Women In Steady Exercise Research (WISER) Sister: study design and methods.

Purpose: Women at elevated risk for breast cancer are motivated to reduce their risk. Current approaches rely primarily on hormonal intervention. A preventive exercise intervention might address the same hormonal issues, yet have fewer serious side effects and less negative impact on quality of life as compared to prophylactic mastectomy.

Weight lifting for women at risk for breast cancer-related lymphedema: a randomized trial.

Context: Clinical guidelines for breast cancer survivors without lymphedema advise against upper body exercise, preventing them from obtaining established health benefits of weight lifting.

Objective: To evaluate lymphedema onset after a 1-year weight lifting intervention vs no exercise (control) among survivors at risk for breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL).

Design, Setting, And Participants: A randomized controlled equivalence trial (Physical Activity and Lymphedema trial) in the Philadelphia metropolitan area of 154 breast cancer survivors 1 to 5 years postunilateral breast cancer, with at least 2 lymph nodes removed and without clinical signs of BCRL at study entry.

Weight lifting in women with breast-cancer-related lymphedema.

Background: Weight lifting has generally been proscribed for women with breast-cancer-related lymphedema, preventing them from obtaining the well-established health benefits of weight lifting, including increases in bone density.

Methods: We performed a randomized, controlled trial of twice-weekly progressive weight lifting involving 141 breast-cancer survivors with stable lymphedema of the arm. The primary outcome was the change in arm and hand swelling at 1 year, as measured through displaced water volume of the affected and unaffected limbs.

Physical Activity and Lymphedema (the PAL trial): assessing the safety of progressive strength training in breast cancer survivors.

Lymphedema is a chronic and progressive long-term adverse effect of breast cancer treatment commonly defined by swelling of the affected arm. Current clinical guidelines indicate that women with and at risk for lymphedema should protect the affected arm from overuse. In clinical practice, this often translates into risk aversive guidance to avoid using the arm.

Strength training and adiposity in premenopausal women: strong, healthy, and empowered study.

Background: American women aged 25-44 y gain 0.5-1 kg yearly, most of which is fat. Because few midlife women participate in strength training, this mode of activity may be a novel intervention for preventing age-associated fat increases in this population.