Articles

Exercise for Healing

Born to Motivate

NOVA 7 Awards

Strength Training Program Achieves Excellence

Strength Training -
A New Dimension
in Cancer Care

Small Group
Training with
Tubing

A top international business recognition for outstanding innovation in the area of Exercise Programming was awarded to the Cancer Treatment Center's Strength Training Program. They were one of three finalists in the 2002 Nova7Awards competition. Only 20 health/fitness facilities achieved finalist status in the seven categories of competition. Competitors for the award, administered by Fitness Management magazine, included health/fitness facilities ranging from community centers and health clubs to corporate fitness centers and hospital wellness programs throughout the world. Fitness Management, which provides authoritative management and program information to leaders of all types of fitness facilities, drew together a panel of 14 judges from diverse experts in the field.

Dynamic Strength Training™ at SVMC's Cancer Treatment Center is a group exercise program that was designed to give cancer survivors an opportunity to recapture most or all of their strength following radiation, chemotherapy and surgery.

Up to six levels of elastic resistance tubing with handles are used plus lightweight bars, which serve as balance aids and anchors for partner applications. Certified fitness trainer and resistance training specialist Brandon Flowers, BA, RTS, created Dynamic Strength Training™ in 1996 as a means of offering free personalized resistance training instruction once weekly for cancer survivors and their support team. The initial setting was at the Wellness Community- Foothills in Pasadena, CA, a non-profit organization providing complementary supports, information and education to these individuals. Flowers and his business partner, Rick Caputo, RTS, have conducted the program there since 1996.

Their knowledge of biomechanics, exercise physiology and functional anatomy, has enabled them to design programming which is specifically tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the participants without excluding anyone. This prototype had led to other grant-funded programs at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (2001) in Los Angeles and Methodist Hospital (2000) in Arcadia. Participants are referred to the programs by the Wellness Community in Pasadena and Santa Monica, or by their oncologist.