Keeping home exercise programs (HEPs) fresh and exciting is key to maintaining patient motivation & adherence.
BUT it’s easy for the HEP to take a back seat to all the other stuff you have to manage in patient care.
That’s why we’re spicing up the HEP in this episode, with unique exercise & physical activity ideas.
To inject some life into your worn out HEP handout from 1983, listen NOW!
Work with your patient to explore different methods & approaches
You must sit down with your patient & learn from them what they enjoy doing, what they don’t enjoy doing, & how to best incorporate regular physical activity & exercise into their daily routine.
Prescribing an HEP that just sits on their coffee table doesn’t do any good for either of you.
Traditional Methods with a Twist
Virtual 5Ks
If you google virtual 5Ks, you can find an event for nearly everybody out there.
These can also be great for the patient who is newer or less experienced in running, who can go at their own pace, but still enjoy the camaraderie & accountability provided by this virtual challenge.
A patient of mine recently did a virtual Tokyo walk, where she walked 40+ miles & virtually explored local Tokyo destinations.
American Cancer Society Virtual Challenges
The American Cancer Society now hosts virtual challenges that serve as fundraisers for ACS.
This month, I’m participating in the Swim 10 Miles in June challenge.
Again while performed on their own, the patient can still benefit from the accountability of signing up for such a challenge, especially if they participate with friends or family members.
Leveraging Technology to Increase Movement Minutes
If your patient enjoys using technology, why not lean into it fully for maximizing physical activity participation?
Gamified Exercise Apps
Exercise could definitely stand to be more fun, so gamified exercise apps may be a great solution for patients who just don’t enjoy being gym rats.
One such company, ZRX.app, offers three different apps to promote physical activity: Marvel Move; Zombies, Run!; & Venture.
Exercise Videos Featuring Cancer Survivors
You probably already know about CancerRehabPT & OncoPelvicPT – but did you know they have thriving YouTube channels with TONS of patient-facing videos?
YouTube can be an excellent source of free information, but remember: anybody can put stuff on the internet, including YouTube, so it’s important to educate your patient on channels/videos you recommend, ways to discern if a video is helpful or harmful, & what to look for regarding exercise videos.
Virtual Reality (VR) Workouts
VR is more accessible than ever, which means your patient may already have VR at home.
Don’t be afraid to explore beyond the typical workout apps – plenty of games promote movement &/or can be performed in standing, such as Beat Saber.
Interactive & Social Approaches to Promoting Exercise
Group Classes
If your patient values social interaction, group classes can be an excellent way to promote exercise participation. Examples of group exercise classes include yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, Zumba, & more.
Especially since COVID, there are many virtual classes available. This may be particularly useful for patients who prefer to exercise at home or are unable to leave their home due to immunocompromised status.
Moving Beyond Cancer Collaborative
Moving Beyond Cancer Collective offers weekly classes both in-person & online for oncology patients across the globe.
Fun and Creative Exercise Methods
Dancing
Dancing for exercise can be done as part of a structured class or “baltering” at home within the privacy of their own home.
AllTrails
AllTrails is a website & app where you can search for nearby trails, filtering for distance & difficulty. This is a great way for patients to walk or hike around their community, without having to travel far away to state or national parks.
Walking Tours
Larger towns & cities often host free walking tours, which can be great ways for patients to get out of the house, connect with others, & learn more about their community.
Home exercise programs do not have to be boring
It’s your job to work with your patient to determine the best home exercise program for them.
Some patients will take your printout & perform it as prescribed. Others will need something different that excites them & motivates them to move.
We’ve covered a lot of ideas today, but I want to hear from YOU! What other unique ways have you spiced up your patient’s home exercise program? Message me on Instagram & let me know!
Until next time, this is Elise with TheOncoPT. And remember: you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.
Want to watch the episode instead?
Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
Elise – @TheOncoPT (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. My name is Elise, your host, and I’m so excited that you’re here today. Whether you are an oldie but goodie and this is your 303rd episode, which is what we’re on today, or if this is your very first episode, welcome. I’m so excited that you’re here. This conversation today stemmed from a series of patient encounters that I’ve had over the past couple weeks or so. And it really made me think about, ooh,
This is something I need to reflect on. This is something I need to think on and act on. And why don’t I document what I found and bring it up on the podcast here? So that’s what we’re talking about today. Now, you probably are very aware that it is summer. It is firmly in the 90s and will remain so here in Texas for the next probably like four months. So summer is here to stay here. Don’t know where it is, where you’re at, but this is where we’re at. So anyways, all this to say.
