilst the warm water in the pool sessions relieve affected muscles. The program also offers information through guest speakers, links into local services, and opportunity to connect with local women who share a similar experience in a safe, fun and supportive environment. Many great friendships have been formed at our Encore programs! We're now taking enrolments for two upcoming programs, and we'd love for you to join us. VALENTINE: Tuesdays | 3 February–24 March 2026 | 11:00am–1:15pm MAITLAND: Thursdays | 5 February–26 March 2026 | 1:45pm–4:00pm Please reach out if you have any questions: info@ywcahunterregion.org.au / 02 4929 2954 . More info on the program and enrolments here: www.ywcahunterregion.org.au/encore Thanks Nat, Caz, Cindy, Jodie & Yela YWCA Hunter Region Inc. 02 4929 2954 info@ywcahunterregion.org.au www.ywcahunterregion.org.au/encoreENCORE - Hunter region
Hi ladies, Many of you may be familiar with the YWCA ENCORE program. ENCORE is a FREE eight week program designed specifically for women who have experienced breast cancer at any time in their life. Incorporating exercises, relaxation techniques and information. It is safe, fun and therapeutic. The exercise program is specifically designed to target areas that have been affected by breast cancer surgery and treatment. These exercises improve strength, mobility and flexibility whilst the warm water in the hydrotherapy sessions relieve affected muscles. The program also offers information through guest speakers, links into local services, and opportunity to connect with local women who share a similar experience in a safe, fun and supportive environment. Many great friendships have been formed at Encore programs! Unfortunately ENCORE is no longer running nationally.... however YWCA Hunter has successfully secured funding to reboot ENCORE in the Hunter region. * SINGLETON - We're taking enrolments now! If you live in Singleton or surrounding areas we'd love for you to join us. 29 April-17 June 12:30-2:30PM Singleton Gym and Swim * NEWCASTLE - venue/dates will be released in the near future-most likely to be held in Oct/Nov. Please reach out if you have any questions: info@ywcahunterregion.org.au / 02 4929 2954 . More info on the program and registration info can be found here: www.ywcahunterregion.org.au/encore ; Thanks Nat, Caz & Yela YWCA Hunter Region Inc. 02 4929 2954 info@ywcahunterregion.org.au www.ywcahunterregion.org.au/encore ;
Come & try dragon boating for breast cancer survivors in Melbourne!
Do you live in the greater-Melbourne area? Come and try dragon boating for free for breast cancer survivors! Experience the wonderful benefits of outdoor exercise and support from fellow breast cancer survivors in beautiful Victoria Harbour, Docklands! You can come as many times as you like for 1 month for free! We can't wait to meet you! Dragons Abreast Melbourne Pink Phoenix is a Group Member of the wonderful Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA). Sign-up for your free 1 month Dragon Pass here: https://www.revolutionise.com.au/pinkphoenix/registration
Exercise and Cancer
unsure if this has been posted before but here is a link for a doco on catalyst on the ABC. Before I started teaching, I was an exercise physiologist. This study is very very interesting and promising. I know it is hard for people to exercise throughout chemo but here is a doco on the benefits. As I know about the benefits of exercise and cancer from previous study I have continued to exercise: walking 3 times a week, yoga once or twice as well as started back doing gym work. I feel it has helped with my side effects. And received an amazing compliment from a doctor the other day that has never met me before (I don't know whether to say it or not as well I don't want to jinx myself haha). here it is: Watching Catalyst Series 17 Ep 14 Exercise And Cancer in iview http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/catalyst/SC1502H014S00
Advocating for Exercise in Breast Cancer Groups
i just wanted to raise some awareness on an issue that has been bugging me and say something here. i have stopped participating in cancer groups because even though groups like this called "get active and keep well", the general fear and disapproval from other members is if someone starts exercising "more" than the generally accepted idea of what exercise is. anything more than that idea is frowned upon, and people have made me feel so angry and sad for sharing something that i am proud of and something that empowers me. with this group and other ones for breast cancer, after i share information about doing some exercise and training after my surgery and after chemo, i have had comments that really shot me down and basically either flat out said that i need "a reality check", or alluding to the fact that the best thing that i can do right now is rest, NOT exercise, and some had attacked me saying that i am putting myself up to put her down (!!). some saying "i wouldnt do that if i were you". well guess what... they are not me. and i am not them. most of these types of comments i have found came from people who have not had the same powerlifting training as me. or from people who did not have an athletic or regular exercise routine at all prior to diagnosis. and these comments have not only hurt me, but made me feel angry and frustrated with the very little emotional energy i already do not have. what i decide to do with my cancer experience is safe FOR ME. for example, women, let alone cancer survivors are fearful of anything to do with strength training. i will not go into the reasons for this and i will not go into the enormous benefits for strength training for women. but i'll give you an example. yesterday i went to the gym and felt great for it. amongst other things, i did 50kgs deadlift. now, if my best deadlift prior to diagnosis was 3 reps, 3 sets of 80kg deadlift prior to diagnosis, and i lifted 50kgs (3x2) nearly 2 months since recovering well from surgery with full range of motion, and 11 days after chemo, and assessing myself as i go, feeling fine and not really even puffed out, and not even sore the next 2 days, to me that means that it is safe for ME to do this. if i felt not ok before, during or after doing a 50kg deadlift 10 days after chemo i would stop. why would i stop doing something that is manageable? for me manageable means something different than the next person who has had recovered from breast cancer surgery and 11 days out of the first chemo session. i trained nearly for around 9 months prior to diagnosis. 