Physical activity

In addition to improving general fitness, being more physically active can help you to prepare for your surgery or treatment by:

Improving physical resilience so that your body is better able to cope with the physiological stress of surgery or treatment
Reducing the impact of treatment side effects such as fatigue, pain, poor sleep and low mood
Reducing the likelihood of surgical and treatment complications

Exercise has been proven to improve mental health. It can reduce anxiety and improve our mood.

It is not always easy to start exercising when you feel down, or are feeling unwell, but if you start gently, you should notice an immediate benefit to your mental health.

Try an outdoors walk to boost your mood.

Exercise and cancer – the benefits video

What is physical activity?

Physical activity is any movement that uses energy. It’s often things we do all the time without even realising they count as forms of physical activity, such as:

Walking
Climbing the stairs
Gardening
Cleaning the house

These activities can improve your fitness, strength and balance.

What is exercise?

Exercise is a planned, structured, and repetitive activity to improve or maintain physical fitness.

It’s a type of physical activity, but not every physical activity is exercise. There are different types of exercise, for example, running, cycling, seated exercise classes, swimming, pilates or yoga.

Improving fitness prior to treatment video

How much physical activity should I be aiming for?

The recommendations are to do

150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic physical activity. This is any activity that makes you feel your heart beat a bit faster, you feel slightly out of breath, you can still speak in sentences but not sing a song. Alternatively you can do more vigorous aerobic activity for 75 minutes a week.
Strengthening activities to work all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week
Balance- if you are over 65 years old or have issues affecting you balance, you should aim to do balance exercises twice a week.

Physical activity – guidelines video

The video below explains more regarding physical activity recommendations, with examples of both moderate and vigorous exercises.

Exercise cautions video

The video below discusses some cautions and recommendations to support people with cancer to be more physically active.

More information can be found on this Macmillan webpage, which gives tips and advice for exercising safely, if you are having treatment and if you are having side effects or have other medical conditions.

Local free or low cost exercise/physical activity sessions

Redcar and Cleveland libraries offer two free seated exercise classes per week: Monday 10.30am to 11.30am at Ormesby Library. Tuesday 12pm to 1pm at Southbank Library.
To book a space, email: [email protected]
Middlesbrough Libraries offer lots of free and low cost classes to help you get moving, including Tai Chi, Yoga, Seated Exercise,Walking Football, Active for Life, Chair Yoga and bowls
Age UK offer Walk and Talks, gentle exercise classes and indoor bowls. They also offer mindfulness and wellbeing activites to support your mental health. Age UK Teesside Age UK Redcar and Cleveland
Redcar and East Cleveland have lots of different activities to choose from – details within timetable
Follow ‘Redcar and Cleveland Wellbeing Walks‘ on Facebook for details of free wellbeing walks
The Livewell Centre in Middlesbrough is hosting wellbeing sessions in Centre Square for outdoor exercise – from energising workouts to mindful movement. Sessions include boxercise, Pilates, get fit classes and Tai Chi. Email [email protected] for more information
Tees Valley Women’s Centre offer floor and chair based yoga classes in South Bank.

Exercising at home

Being active when you’re living with cancer is a resource with recorded exercise videos to follow along with, and will help you understand:

How physical activity can help you
How to be physically active before, during and after your treatment
The support you can get for your concerns and to help get started.

Other resources that you can use at home:

Practical ways to be more active

Break up long periods of sitting down – move during TV advert breaks, stand up or move around during phonecalls and try move every hour if working at a desk

Make activity part of your day – take the stairs instead of the lift, park further away at the supermarket, walk to a further bus stop or try walking short distances instead of driving

Make exercise part of your day – choose a familiar exercise, start slowly with an amount that is achievable and build up over time (for example, try a 10 minute walk at an easy pace and then increase over time, for example to 15 minutes at an easy pace or 10 minutes brisk pace)

Useful links