I became more aware recently through talking with my patients that it’s now summer, which again, that wasn’t the big realization, but I am now competing with summer and against summer. Let me explain. So now that my patients are maybe taking some much needed time away from their daily lives to spend with family and friends, maybe they’re going on vacation, maybe they’re doing like…
work retreats, I have a patient who’s doing that right now, all these things that are happening right now. Our patients have busy lives, you already know this, but are now maybe being asked to take on more work or maybe more focused time during the summer that they wouldn’t necessarily have to do during the school year. So if you have patients who are, you know, they have…
kids that are school -aged or any number of things, summer is often a busy time. I mean, it’s a great time to get outdoors, spend some time in the pool, spend some time at the beach, et cetera, et cetera. And we are actively, as physical therapists, having to compete with this time. And I want my patients to go on vacation. I want them to take all the trips to do all the things. But I also want them to do their home exercise program to keep working on the functional goals that we’ve set together. And so…
Like I said, a couple patient interactions really made me kind of sit and think about this as far as my patients who have children don’t necessarily have the time built into their day. Like when school was in session that they could say, okay, I know that I have to go pick up my kids at, I don’t know, 3 .15 or whatever. I’ve got this window of time I can squeeze in those exercises and be done for the day. They may not have that option now that the kids are home from school all day every day. So,
Anyways, all this to say, this really got me thinking. And so as I’m thinking about this, I then go in, I’m going into my next patient visit. And so I’m talking with the patient, it’s time to advance her home exercise program, et cetera. And so I’m talking to her and the idea I had in mind was, okay, because this patient had told me, she said, I want to do more strength training. I want to get my strength back. I was like, perfect, I love that. Let’s implement the Strength After Breast Cancer program.
because it’s a really good like full body exercise program. And it’s a great place to start, especially for someone who’s maybe not as familiar or as comfortable with doing weights, et cetera. And so I’m starting to talk to this patient about it and she immediately goes, yes, I think that’s a great idea. and another thing I really like to do is plyometrics. And I genuinely was like, I didn’t even think to ask what kind of things you like to do.
I was just so like, strength training, let’s implement this because I think it’s a good idea. When I did not take the time whatsoever to even ask the patient what kind of resistance training, what kind of strength training she would be interested in, I just kind of assumed that, she probably doesn’t have much experience, let’s go ahead and do this thing. And so after that patient had told me, actually, I really like plyometrics, we totally like pivoted, we went in a different direction.
with her home exercise program, and I’m really excited to see what comes of that. But again, this was just kind of a series of patient interactions I’ve had over the past couple weeks that made me think, whoo, I need to be more intentional about my home exercise programs and in how I’m prescribing them and what I’m prescribing with the awareness of summer at the forefront of my mind. And what can I do to make sure that my patients…
are doing their home exercise program. Like how can I make it more feasible, more logistically, frankly just possible and enjoyable for my patients to work on the things that we’re working on together within the context of their life. So first and foremost lesson that I took away from this is I need to back off with what I’m thinking I need to do and I need to involve my patient from the get go. Like before I even start.
come up with a plan, I need to hash out with my patient. What are they interested in? What are they excited in? What are they also not like doing? And then let’s not do that thing, right? So I would say first and foremost, before we get into some of the like examples and different ideas, when it comes to spicing up the home exercise program that we’ll get into here shortly, we have got to establish from the get -go that we have to discuss this and plan this.
out with our patients before we ever launch into, this is what we’re gonna do here. Like, this is a good idea, this is what we’re gonna do. We, and I’m saying this lovingly, I’m lumping myself into this because I just demonstrated how much of a problem this is for me, we need to do a better job of really putting our patient in the driver’s seat with this. And I used to be the queen.
of forgetting all about the home exercise program, frankly. I would load up my sessions with my patients from minute zero to minute whatever I had with that patient. And I would fill it up with all the things, all the exercises, all the education I could imagine that was appropriate for that patient. And then just would kind of throw an HEP that I very quickly threw together and printed out as they’re walking down the hall.
