This transcript was extracted from the ‘Physical activity and exercise‘ video.

So our next speaker we’re on to maeve is our physiotherapist, and she’s going to do a talk on why exercise is important over to you. Good afternoon everybody. so my name is Maeve. I based over in Antrim area Hospital. I recognise a few faces I’m based on the ward, Laurel House and I do a few outpatient clinics.

Just before we start the first slide, I’m gonna get everybody to stand up, not to take away from Catherine and move more thunder, but just everybody stand up for me. All right, if you can walk or hold on to us, we’re just going to start, okay? Just to get everybody wakened up again. It’s a massive part. Oh there I already see a few people stretching, so we’re just going to march on the spot thats just to get started.

And then we’re going to raise the knees wee bit higher. Good. And we’re just going to sidestep side to side. side to side oh spot the good dancers in the room. Some people have rhythms a bit off. All right. And now next one we’re just going to raise the arms up and down and up and down and good and up. Lovely.

And we’re going to do a few big shoulder rolls just to get the shoulders moving. Lovely. All right we’re going to say our prayers and we’re going to twist our upper back right and left hear a few cracks going there. And we’re just going to do a few gentle side bends. Lovely. All right. So you can see from there almost every single person in the room was able to do that.

So everybody can do a form of physical activity or exercise. So we’ll just start here. Oh, yeah. Sit down, sit down. Apologies. So basically, research has shown that light, moderate physical activity can help people with cancer during and following treatment. it can make you feel better. So it is so scientifically proven. now that exercise will improve your mood.

They have done more MRI brains. They did MRI brain series on people before and after physical activity, and there was so much they could see on the MRI. The uptake in the part of the brain which releases those happy hormones. We’ve all heard of endorphins. So it has been scientifically proven time and time again. That exercise does improve your mood. Improves your energy levels, improves your appetite. I mean, if you’re if you’re moving and you’re burning calories, you’re going to require more food to fuel your expenditure, help improve your mood and overall quality of life helps look after your heart, help strengthen your muscles, joints, and bones. So it is so cliched, but motion is lotion.

Our joints love to be moved. One of the best things you can do for stiff joints and painful joints is move them. in terms of your heart, you know, we, we talk about physical activity. You want, you know, when you’re out of breath, you move and you run up a flight of stairs, your heart’s pumping, your lungs are moving.

So what we wanted to do is basically get your body a bit more like a well oiled machine. You want that your muscles and your heart and your lungs can take up and release oxygen really efficiently. All right. improve your balance and flexibility. A very, very important as you get older, the little, little sensors, you know, we talk about the beepers in your car when you’re reversing and your parking and, we have those sort of underneath your skin, in different parts of your body.

And as you get older, they sort of don’t just be as sharp as they used to be. So it’s very important. And there’s changes, you know, your changes in your bones and you don’t have as much muscle as you get older. And that all affects your balance. Everybody’s afraid of falling particularly the older you get. so definitely, exercise plays a massive part, in improving your balance and flexibility and it improves your confidence.

So next slide please. So it is important to start off slowly and gradually build up your exercise tolerance. So try to avoid overdoing it on the first day as this can make it harder to get back out the next day. so that goes without saying, you know, the amount, I mean, you hear people that they start off at the gym and a couple of days later they tell you they can’t move.

So it is trying just to, you start off gradually. You start off with a five, ten minute walk, build that up. by adding 5 to 10 minutes. After a few days, once you feel more comfortable, maybe a family or friend, a friend or family member may want to join you for the company and support.

And always remember that even a small amount of exercise is better than none at all. So next slide. So the UK recommendations of physical activity advise that healthy adults do one of the following every week. So at least 2.5 hours 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise. That sounds like a lot 150 minutes over the course of a week is actually not a lot of exercise.

That can be broken down. We’ll talk about it again in future slides, coming up. But, you know, that could be 30 minutes a day, broken up into three, ten minutes over the course of the day. or you could do at least an hour and a quarter. So 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic activity and a combination of both, moderate and vigorous aerobic exercise would be ideal.

So next slide. So this possibly some of you have seen this before. It’s a just a nice picture graphic if some people are visual learners. So we have 150 minutes. And you see they’re walking gardening swimming farming dancing literally anything that gets you up and gets you moving. 75 minutes of the more vigorous. So obviously they’re running contact sport your tennis anything.

Field sport up and down stairs. Something that gets the heart rate going a wee bit more. two days a week of, strength building that’s, you know, carrying things. the lady spoke earlier very well. aBout grandchildren, even carrying around, grandchildren pushing a pram, kitchen and groceries, lifting heavy loads of washing. That’s just anything to just building strength and then your balance. So dancing, tai chi, bowling, anything that shifts your weight to improve your balance. And a wee bit there. Just to go back to the previous slide, I love this. Sometimes it’s even just a case of sitting less. All right. We’re all guilty of that. Sometimes we even realize particularly when you’re going through your cancer treatment, you know, and you’re trying to find ways to relax and sometimes chilling in front of the TV or doing a wee bit on the computer.

Yes, that all has a place, but are you sitting for large portions of the day? So it is just trying to break up those long periods of sitting to just keep your keep your muscles and your joints and that moving. Sorry. Next slide. So talked briefly on this before. So to enable you to do 150 minutes of activity a week, you could do 30 minutes of activity a day for five days over the week.

