It’s a rainy Thursday morning in June, and despite the weather, Vitalis and companion-in-arms Corrinne Swanson are laughing and kidding each other as they balance on Bosu Balls, do squats with kettlebells, step-ups and shoulder presses under the supervision of their trainer. We’re inside the beautiful Saddletowne YMCA, which is in Vitalis’s neighbourhood, making her regular attendance at the BEAUTY program much easier. “When the opportunity arose and they told me I could come to the university or to the Genesis Centre, I thought that was wonderful, it’s closer, it’s in my neighbourhood.”
Studying the feasibility of local programming
Putting programs like the BEAUTY program in neighbourhoods across Alberta is the point of a new pilot program called the Alberta Cancer Exercise (ACE) program. The program is a partnership between Alberta Health Services, the University of Alberta, the YMCA and the University of Calgary, and the goal is to study the benefits and feasibility of this type of community programming.
The BEAUTY program was created by kinesiology researcher Nicole Culos-Reed, PhD, who has focused her research program on taking what she has learned into the community. The challenge has been finding the funding to give instructors the personalized training and to provide convenient locations in the city. The initial BEAUTY project at the YMCA was funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-Prairies Chapter. For the past four years the program was funded by Wings of Hope. Culos-Reed is hopeful that the ACE program might lead to a sustainable future for valuable programs like BEAUTY.
“What we’ve found in our research is that individuals who are less than 10 kilometres from the program site are more likely to come twice a week than individuals who live greater than that distance,” explains Culos-Reed. “So we know that if we build it, they will come. If it’s in their own community we remove the barrier and increase adherence. If we improve adherence, then we know participants will actually see the benefits of exercise.”
Participants experience better health, less fatigue, sense of control
The benefits are both physical and emotional, and proven by Culos-Reed, who also holds appointments with the Cumming School of Medicine, is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research institute, the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, and is a research associate at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre.
Besides providing better long-term health outcomes, and helping with fatigue, the exercise program gives participants the feeling that they have some control over their bodies again, which many feel they have completely lost. It’s one reason the Saddletowne “Y” became involved in the ACE project.
“It’s been really inspiring,” says Kaia Kjar, the fitness director with the Saddletowne YMCA. “Just seeing the ladies coming into the program, many of them exercising for the first time and learning to connect with their bodies, and to take back control in a situation where they may have felt they were losing control. It’s been really, really inspiring to see some people working their way through the challenges and finding support amongst fellow survivors.”
Perhaps it is the importance that the participants place on the program that makes them willing to share their personal pain with the world, spreading the word about the benefits of a program like BEAUTY. As the workout comes to a close, Swanson pauses on her way out the door. “It strikes me,” she says, “if I hadn’t happened to look at the BEAUTY program pamphlet, I would have never discovered this and it’s so important.”