out of the clinic as I’m bringing the next patient in. Like it was chaos, it was not good. And while I’ve improved from that, I still have a lot of improvement to go. And this summer is, I think, a great opportunity to start implementing some of these things. So anyways, first and foremost, before you get into any of this stuff, you need to work with your patient to determine exactly what is that thing or those things, what kind of activities or interests does my patient have? Does my patient…
enjoy participating in that I can marry or mold physical activity and exercise into those things in order to quote, effectively compete with summer. So let’s get into some ideas and suggestions of some unique additions or replacements for home exercise programs that are still going to work on the functional goals you have for your patient, but are frankly more interesting than a printout.
with old faded exercises from 1983. First and foremost, let’s kind of start with some basics but with a little flair. So some trusted traditional activities but with a twist. And this first one, again, was introduced to me by a patient most recently, kind of reintroduced. And then the more I thought about it, the more I was like, I’ve actually done one of these before. So first up, we have virtual 5Ks. And if you literally Google search,
virtual 5k, the whole first page is filled with options, which is so, so cool. I saw anything and everything from, you know, Lord of the Rings running to or running through Mordor. I didn’t, I don’t actually remember. I wasn’t paying that close attention to Disney virtual running races now, which are a thing.
Any number of themes, I know I personally actually did a Wonder Woman virtual 5K during COVID and that was really enjoyable. And one of the things that I really enjoyed about this virtual 5K, and I know others do too, aside from the, you know, the accountability and signing up and being a part of something, I really enjoyed the swag that I got at the end of participating in this race, which is so shallow, but hear me out.
Okay, if I know that as a patient, I am a material girly, then maybe that’s a way that I could, as the therapist, motivate me as the patient to participate in these things, right? So for me, I really enjoyed the medal that I got from doing the Wonder Woman 5K.
I also got a shirt that was pretty cool, but like the medal was really sweet looking and that is something that I was really excited to do. And so I signed up for this 5k and then I actually participated in the 5k. So I felt like I earned the medal and not just paid money to get that medal shipped to my house. So as part of this, you know, again, if maybe your patient isn’t so much motivated like me by shiny swag.
One of the great things about doing a 5k like this is that you sign up and you’re a part of something. And a lot of times there’s, you know, like different challenges where they’ll have you, you know, like post on social media and, you know, tag like a specific hashtag or tag some kind of, you know, account or whatever. And so that’s a way to maybe feel like they’re a part of something bigger and it’s not just them. Now, of course,
Can we do real life 5Ks out in the world? Yes, totally, those are always an option. And so if you have patients who you know that’s something that they’re interested in, they like doing previously, maybe before they were diagnosed with cancer, et cetera, that’s something that you can bring back into the mix. But what I really love about the virtual 5K, through again, one of my very recent interactions with one of my patients, is that this is not.
a person who is historically gravitated towards running races. Like, if I had talked to this person a year ago, they would have been like, absolutely not. Like, no, I’m not doing that.
But things have changed. And while this person is not necessarily super gung -ho to be like, I’m gonna sign up for the Boston Marathon tomorrow, this patient really enjoys going out and doing this like 5K race, whether it’s a really super well -established 5K or maybe like an unofficial 5K on their own, really enjoys doing this with their family members.
And so that’s something that we’ve identified as being really important, that if my patient does her home exercise program with her family member, or maybe it’s your patient’s friend or whatever, they are going to do it. And so that’s something that I’m leaning more heavily into with home exercise programs in general, but especially this virtual 5K thing, again, especially for this patient. There’s…
all kinds of different races out there, as I mentioned previously. There’s also longer races too that are more multiple day designed to maybe even be done like over a month or more. So one of my other patients recently did a virtual 40 mile walk through Tokyo. Now this patient is here in Texas, but they have an app that they would track their progress. And there was like a little map.
that would show them where they were walking through this virtual course going through Tokyo and the different landmarks that they would see along the way. And so then you could open up, I think, you know, okay, I’m on this street and on this street is this landmark. Here’s a little bit about that landmark. So even though this patient isn’t able to travel internationally right now, and while they want to go to Tokyo, that’s just not an option for them right now, but this was a way for them to still,
feel like they were experiencing a little bit of Tokyo. And while a trip to Tokyo is definitely in the future for this patient, right now it’s just not logistically possible, but they can still experience some of that excitement and anticipation towards maybe someday going to Tokyo, which I think is really cool. I bet there’s way more than just the one that I’m talking about in Tokyo. And again, this was a 40 plus mile walk that this patient did.