That that’s very doable. I know 150 minutes sounds daunting, but it really isn’t. A lot of you have probably possibly already done 15 20 minutes already today. this can be broken up to ten minutes of activity three times a day. It’s important to remember to start off slowly at a pace it’s comfortable for you. it’s important to do activities to strengthen your muscles at least two days a week.

Again, that’s housework. lifting objects outside. Gardening doesn’t just have to be gym based. And those over 65, as I said, are advised. to Do activities that improve balance? At least twice a week? next slide. So just as I have, spoken to a couple of people at the break. it doesn’t always have to be gym based.

We love to get folk into the gym. all the better, because it means you can really tailor what you’re doing. But walking, gardening, swimming. yes. If you play sport up and down the stairs, running off to grandchildren, dancing, housework, you know, anything that really just gets you up and gets the body moving. Next slide there.

I talked about  building strength as well. Yes. if you can go to the gym. Absolutely, I know Catherine from move more will be talking about that, aerobics, carrying bags and then balance, tai chi bowling, and anything to improve your balance as well.

Next slide. So one I found in the few times I’ve done this talk, I always get asked like, what’s the difference between moderate and vigorous activity.

Would you agree Amy? it always comes up in all of our chats. This is a scale that we use a lot. So you’ll see up the middle there is starts at 6 and goes up to 20. So in the middle there around 6 no exertion at all. 7.5 extremely light, very light. So we would generally say to people, look, if you’re starting out and you just went through months of vigorous treatment, you really feel like you’ve lost all your muscle, you’ve lost your confidence, like you know something to help you get back and exercise.

So no exertion at all. You should feel easy throughout for long periods of time. Your breathing will feel comfortable and you should be able to whistle. Okay, then we get so say. Then you’re out for a walk and you’re picking up the pace a little bit. Then we say you’re getting up to sort of round 11 to 13 you start to feel warm.

So this is now we’re into a more moderate exercise. You’re feeling warmer, you’re sweating. your breathing increases, but you should still be able to hold a conversation. All right. And then you’re more vigorous. So that’s sort of in round. You’re getting round 15. So you’re breathing will increase where you can only speak in short sentences and you will be sweating a lot more.

So does that helps? We’ll say to people start off on the scale of 20 sitting in and around six, seven and a half. Then you’ll start to move up to sort of 11 to 13. And then if you want to try a wee bit of vigorous activity, then you should be sweating and you should be able to say, yo, you know, you’re out powerwalking with.

Somebody you might need to say, you know, you know, we mightn’t be able to just talk the whole way through. That’s a sign then that you’re up at the more vigorous activity. Does that help or guide okay. All right. Next slide. so then physical activity in cancer, we are in cancer still very much guided by the general, the generic exercise guidelines for the American College of Sports Medicine.

These are supported by the National Cancer Institute and the British Association of Sports. and exercise science. So all state that physical activity is safe during and after treatment. to avoid being inactive, get back to your normal activities as soon as possible after treatment and your slowly building up to the recommended physical activity guidelines that we talked about.

The hundred and 50 minutes, over the course of a week or the 75 minutes. So medical problems that can affect physical activity. So bone problems, if your cancer is affecting your bones directly, you will avoid doing, an exercise that specifically affects that limb. So if you have, a cancer and it’s affecting in and around your pelvis, I’m not going to get you doing something on single leg, okay.

There’s still a lot you can do. It’s basically things that you’re doing in your day to day life, and you but we just have to have if you have specific bone problems. That’s when you have to speak to your doctor, namely your consultant, your cancer nurse specialist, or else come and speak to a physio or an ot. if you have peripheral neuropathy, which unfortunately is a very common side effect of chemo, you lose some of that sharp sensation and feeling in your hands and your feet.

So if you’re don’t have the same sensation and you have that damage, you know, you have to be careful carrying maybe sharp objects or hot objects or your balance mightn’t be as good or lifting things. So again, if you have peripheral neuropathy, which unfortunately a lot of folk do that are going through cancer treatment, again you may need to speak to your doctor or speak to ourselves or speak to your nurse.

Lymphedema is you can exercise with lymphedema. If anything, exercise is very much, encouraged with lymphedema, but you may need to get, element of treatment first to allow you to do the exercise. So if you have lymphedema in your legs and they’re very heavy, that’s where you might need to come and seek support. And then we will, get you into your exercise and your physical activity, heart and lung problems.

You may just need a little bit more supervision. You know, I don’t know if anybody in here has been to any of the heart along, classes. You know, where they’re keeping a little eye on your heart rate, your blood pressure. but again, these are all they. You just have to be aware of these, and you may need to seek a little bit of guidance.

Next slide. So getting started I don’t want to touch too much on this because Catherine will be giving a great presentation move more fantastic service runs locally in the local leisure centers and the different areas around the trust. great service that really does cater for all abilities. I’ve been to a couple of classes myself, and whether you’re just starting out or you have a good enough level of fitness it caters for everybody and they’re good craic.

Your walking groups, Walk NI. And then you just speak to your GP, your cancer nurse specialist or OT with regards specialist myself or O2 with regards to getting started. and basically just on the last note, about physical activity is we are really trying to promote it in the line of, you know, it as important as your pain relief, your chemo, your anti sickness tablets, your nutrition, that it is that physical activity is as important as the physical Medicines that you’re taking.

All right. Thank you.