Muscle tone for the flat-chested

I have started strengthening my upper body, and what you mention is certainly one of my concerns. Right now it has not gone further than a bit of stretching on a daily basis, because of the stupid LE, but I intend to work up to more.

My PT seemed really into swimming and water exercise for this purpose. 

I'm thin & my ribs stuck out so bad you could play them like guitar stings. Maybe they still do & it no longer bothers me. Due to genetic predisposition, I don't think it's possible for me to develop enough muscle to make much of a differrence. I work out my upper body, weights,machines,classes & occasionally TRX(but that's pricey around here). I swim & it seems to keep my arms & chest limber. My thin arms are toned & I have been able to avoid the tricep jiggle(for now). Hoping to keep my belly fairly flat, but realize this may be a losing battle.....but since there are many benefits of exercise...... I'll keep at it.

Good luck with your muscle building(I have to admit, I'm jealous of those who can pull it off)

Nibbana,

I understand what you mean, the pec muscle should be strong and defined. Men do it. I have been gradually working on that very thing, light weights, jog/walk 80 minutes every 2 days...my oncologist told me to "go for it" that I should be fine as long as I don't clean the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. I am already thin, but I lift groceries, the laundry, drag suitcases across the airport...I try not to favor that arm.

Good luck, like to hear how it's working out.

Rianne

I think though that men are able to pump up the shape of their pec muscles through a combination of testoterone and protien.

Lovegolf, can you describe why?

Hi Ladies, I've been doing exercise since 4 weeks post-surgery (BMX-9/20/11)with some breaks when I was too fatigued. I use LAT pull down, rowing machine, push ups using an exercise ball in front of me on the wall, sit ups/crunches, lunges, hand weights starting at 1lb & going up a lb every few weeks. I go back down if any soreness or if I take any breaks. I've notice my chest skin/muscle isn't as loose & when I flex I see a bit of a muscle bulge. I'm optimistic that over time I'll see more improvement unless the gravity of aging wins out.

yeah...I saw a personal trainer who would help target my upper body.  I also found it better and that I was more likely to go and stay with it if I had a trainer.  My trainer has been great. He understands how I felt ...he has an artifical leg. So when I get to feeling sorry for myself or like I want to quit I look at him and go on.

I have been with him since Dec 2011. I could only barely lift a 2 pound hand weight ..now I up to over 40 pound. Have lost weight and really toned up.

I do not think my chest has changed that much as how it looks...put with weight dropping and arms etc looking better I feel better. I notice I walk more upright.

I have done this!

And I have lymphedema!

I started working on my pecs a little more than I would have done otherwise when I was maybe 6 months out from the end of all treatment.  I already had lymphedema.  Lymphedema is interesting.  All of you who have it know this, but those of you who don't: everybody's is different.  What prompts a flare for one person maybe does not for the next.  It definitely makes sense to proceed very slowly with any weight program if you don't have lymphedema or do have it but don't know how your body responds yet.  

The lymphedema board here has some folks who contribute regularly who are absolutely studs in terms of knowledge, and there's a great website, StepUp-SpeakOut, about lymphedema.  

Anyway, I started working my pecs by myself, but have also worked some with a personal trainer.  I find there are two things a personal trainer does for you that you can't do by yourself: 

1) Challenge you with a wide range of exercises so that you are both challenging the muscle in slightly different ways but also staying  mentally involved.  I find that when I try to do exercises from a book or something I never know if my form is quite right so that makes me nervous.

 2) Assist you to do reps past the point of exhaustion.  Say I can do 8 reps with good form of an exercise but simply can't lift it for a 9th - muscle building gets a lot out of doing a 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, etc with progressively more assistance from the trainer.  Doing that is something I started after having lymphedema a year and never having seen a flare from lifting (I wear a sleeve 100% of my waking hours that are not spent in water).  I would NOT push it that hard fresh out of the gate.

You can see the form of my pecs through my shirt.  I am slender, so that helps.  And no steroids or protein supplements here.  Sometimes I eat a little fish after a big workout.

Coraleliz,

I have seen quite a bit of a lymphedema therapist and relied on her to get back into exercising.  When I started seeing the personal trainer, I was confident that I could be the one calling the shots about what might be too much for my bad arm/axilla.  I just found one at the health club where I belong.  I don't know where I could find one with experience with BC either.

The whole issue of exercise after treatment, and especially exercise with lymphedema, is complicated.  There was a tremendous change a few years ago in there general recommendations after one small study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That study suggested that exercise was beneficial, not harmful, for lymphedema.  Prior to the study medical practitioners who cared enough to mention lymphedema would tell people things like they have a lifelong 10 lb lifting restriction.  Since that study, some practitioners still talk that way, while some give people a green light to go do whatever they want.  The problem is, the truth is probably somewhere in-between.  There's still not a ton of research about exercise and lymphedema, lymphedema is a very poorly-researched field in general, and the care or not-care we get after treatment related to lymphedema is all over the map.    

It's complicated even more by the problem that "lymphedema therapist" is not a term that automatically means a person has a certain amount of experience and qualification.  You don't need a certain history of education or experience to say that you are one.  There is argument about this in the physical therapy community, and there are several organizations that offer training and certifications, but there is no one over-riding governing body that does a good job controlling an integration of training, continuing education and clinical assessment for lymphedema therapists.  

Anyway, if my personal trainer wanted me to do something and my bad arm was not working, I'd just say it.  I just told him "It's weak, I think there's nerve damage" and we went from there.  The bad arm got a lot more assistance from  him than the good one.  I told him very matter-of-factly that I wanted to build my pecs because I didn't have a chest anymore and he just kind of said "OK."  I never actually told him why.  We talked a little about my lymphedema and my sleeve, which I'm comfortable talking about at this point because I get asked at least once a day.  I told him I'd let him know if we did anything that caused problems, but nothing did.  My lymphedema is at this point stable and minimal, and my flares with exercise have been with things where my arms are in a low position while I exert myself, like hiking.   

Do you have a sleeve to wear for exercise?  I'm pretty sure all the research was done with women wearing sleeves, and that's a good first step to take. 

I think it's really wrong that it's not standard of care for every person at risk for lymphedema  to see a lymphedema therapist at least once or twice for an assessment and to talk about prevention and what to do if anything happens.

Good luck everyone with this.  I'm sure some of whether it can be done is genetic too.