over the course of the month, again with their friend. And so this is another great way of 5Ks, walking, you know, walking and running. Those are some things that maybe you prescribe as part of your regular home exercise programs. I love a good walking program to get my patient on the path to building up endurance and cardiovascular health again. But wouldn’t it be great to spice it up with something?
maybe like this, where it kind of takes the goal from, I have to do my home exercise program X number of days, because that’s what my therapist did to, wow, I’m gonna pretend like I’m walking through Tokyo or I’m training for a 5K that I know I’m gonna get a really sweet medal and t -shirt later, or I’m going to go and participate in this 5K and there’s gonna be people around, et cetera, et cetera. So again,
Making it less of a, this is an exercise plan, you are going to follow X number of days a week, how can we maybe change things up and incorporate a little more, frankly, fun, like with a virtual 5K? Now, another virtual kind of physical activity experience or challenge that I’ve actually gotten into very recently over the past couple months has been the American Cancer Society fundraiser challenges that they’re doing.
And so this month I’m actually participating in their swim 10 miles in June challenge. And for me, again, I’m not a patient, but maybe you can take something from this and then apply it to your patients. I have gotten very bored and very tired of what I have been doing for exercise for the past few months. It’s not working for me right now. Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s cause I’m bored. Maybe I just need a change.
But when I saw that the American Cancer Society was doing this swimming challenge, it checked off multiple boxes for me. Number one, it’s hot outside and the pool is cool. I’m all about that. Number two, I used to swim. I actually talked about this a little last episode. I used to swim and this has been a really fun way for me to get back into swimming a little bit. So again, that’s not something that I necessarily would have thought that I would have enjoyed.
participating in, you know, back in, I don’t know, March or whatever, but now this is a really fun thing that I’ve enjoyed. And again, it takes that kind of focus from inside to external for me. I’m working towards a goal. I have signed up for a challenge. Personally, I feel a sense of obligation to, I have signed up for this challenge. I need to finish it all the way through. And I don’t know that I get a medal or anything afterwards. That’s not really what I’m about.
But it’s nice having somebody else outside of me kind of set the goal and me be like, okay, I’m gonna go and do that now. And I know that I’m also getting in some active minutes. I’m doing something that I enjoy. I’m also beating the heat, at least for a little bit of time during these hot, hot summer days. And so that’s been really fun. There are more than just the swimming challenge. When I was looking previously, there’s also a walking challenge, a running challenge.
a walking with your dog challenge. And I think there’s also, if I saw this correctly, there is also a hit X number of golf balls in a month. So again, if your person is really into golf, amazing, there’s options out there. So again, while these things that we’ve talked about so far can totally be performed on the patient’s own, by themselves, they don’t need any kind of structure to do these things. Like they could set challenges for themselves.
And some patients, I’m sure, thrive off of that. But for some patients, they may find that they like having someone kind of…
structure things for them. Like again, you and your patient are working together to decide what is the thing that you’re going to do for your exercise, for your physical activity, but then maybe you can work together to, you enjoy walking? Okay. How do you feel about competition? How do you feel about challenges like this? How can we make walking more fun, more engaging for you? How can we maybe bring in
your community, your micro community, your family, your friends to participate in this so that you’re having fun and you have some accountability in all of this. And so these are some ways that you can do that. Moving on to a little more kind of like tech side of things, the availability of tech in our world is exploding. And it’s been cool over the past 25 years to see how
technology has married with like exercise and physical activity. Some of you may be old enough to remember when the Wii came out for the very first time and then the Wii Fit board. That was something that was like the technology purchase at our house in the mid 2000s or whenever that came out. Man, that was fun. Man, that was cool. And you know, there’s a novelty to technology that I personally enjoy.
Again, it’s also nice to kind of get out of yourself and do something different in a capacity. Again, whether that’s the Wee board and doing the hula hooping, that was always my favorite activity on there, to any number of things. But again, sometimes technology can be really useful in this capacity to again, kind of move that person outside of themselves to participate in physical activity in a way that looks and feels differently.
