'Gentle exercise'

[YelramBob]

I hate this term, it reminds me of little old ladies doing keep fit. I've never done gentle exercise, don't see the point. Always lifted heavy weights, done martial arts and yoga/pilates. Running, body pump, spinning etc.

My life's changed in the last three years, had a breast cancer diagnosis. A lot of surgery and treatment and a failed reconstruction, left with a lot of nerve damage and scar tissue on my chest. Hormone treatment has caused joint pain, hot flushes and nausea. Every time I see the oncologist he tells me I must exercise 🤨 I saw him today (scan results, all ok) and complained about joint pain. Oh, he said - you must exercise 'gently'. Gentle cardio and gentle weights.

FML

It must be hard to give up the exercise you like doing on top of everything else that’s going on. I feel for you. But I reckon if you try some new things you’ll hit on something you like.

Thanks for your reply.

My health has changed so much and I've aged about fifty years since I started this horrible hormone treatment. It put me into menopause almost overnight.

Sorry, that’s tough and I bet exercise makes you feel more yourself.

Can you work with a good sports physiotherapist or a personal trainer? Someone who understands "non-gentle" exercise and can scale things down, and help you get conditioned and mobilised so you can work back up to your preferred non-gentle exercise?

My PT is amazing at this. I'm in the 2nd half of my 60s and it's easier to get injured. When I do have aches/pains beyond normal discomfort, he's excellent at giving me modified tasks, which are aimed at mobilising, strengthening, and working my body in many different ways.

So last week, I was doing sled pushes & pulls, alternated with different ways of crawling along the sled track (forwards, backwards, rotating, upside down).

Joint pain might be about menopause as much as anything else - so instead of just stopping what you really like doing, it might be about working up to it again. The physios I see know how I train (like a beast mostly) and aim at getting me stronger and back to what I like doing if I'm injured (2 years of rehabbing a knee cartilage tear w/o surgery for example).

ETA: what I'm really saying is, can you find support from health care people/personal trainer who knows about "non-gentle" exercise, and sees that as a good thing, not weird or not recommended ? (which is really annoying to those of us who like to train hard).

Yes - work within your limits (which may have changed) and give yourself lots of time for recovery but it doesn't have to be gentle. I'm training to be a PT at the moment and it annoys me when the material suggests that all over 50s are frail and unconditioned. I have been making the case that this is the age group which varies most, and provision for this group needs to cover both the people who can't walk to the shops and the ones who run ultras!

Yessss @UnaOfStormhold I can outrun and outlift most of my 20 yo students (young women and men).

I had the same treatment back in 2022, with ongoing hormone treatment and DIEP reconstruction in 2024. Chemo also put me into menopause and can't have HRT so probably similar to you.

I've not been given any guidance re exercise from oncologist but did see that 3 to 5 hours exercise per week gives a 30% to 50% better chance of breast cancer not coming back at stage 4 so have done that or more a week. I don't think it needs to be gentle and anything physical counts including walking. I did have to build up.

So when I had just finished chemo / radio I could swim a mile each time but I found walking any distance very difficult and would get out of breathe and hip pain like had aged 50 years overnight. I built up and started swimming 3 times a week about a mile each time. I also for first time in life had put weight on and got into overweight on BMI with hormone treatment /menopause. I lost that weight on a 1200 calorie diet plus exercise (and eating exercise calories) and now BMI back at 23. Both these helped a lot and suddenly walking was fine and I could go walking for a couple of hours without pain like round a botanical gardens and not out of breathe. The weight loss helped as I wasn't carrying that and my bones weren't either. The swimming built up my fitness.

Now I mainly garden for exercise, 3 times a week, and will lift very heavy things during it. The gardening does keep me fit but heavy lifting can cause issues with my reconstruction but if I overdo it I just have to remember to rest that arm for a while, it also can cause lumps under the arm which go but can be a bit scary if you've had cancer but are all clear.

I would just do whatever exercise you enjoy and build up.

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate the thought you put into it ❤️

I've taken a break from exercise this week as I've become exhausted from it, I think I burnt out. The menopausal weight gain has frustrated me, I eat healthily (chicken, veg, smoothies etc) but nothing works.

I mentioned the joint pain to my oncologist, unfortunately it's just a side effect of the injections I have to take. He's changed my tablets which I'll trial for a month so we'll see if there's any change. When I described the pain he said it sounded inflammatory and he could refer me to an orthopedic doctor who could then refer me to a physiotherapist 🙃

@OneZanyCat thank you for sharing that, you sound like you're doing really well. I haven't swum since 2023, the last time I tried was September 2024 when I still had an expander in place and I felt it move! I have one silicone implant in my left side and worried it will move 😵 I used to be a regular sea swimmer, again I don't do gentle exercise 😐