50kg deadlift would be a different story to a competitive powerlifter who can lift triple digits in kgs, and would be different again to someone who only did walking as exercise prior to diagnosis. why are other people not to be trusted to their own intuitions and experience in something they already know? do we need to tell someone how to live their life? not usually. so why tell someone how to go through their cancer journey? i have my surgeon and oncologist's approval and support for powerlifting before, during and after chemo, and i have the utter wonderful and strong support from the fitness community groups. why must i be told like an idiot that i am doing the wrong thing for my body? why tell me that i am not doing what i should be doing? with all the new realisations in the medical field that building stamina, strength and muscle can help to improve the lives of people with cancer even during treatment, and that these increases in fitness and muscle can trigger lots of previously unknown properties for the body to heal itself, generate more energy and stamina to better handle treatment, why is that exercise and strength training is so frowned upon by the standards of 30 years ago? maybe we do not have that much information on the subject but at least what we do know 100% for sure is that even if you don't have cancer, and you did no exercise, and no resistance training, that your body will function very very differently than someone who does regular cardiovascular as well as strength training. you add muscle bone and energy killing chemotherapy on top of someone who doesn't exercise for months at a time, and you get far greater levels fatigue, far greater loss of strength and more difficulty regaining strength after treatment (and guess what helps combat loss of bone density, muscle mass and loss of energy? -strength training). i know that before my diagnosis if i do not exercise for 2 weeks i loose strength and stamina, i feel more fatigued and my lupus will take over and i will be more prone to simply staying in bed. why do people like myself, other fitness pursuing women and athletes who had been diagnosed with breast cancer have to feel like we cannot be supported in a group like this and other groups that advocates exercise? i want to feel like people respect my decisions to do what i need and what i want with my life, especially because i feel ok and great after what i do in terms of exercise. and i want to say to other women here who do exercise/athletic pursues, PLEASE share what you do for exercise! because the community needs to know that if someone knows their body, got doctors approval, and does exercise that makes them feel great not just physically, but mentally and that empowers them, that they should be celebrated! that they should be allowed to say and share and be proud of what they did especially whist going through cancer! you need to share your experience until it is normalised in our society. i have been made to feel so angry and ashamed because i went back to the gym when i felt ok to, during MY cancer experience, and i do not want that for anyone else. i am excited to share this with you as a last note in a couple of links. thanks for those who read and are willing to understand. https://soundcloud.com/abcnsw/resistance-training-benefits-breast-cancer-survivors http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4459555.htm <-- ABC catalyst documentary (chemo and exercise) http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0067579 <-- the exercise cancer killer cells research https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julie_Gehl/publication/294870149_Voluntary_Running_Suppresses_Tumor_Growth_through_Epinephrine-_and_IL-6-Dependent_NK_Cell_Mobilization_and_Redistribution/links/56e954d408aecf036b315403.pdf <-- how killer cells work on tumors 2016 researchYWCA Encore - Hunter region
Hi there, We're running the Encore program again next month at Valentine & Waratah. We still have spots available, we'd love for you to join us. Now is the time to enrol! YWCA Encore is a FREE 8 week program designed specifically for women who have experienced breast cancer, or currently experiencing breast cancer, to improve and retain mobility and flexibility in the upper limbs, confidence and general wellbeing. Contact us: encore@ywcahunterregion.org.au / 02 4929 2954 / 0421880321. More info and enrolment forms are available here: www.ywcahunterregion.org.au/encore ; Thanks Natalie, YWCA Hunter Region Inc.
On Our Walks
A while back there was a lovely thread of sunrises that the early risers among us posted. I loved it, so I thought I'd broaden it to a thread for all the lovely sights we see as we do our slow staggers through chemo, or those walks we take after active treatment has finished and we're trying to get our strength and fitness back. In Melbourne today the weather was sunny, still and mild; perfect for a walk. I have followed my GP to a small town in the Yarra Valley (a good GP is worth the 30 minute drive I reckon), and right outside her surgery is the start of a beautifully laid out walking track. It's 7kms long and I've been keen to explore it. So today I walked halfway along it and back. At over 7kms it was the longest walk I've done since the day before chemo!
post op exercise question?
Hello all, I have a question, I have also emailed this off to my bc nurse, however they are busy and can not get back to me for a few days, so I thought I would ask here for a general idea, I was diagnosed on the 14.12.2022, today I have had my PPET-CT Scan, yuck, what an ordeal, If that is all good for my surgeon, I'm booked for next Friday for the lump removal. I understand everyone journey is personal to them and everyone's cancer is different from the person beside them. However as a general idea, once surgery is over, I need to get back to exercise, I enjoy my yoga, but am also looking at adding walking laps in a pool with my adult son, after he torn his ACL on our family holiday last week down in TAS, (that's a hole another nightmare of a story, he went face first down Cataract Gorge in Launceston) As he can not drive, I am planning on driving him to the pools when he can start his recovery treatment, so I was thinking I should also get in the pool and start off with light exercise. Has anyone done any form of aqua exercise, I know I have to have radiotherapy after the surgery, again I'm not a wear for what length of time, is is safe to go in pools, I live over an hour away from the beach, so that would be out of the question. Thanks for your time Cheer's
Pilates
Hi Ladies, I have just been to see my Physio and she mentioned a program specifically catering to people going through or recovering from Cancer treatments. The program is run by qualified Physiotherapists and includes many options for aiding in your physical recovery. You can find participating clinics in your area by going to the PINC & STEEL website.