And especially if your patient enjoys technology and enjoys using technology and has the technology, why not lean into that to really leverage that person’s participation in exercise, in physical activity, in movement to work towards your functional goals? And so some ideas that myself, with the help of chat GPT, I mean, how can I not use tech in a conversation about tech right now?
So some of the things that we came up with were gamified exercise apps. Now this is something I had not even encountered before. None of this is an ad, okay? None of this is a paid promotion. It’s literally just what I found on Google. There is a site that has a series of apps called ZRX, and they have three different apps that I saw that are designed to promote physical activity.
So the first one is Marvel Move. The next one is Zombies Run, and the third one is Venture. Now I read into Marvel Move and Zombies Run. I didn’t read into Venture, but I imagine it’s very, very similar. So the premise behind this is that it’s an app, I’m sure like on your phone, that you would pull up, and it has these different scenarios.
that gamify the exercise experience. So one of them that I saw, and so when I’m talking about Marvel move, like the Marvel superheroes is what we’re talking about here. So there was a scenario and I think you were playing, like you were acting as Loki and Thor, I think, and you had some kind of a quest that you were working on. And so again, I’m going to explain it from what I saw in a very precursor really.
look at the website, please feel free to go to zrx .app for more details. But basically what happens is there’s a scenario and then you are acting as one of the characters or whatever, and then you go and as you’re trying to accomplish this quest, it has different like exercises or different things that you have to do. So again, one of them, I think you were, you know, Loki, you’re on a quest, whatever.
And so there was like a circuit of, hey, you’re going to jog, you’re going to do this exercise, then you’re going to run for this amount of time and then you’re going to recovery walk. And it was like a circuit of that five times. And again, while you’re doing this, you’re wearing your headphones and there’s some kind of a story or like music playing that is also helping you to, you know, be really into what’s going on here. Now, while the website, and maybe this is revealing the nerd in me.
The website totally talked about this is a great way to be active while also being a nerd. I agree, but I also think this is a really great way for again, exercise to be different and fun and to cater to more people than just your typical, you know, quote, gym rats or whatever. I love a good gym rat. That’s amazing. But some people have been historically kind of excluded and ostracized.
from participating in physical activity because that wasn’t something that they grew up doing or they enjoyed doing or they found that community or that sense of connection with other people in doing. And so what a great way to maybe reach other individuals, reach other patients who are really into tech, who are really into maybe that kind of like a story.
And then we can exercise, incorporate exercise into that. Anyways, I just thought this was so cool. I haven’t tried it yet. I do think it’s gonna be maybe something that I do a little later this year is to download one of those apps and find, like see what it’s about. But anyways, so there’s that. There’s so many more out there too, but this is just the one that I found right off the bat that I was like, this is pretty impressive. This is really cool. All right, number two within our.
leveraging technology to increase our movement minutes here, exercise videos. Now, I’m not saying you go out and make a whole library of exercise videos, unless that’s something you want to do. If that’s what you want to do, cool friend, but I’m going to give you an easy button to where you don’t have to do that much work. If you’re not aware, cancer rehab PT,
and OncopelvicPT, AKA Dr. Kelly Sturm and Dr. Alexandra Hill, have positively thriving YouTube channels. And they have a ton of patient -facing exercise videos. These are videos that they have created for patients to take them through different, not only like individual exercises, but also exercise flows, or like exercise circuits.
And what I really love about these in particular is that these are physical therapists who have abundant, extensive knowledge in the world of oncology and are appropriately discussing like, hey, here’s what this is for. And then also the safety behind how to perform those exercises and when to ultimately discontinue exercising. Because if you send your patient out into the world,
and turn them loose on the internet to try and find exercise videos, they are going to find probably millions, if not like billions of exercise videos out there with no consideration for their own experience as a part of going through cancer and cancer treatment, right? We know that if you go and you take a, I don’t know, like insert fitness influencer here’s video,
it may not be appropriate for your patient. In fact, it’s probably not appropriate for your patient because you are working with specific impairments for that patient. And so I would really encourage you, YouTube is a great place to find videos. Do not just turn them loose on the internet to try and find videos on their own. This really needs to be a process that you work together with your patient to ultimately educate them on.
