The efficiency of a mixed exercise program on quality of life and fatigue levels in patients with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Exercise is a nonpharmacological supportive therapy which has been specifically identified to reduce postoperative complications or adverse events of cancer or treatments. Although there are few studies combining resistance and aerobic exercise in cancer survivors, exercise programs are very rare in different places in the literature. This study aims to investigate the effects of mixed-type exercise in different venues on weight, body mass index, fatigue, and quality of life in cancer survivors. METHODS: This is a descriptive, intervention study. Participants were included in the study, and the exercise process was between January and November 2019. The exercise group consisted of 32 patients who had just completed their breast cancer treatment and did not have distant metastases, and they applied a mixed exercise program including resistance at home and aerobic exercise in the fitness center for 12 weeks. The patients with breast cancer in the control group (30 patients) did not receive any exercise program. RESULTS: Subjective feelings of fatigue and decrease in concentration, motivation, and physical activity significantly decreased after exercise (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.006, p=0.008, and p<0.001, respectively) in the study group. The results also showed that physical health, general health status, and emotional and social health status significantly increased with the exercise program (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.004, and p=0.003, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our results show that a mixed (fitness center and home) 12-week exercise program provides an improvement in general health and reduces the side effects of the treatments and fatigue in patients with breast cancer. For a good prognostic process after medical treatment, exercise can be recommended in every accessible area.

The Effect of Exercise on Life Quality and Depression Levels of Breast Cancer Patients.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of aerobic and stretching exercises on quality of life and depression levels of breast cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 48 women (mean age 45.0±2.2 years) who were previously diagnosed with breast cancer and completed their treatment with no metastasis, were included in the study. Of these, 24 women who received the exercise program were assigned as the study group, while the remaining 24 women who did not receive the exercise program were assigned as the control group. The study group received a 12-week aerobic exercise program at the fitness club and home-based resistance exercise program designed by a sport scientist at the doctoral level. The control group was encouraged to maintain their normal level of physical activity and exercise habits throughout the study. The WHOQOL-BREF, EORTC-QLQ-C30 quality of life assessments and Beck depression inventory (BDI) were used to evaluate quality of life and the severity of depression before and after 12-week exercise programs. RESULTS: EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring showed that in the study group aerobic exercise positively impacted quality of life on the functional scales (physical p=0.001, role p=0.039, emotional p=0.031, social functioning p=0.010) and symptoms (fatigue p=0.001, pain p=0.001, sleep disturbance p=0.038 and financial impact p=0.015). WHOQOL-BREF assessment areas, (general p=0.001, physical p=0.02, mental p=0.001 and social health p=0.017) relationships also improved as a result of exercise. BDI showed that severity of depression in the study group decreased significantly (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed that aerobic and resistance exercises improved quality of life and decreased depression levels of women who previously received breast cancer treatments.
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Acute effects of static stretching, dynamic exercises, and high volume upper extremity plyometric activity on tennis serve performance.

The purpose of this study was to compare the acute effects of static stretching; dynamic exercises and high volume upper extremity plyometric activity on tennis serve performance. Twenty-six elite young tennis players (15.1 ± 4.2 years, 167.9 ± 5.8 cm and 61.6 ± 8.1 kg) performed 4 different warm-up (WU) routines in a random order on non-consecutive days. The WU methods consisted of traditional WU (jogging, rally and serve practice) (TRAD); traditional WU and static stretching (TRSS); traditional WU and dynamic exercise (TRDE); and traditional WU and high volume upper extremity plyometric activity (TRPLYP). Following each WU session, subjects were tested on a tennis serve ball speed test. TRAD, TRSS, TRDE and TRPLYO were compared by repeated measurement analyses of variance and post-hoc comparisons. In this study a 1 to 3 percent increase in tennis serve ball speed was recorded in TRDE and TRPLYO when compared to TRAD (p< 0.05). However, no significant change in ball speed performance between TRSS and TRAD. (p> 0.05). ICCs for ball speed showed strong reliability (0.82 to 0.93) for the ball speed measurements.The results of this study indicate that dynamic and high volume upper extremity plyometric WU activities are likely beneficial to serve speed of elite junior tennis players.