What's the number one most annoying thing about dealing with breast cancer? Besides emotional upset, constant exhaustion and never-ending medical appointments, many women mourn the loss of freedom of body movement. Think about it: It's very frustrating to realize you've lost significant range of motion, because of the debilitating side affects of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. Chemotherapy is exhausting. Radiation and surgery can affect muscle tissues, reducing strength. Couple that with inactivity and your body becomes the weakest link.

After chemotherapy, surgery or radiation treatment, exercising is the perfect way to increase your range of motion, and speed up healing.

What can you do to break the cycle of inactivity and fatigue? Exercise, and exercise often (after first checking with your doctor). Exercise therapy can improve your quality of life by helping you tolerate cancer treatments, and making it easier to do basic movements, such as lift groceries, comb your hair, drive, carry loads of wash up a flight of stairs, or even play golf.

Because mastectomies, nodal dissections, radiation and breast reconstruction may leave behind scarring in key areas that affect range of motion, it's crucial to follow an exercise program that incorporates exercises that stretch the chest, shoulder and upper back. To really benefit from exercise, you need to do strength training (using exercise bands and light weights), combined with a moderate aerobic activity such as walking or swimming. The strength training slows down the loss of bone density that can be caused by an couch-potato-like lifestyle or from early menopause brought on by chemotherapy. The benefits of moderate aerobic exercise are enormous: It can reduce nausea, sleep deprivation and even the "hot flashes" many women get during treatment.

For the best recovery program, follow these tips:

ONE
Always get a physician's approval before starting an exercise program, which can be especially stressful if you are healing from extensive surgery (such as breast reconstruction), have a low blood count or are undergoing certain types of chemotherapy.

TWO
Starting out, exercise two to three times a week. As you adapt and get stronger you can increase it to five times a week.

THREE
Begin exercise sessions with gentle stretching and a light warm-up such as a 10 minute walk.

FOUR
Listen to your body! If the movement is painful don't do it. Keep in mind, that you may sometimes experience a tingling sensation in the axillary region because of nerve regeneration.

FIVE
Integrate strength training with aerobic activities. Start by exercising with therapeutic bands and gradually progress to light weights.

SIX
Try to do 12 repetitions of an exercise, slowly moving through your range of motion. As the exercises get easier gradually increase the resistance.

SEVEN
If you are enrolled in a formal, structured program make sure the instructor has proper credentials and is aware of the contraindications of certain exercises.

EIGHT
Finally, remember that gardening, golfing, walking, and housework are all forms of exercise, and can be the best thing you do for yourself.

BOTTOM LINE: Exercising regularly can increase strength, endurance and flexibility, while reducing depression and anxiety. That translates into a powerful feeling of control. Ultimately, you'll feel capable of doing anything. And you know what? You can.