What should they be looking for? What are maybe some ways to discern if a video is going to be helpful or harmful for them? Again, with that consideration of safety for the oncology patient population that we’ve been talking about. And then ultimately what to look for regarding exercise videos, right? What is the goal behind you telling the patient, go use this video from YouTube and exercise with it, right? Like what’s the purpose behind us doing this?
But again, if you are like, I need an easy button, I cannot possibly be expected to sift through the billions of videos or whatever on YouTube. Check out Cancer Rehab PT, Oncopelvic PT. I have linked both of those on this blog post that I post with every single podcast episode. So you can find that at TheOncoPT.com/303 excuse me, because it’s the 303rd episode of the OncopT podcast. Woo -woo.
You can find both of those channels there and those are again a great source of information that is not only helpful but also very medically accurate and safe for patients in our oncology patient population. So check those out, great places. And then the last thing when it comes to our tech, specifically technological innovations and incorporating more exercise and physical activity.
are virtual reality or VR workouts. I have not done a true official VR workout, but I know that there are quite a few platforms out there that have over the past couple years really adopted different exercises and physical activity. It’s kind of like the new wave almost of again, Wii and Wii Fit exercises and games, et cetera. And with
the increasing availability and accessibility of VR in our world, your patient very well might have these tools already at their house. And let me be clear, this is only something that I would recommend to my patients if they’ve expressed an interest in this, and I know that they have access to this kind of technology at home. I would never tell my patient, hey, I need you to go buy the, I don’t know, PS5 and the…
whatever VR goggles that they come with just to do this home exercise program. That is absurd. I would not do that and I would really encourage you don’t do that. That’s not very cool. But if your patient already has this technology, why not? And before you push back and say, Elise, my patients are old. They don’t have this. Girl, we bought my dad a VR set for his birthday this year and he has played on it every week since.
So don’t think just because your patients are older that they’re not also enjoying some of this technology. Now, again, I would have to assess, I would need to establish with my patient that they want this, that they enjoy participating in it and that they have this technology, but if they do, why not lean fully into it? One of the games that my sibling, my sister and her husband introduced my parents to that they now play on their VR headset,
is called Beat Saber. So basically, if you remember Dance Dance Revolution back in the day, gosh, I know a long time ago, that was like with your feet. But okay, nowadays, I’m auditorily describing Beat Saber to you. If you’re watching this on YouTube, you can see the crazy hand motions that I’m doing. But if you’re on the podcast only, here’s what the scoop is. So Beat Saber, at least on their VR platform.
You have the goggles, obviously. But then you also have these two kind of handheld remote things. And then it’s like you have a lightsaber and you are hitting targets on the screen to the beat of music. And so whenever my sister, her husband, or my parents have played this game, they always stand up. You could do this in sitting.
Absolutely, right? If your patient has mobility impairments, if they cannot stand for long periods of time, they could probably totally do the sitting down. For my other patients who are maybe safer and maybe, you know, like balance is something we want to work on, this could maybe be a fun way to challenge their balance and also work on getting them moving and moving their arms and get that heart rate up while also having fun during the process. Now, does Beat Saber…
replace a complete, you know, cardiovascular exercise program where I’m working on aerobic endurance and also integrating resistance training two days a week to meet the recommendation of 150, et cetera. Maybe not, okay? Beat Saber is not going to be the only thing that I’m relying on for my patient to do, to accumulate, to get to that targeted.
number of active minutes per week, but it’s a start. And if it means that my patient is going to spend less time sitting in front of the TV and more time standing, waving their arms around, standing up, working on their balance, while also getting their heart rate up a little bit, I think that’s a good start in the right direction. Again, Beat Saber, I’m sure is not the only game out there. It’s just the one that I know of because my dad is super into it right now.
So again, you might be surprised with what kind of things you find that your patients enjoy, but we won’t know until we ask. All right, so we’re kind of moving away from the AI, the innovative tech. Let’s talk about some more interactive and social approaches to increasing exercise participation. Group classes. Group classes are a great way for people to feel like they belong to a community of sorts.
to get that immediate encouragement from maybe the group instructor or other people in that exercise class. And these range, there’s so many different group style exercise programs out there. This could be one -off classes at the gym or the rec, right? Maybe this is a yoga or a Tai Chi class or a Pilates class, Zumba even, right? Maybe it’s also something,
more along the lines of like orange theory or that’s the only one that’s coming to mind. Again, there’s lots of others out there. I don’t know, F45 is one also. But anyways, these could be great ways for patients who are appropriate, right? This is a conversation that you would need to have with your patient to make sure that this is indeed a good choice. But these kinds of environments again can be very encouraging for patients.
