The FORCE Program: The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise [Hardcover]

Jeff Berman (Author), Fran Fleegler (Author), John Hanc (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

In your hands right now is the FORCE to fight back against cancer. FORCE (an acronym for Focus on Rehabilitation and Cancer Education) is a new, comprehensive lifestyle approach to cancer treatment. Clinically proven, endorsed by growing numbers of doctors at leading cancer centers, designed for easy at-home use, the FORCE program works in tandem with traditional cancer treatments to boost your overall health, make you stronger and fitter, and put you back in control of your life.

FORCE was created from the experience of cancer survivor and author Jeff Berman who decided to put his own physical fitness conditioning to work in fighting the disease. From this simple but revolutionary concept evolved the complete program of exercise, diet, and stress management known as FORCE. Over the past five years, Berman has turned FORCE into the nation’s most successful and most accessible cancer treatment program, with referrals coming from world-renowned hospitals. Now, in collaboration with oncologist Dr. Fran Fleegler, M.D., and veteran fitness writer John Hanc, Berman has brought the FORCE program home . . . to the home of any cancer patient battling the disease.

Thanks to the FORCE program, hundreds of cancer patients in the New York area have already experienced dramatic improvements in every aspect of their lives, both physical and emotional. Now it’s your turn. This book takes you step by step through a special exercise and activity program tailored to the needs and abilities of all patients, from those who are bedridden to those who are trained athletes. You’ll learn how to redesign your diet quickly and economically to maximize your body’s ability to fight the cancer, with tips on shopping, food preparation, and dealing with restaurants. Here, too, is a complete guide to stress management that will teach you how to change your physical and emotional response to pain, tension, and upsetting situations. You don’t need a gym, a clinic, or any special equipment for the FORCE program–just a willingness to try the movements and information contained in the book.

Your body can fight cancer if you give it a fighting chance with exercise. That’s what The FORCE Program is all about. Upbeat, informative, full of easy-to-use advice and inspirational success stories, The FORCE Program is exactly what you need to start feeling better today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Exercise and lifestyle play important roles in preventing cancer, so it's only logical that they benefit cancer treatment as well. The FORCE Program (FORCE is an acronym for "Focus on Rehabilitation and Cancer Education") shows cancer survivors the best ways to exercise, eat right, and reduce stress to assist healing. "The FORCE program is a plan for living and dealing optimistically and actively with cancer," write the authors (Jeff Berman, cancer survivor, marathon runner, and founder of the FORCE program; oncologist Fran Fleegler; and fitness writer John Hanc), who give a motivating pep talk to get you ready for "lift off," then help you plan for a change. The exercise program is simple and structured: walking plus seven illustrated strength and flexibility exercises for four to six weeks, with more added as you progress. The nutrition program emphasizes foods that have been found to have cancer-fighting properties. The authors also describe several stress-management exercises. If you're already a committed exerciser, you're likely to find this program too elementary, but if you're a cancer survivor who needs encouragement and a plan, this book will get you exercising, eating better, and enjoying your life more. --Joan Price

From Library Journal

Berman was physically fit when he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1990, and he found that being physically active through everyday activities and exercise helped him in his fight against cancer. In 1994, Berman and Fred Lebow, founder of the New York Road Runners Club, established the first exercise support group for people with cancer, which became the FORCE (Focus on Rehabilitation and Cancer Education) Program a few years later. This book by Berman, oncologist Fran Fleegler, and fitness writer John Hanc tells cancer patients how they can help themselves by making gradual lifestyle changes in exercise, diet, and stress management. This book does not claim that doing so will cure cancer but suggests that patients will be in a better position to fight cancer when they strengthen their bodies and minds in conjunction with cancer treatments prescribed by their doctors. Included are illustrated exercise suggestions, nutrition tips, sample menus, and relaxation techniques, as well as a chapter on the K-FORCE Program for Children and a section of cancer resources. This inspirational and easy-to-follow book is recommended for all public libraries and other libraries with consumer health collections. (Index not seen.) Samantha J. Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345440889
• ISBN-13: 978-0345440884
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,675,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Force Program, October 3, 2001

By 

D. Leslie Winter (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The FORCE Program: The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise (Hardcover)

For the first time ever in print, The FORCE PPROGRAM puts the battle plan in cancer patients hands for defeating the disease and overcoming the side-effects of treatment.

Over and over again, cancer patients hear that they should exercise or be active, to improve their nutrition and eat better and to reduce their stress and not worry so much. They are told this all the time; they are never shown how to do this. The FORCE PROGRAM takes them by the hand, in a simple step by step method, and shows them how to incorporate exercise, improve their nutrition and reduce their stress in their every day lives. The book is intended to assist patients currently battling the disease and those who have been in remission for years. The program has helped children as young as 4 and as old as 86.

In simple terms, if you follow the recommendations the FORCE PROGRAM offers, you will be stronger, fitter and mentally prepared to defeat cancer and be even healthier than you were before being diagnosed.

The author Jeff Berman, uses his 11 year experience battling chronic leukemia with his own "FORCE" program. He developed this plan in combination with hundreds of cancer patients he's been involved with and professionals from the worlds of exercise, nutrition and psychology. You don't need a gym to perform many of the exercises the book recommends, most homes will have everything you will need.

With graduates as living proof and a rapidly growing body of evidence, doctors are starting to see the positive effects of exercise and are working in tandom with patients who will work toward full recovery. The FORCE Program helps you get there.

For the eight most common forms of cancer, especially breast and prostate, the FORCE Program will take you through a step by step plan, specifically by your treatment regime, for aerobic and strength training exercises and nutritional recommendations. The program shows you how to workout, when to workout, and the duration and frequency. This is in conjunction with nutritional modifications incorporated into the program.

For anyone currently battling cancer, finished with treatment or just about to start, if it's a loved one, someone you barely know, a child or grandparent the FORCE PROGRAM can make this difficult experience of having cancer a lot easier. I urge you to buy this book today; we all are touched by cancer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Force of Personality, October 9, 2001

By 

Fiona Bayly (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The FORCE Program: The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise (Hardcover)

If you have ever met the author, as I have been astronomically lucky to do, you would agree that it it Jeff Berman's force of personality which brings his book such vitality.

Jeff's truest colors leap off the page during his descriptions of his hope, his curiosity, and his dogged drive to learn something right or to do something right or to help someone else feel something right. His book is infused with the careful urgency couched in the goofy and lovable persona that is Jeff.

His path is fascinating, and his counsel is sound, most notably the admonition that cancer care must zero in on the patient, the human being, and not just on the cancer itself. I knew of Jeff's road running and triathloning, and I've seen him sweat buckets of hope and fortitude. A decade ago, I observed the Fred Lebow Jeff describes, the famous Romanian character who ran his way through a surprising few extra years, away - temporarily - from brain cancer.

Good humor and hard physical work seem to work. Jeff's book provides superb examples of both.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, A great primer!, October 8, 2001

By 

Douglas Kalman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The FORCE Program: The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise (Hardcover)

As a Registered Dietitian who worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and who has been intimately invovled with The Force Program (since its inception), I highly recommend this book. It is jam packed with great information, easy to read and what's better, the information is easy to apply to your life now, today. If you have cancer or care for someone who has, get them this text, being physically active, mentally strong and eating well will only help to gain a lease on a longer lasting, quality filled life.

This is a book that needs to be read.