If you have cancer or breast cancer you are not alone. Millions of people in the United States right now are under cancer treatment, in rehabilitation, or working to prevent recurrence of their disease.

Exercise rather than rest may be the best solution for someone undergoing cancer therapy. When you walk out the hospital door after cancer treatment, you also walk away from the medical staff that is there to help. Once home you still have to deal with depleted energy, frightening side effects from drugs, and specific limitations to movement. Being able to perform a routine exercise gives you one place in your life where you have some control. Instead of being a passive recipient of all kinds of drug and surgical therapies, you can begin to be an active participant in your recovery.

Clinical studies from the last decade are starting to show that moderate physical activity such as walking on a treadmill, cycling (continuous or intermittent), light weights, relaxation techniques, and stretching can help maintain physical function, combat fatigue, fight depression, and decrease nausea and neuropathy in the short term. In the long term, it can diminish early menopause due to cancer therapy, or the increased risk of osteoporosis.

The following chair exercises will prepare your body for standing, and maintaining balance and proper posture. They will also help to restore and increase lower and upper body strength. Some of the exercises can be done with a partner, and are designed specifically for when you are feeling well enough to get out of bed. Before beginning, make sure that your legs can hold you up and that your arms can reach for the cup on the top shelf of your cabinet.

There is no better way to improve your strength and enhance your quality of life, than to exercise, especially if you have completed treatment, and are working your way back to a normal, active life.

Leg Extensions
Benefits:	Quadriceps (front of thighs) muscles
Starting position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor, with your arms down by your side.
Action:	Exhale and extend one leg; inhale and bring your leg down. Repeat 10 times on each side.
Note:	For added resistance, you can add one-to-five-pound ankle weights.

Mid-Back Pullbacks
Benefits:	Rhomboid (mid-back) muscles
Starting position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor. Bring your palms to the back of your head with elbows by your ears.
Action:	Exhale while bringing shoulder blades together and elbows out to the side. Hold for 3 counts. Inhale and release. Repeat 10 times.
Note:	Maintain an upright posture by tightening your abdominal muscles.

Partner Chest Press
Benefits:	Pectoral (chest) muscles
Starting Position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor. Your partner should be sitting in front of you. Place palms together and bend elbows slightly.
Action:	Exhale as you try to push your partner’s hands away and hold for 5 counts. Inhale and release to starting position. Repeat 10 times.
Note:	If this position is uncomfortable for you because of limitations in your shoulder and chest area, you can simply clasp both hands together and press together for 5 counts, then release. Repeat 5-10 times.

Bicep Curls
Benefits:	Bicep (front of arm) muscles
Starting position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor. Hold one to ten pound weights (depending on your strength) with your palms facing forward, elbows along sides.
Action:	Exhale and bend both elbows, bringing the weights up to your shoulders. Inhale and slowly release down. Repeat 5-10 times.
Note:	When it becomes easy to lift the weight 10 times, increase your weight in one-to-two pound increments for a few weeks.

Overhead Lifts
Benefits:	Deltoid (shoulder) muscles
Starting position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor. Hold the one to ten pound weights with your palms facing forward, resting the weights on your shoulders.
Action:	Exhale and slowly extend your arms straight overhead. Inhale and bend your elbows as you lower the weights to your shoulders. Repeat 5-10 times.
Note:	Maintain an upright posture by tightening your abdominal muscles. If your shoulder joint has limited range of motion, simply lift one arm at a time or change the direction of your arms to face each other instead of straight ahead. If you feel discomfort in your shoulder area, try to lift light weights with your arms out to the side.

Partner Pullbacks
Benefits:	Rhomboid (mid-back), latissimus dorsi (back) and arm muscles
Starting position:	Sitting on the edge of your chair or bed, keep your spine long, feet flat on the floor. With your arms straight out in front of you, hold onto the ends of a towel. Your partner is sitting on a chair in front of you, holding onto the middle of the towel.
Action:	Exhale as you bend your elbows and pull them back along your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together, as your partner provides resistance. Inhale and then give your partner some resistance as you he/she pulls you back to your starting position. Repeat 10 times.

Lisa Hoffman, MA is an exercise physiologist and the founder and president of Solo Fitness Inc.™ a personal training company in New York City. Alison Freeland is a print and public radio journalist who lives in North Carolina.