And one of the nice things about this, you could take it both ways. With a group exercise program, someone else is planning the workout. Like they are leading the class in this is what we are doing. Now, I don’t want you to completely take a backseat and say, well, they’ve got it handled, they’re probably good. As long as they’re participating in the class, I really don’t need to know about it, like whatever, cool.
I’m gonna push back on that, here’s why. A lot of programs do a good job of training their staff who are ultimately leading these group exercise programs and writing the protocols. They do a good job in, okay, you know, like here’s modifications, you know, either up or down. Like if you need to regress it because it’s too hard, if you need to progress it because it’s too easy, like here are options. But for the patient who maybe is coming back,
from a cancer diagnosis has undergone cancer treatment and is dealing with the side effects and impairments associated with those, they may not be completely appropriate to dive back in to a more intense class or even a class by themselves for the first time. And so I think a really good opportunity in clinic would be, or wherever you’re talking to them, would be to have a conversation on what are some things that you
are able to do. What are some things that maybe you need to stay away from? Here are ways to talk to your group class instructor on, hey, I am unable to do this, this, and this. What are some modifications for me? And so that’s, I think, a great way that we as the physical therapist can maybe even, once we establish that, hey, my patient is going to this program, I know where they’re going, I know who they’re going to be seeing,
I could then maybe, you could maybe then make a connection with that group X instructor or whatever that ends up being and having a conversation, having a dialogue and maybe opening up a potential relationship in the community with, hey, I know that my patient and maybe patients further on down the road are going to want to get back to exercise.
but I wanna make sure that they’re safe. And so working with that, again, whether that’s a personal trainer or a group exercise instructor, to have that open communication pathway I think is really important. And who knows, they might even refer you patients back at some point. So that could totally be a cool
Now, if maybe you have a patient who’s not ready to fully integrate back into those community group exercise programs, or maybe is not interested in participating in that kind of a program, they may enjoy group classes in a different capacity. So Moving Beyond Cancer Collaborative, they’re based in Austin, Texas, but they provide group classes to cancer survivors basically across the globe.
If you go to their website, which I have also linked in the blog post for this podcast episode, so TheOncoPT.com/303 you’ll find that link as well. And I’ve linked their schedule and they have weekly classes, both online and in person. So again, even if you’re not in Austin, Texas, your patients can still benefit from this. And I believe it’s on a donation basis. So basically like if you’re able to,
please give because that helps pay the instructors to ultimately keep these classes available to the public, which is really, really cool. So again, that’s the Moving Beyond Cancer Collaborative. Highly encourage you, if you haven’t checked them out, definitely do. I have referred patients to them for their different programs and even like as far back as like 2020.
during COVID when they really got this off the ground, they were reaching people across the United States and across the globe with these programs. So this is really cool. And they have a lot of really trained, experienced instructors for this oncology patient population. So again, fabulous place to start. Definitely check it out. And then the last little bit that I have for this podcast episode is kind of a grab bag.
And I titled this fun and creative exercise methods because sometimes it’s just fun to change things up and try something different. The first thing that kind of came to mind with just like fun exercise was dancing and while dancing could totally be like a group exercise program. So, for example, maybe your patients really into dance and they want to take a tap class or a lyrical dancing class. Amazing. Or ballroom.
Ballroom, right? That’s a big one. I was recently introduced to the word called balter or baltering. And if you haven’t heard of this word before, let me enlighten you because it’s now my favorite word. Balter means to dance gracelessly without particular art or skill, but perhaps with some enjoyment. Pause. Side note. If you ever see me out in the wild,
dancing, it is baltering because I dance with abandon. Nothing is cool about it. Okay. This is not a step up situation. I flail as much, if not more than I actually like quote dance. And I love it. It just gives me such freedom. And so for me, this baltering would be a great way for me to get in some active movements. So again, if your patient,
enjoys moving their body around, maybe this is a good opportunity for them to, if they’re not one to go out and do a dance class, maybe they could do that inside their home. Again, YouTube, there are many different dance videos online that are designed to be like dance exercise classes. That’s a good way to have fun. Whether that’s like a jazzercise,
Again, I’m trying to think of words here while I’m dancing on screen. Maybe it’s a jazzercise, maybe it’s a Zumba, maybe it’s a lyrical, more artistic style of dancing, right? Maybe even ballet or tap or jazz dancing. There’s lots of different opportunities out there, both in person but also virtual, that patients can participate in that maybe, again, would really connect with.
I really enjoy doing this, but it doesn’t always translate to, I can go to the gym and, you know, dance on the treadmill for an hour. Like that doesn’t, not exactly the same thing. Or they can do this within the privacy and security of their own home and not have anybody watch them balter and flail around. Just turn up the music real loud and dance your pants off. Again.
just a different way of getting some active movements in, and that would totally count towards their cardio movement, right? Also, it’d probably work a little balance, which my patients need a lot of right now. Next one, AllTrails. AllTrails is an app and a website where you can search for nearby trails in your area, and it allows you to filter for distance and difficulty, and it even allows people to rate the trail, which is pretty cool.
Again, more things that I learned today. This is a great way for you and your patients to get out into the community and still have, you know, like nature time and time among the grass and the trees without having to maybe drive hundreds or thousands of miles to get to a state or a national park, which is really, really great. Last little bit here would be walking tours. This kind of falls.
under the hiking, sort of, kind of depending on where you are. But larger towns and cities will often host free walking tours through the city. And so that could be a really great way. And my husband is totally rolling his eyes somewhere at me suggesting this, because this is like, again, a major nerd moment. If your patient really likes history and learning about places and getting plugged into the community and meeting other people,
this could be a great way for them. Because again, a lot of these times, a lot of the times these tours are led by some kind of a tour guide or someone who is official with the walking tour. And so they oftentimes will lead this and give you, you know, fun facts about the history of the buildings that you’re walking around. And personally, I think that is really cool because I love architecture and history and just being a nerd in the process. So anyways, that’s kind of the last little
suggestion I had for this. All in all, home exercise programs do not and should not be boring. We really, as a community, as a profession, need to move away from handing out these very generic home exercise programs without thought for a patient. If your patient is someone who enjoys the structure of knowing
this exercise needs to be done this many times a day, exactly this way, and is okay with having a drawing again from 1983 on there, cool, amazing. But a lot of your patients probably don’t vibe with that. A lot of your patients probably need a different way to engage them in physical activity and exercise. Now I understand.
If you are working on a very specific impairment, then yes, we need specific home exercise programs for that. But if you’re working on just trying to increase their activity levels or increase the amount of time that they’re spending doing aerobic exercise or resistance training, how can we jazz it up? How can we spice it up to make it so that it’s not three sets of 10, three times a day, boring, right? Boring. Let’s make it exciting because again, remember, especially during these summer months,
you are competing with all the other things that your patients have going on. Heck, the whole year, you’re competing with all kinds of different things for your patient’s attention and their time so that they will actually sit down or stand up and commit to doing whatever home exercise program you have set them out, okay?
While some patients are going to do just fine with doing the handout exactly as we’ve always done, that is not always going to work for patients. And we need to be flexible and we need to approach each patient as a completely different person with different interests and different disinterests and work together to find a home exercise program that is enjoyable and engaging for them and is helping them achieve and work towards achieving their functional mobility goals.
We have covered a lot of different ideas and suggestions today, but I wanna know now what are some unique ways that you have spiced up your patient’s home exercise programs? I want to hear from you, so I want you to reach out to me. I want you to message me on Instagram. You can go to instagram .com slash ViancopT, and that will pull up my profile right there. And I want you to message me,
What are those unique home exercise programs that you have implemented with your patients? What are some unique ways that you have spiced up your home exercise programs from being just the regular old boring black and white handouts from 1983? Please message me on Instagram. I’m looking forward to hearing about those. And maybe we’ll do like a follow -up episode on what are some of those other ideas that we can share with our community here on the Onco PT podcast. So,
Don’t forget to message me on Instagram. I cannot wait to hear from you on all of your unique and fun home exercise program stuff. But until then, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.