Welcome to the Survivor Strong Strength Training Team
We would like to invite you to work with the Survivor Strong Strength Training Team to build some muscles, improve your metabolic health and consider a few lifestyle choices that could make your body less hospitable to cancer and other chronic diseases. We want to help you Build Muscle For Life.
Our Mission
Fighting the war on Sarcopenia by Building Muscle for Life.
The Survivor Strong program is a guided online strength training program to build muscle mass and improve metabolic health. We aim to help people increase lean muscle mass and promote a healthy lifestyle using exercise, diet, sleep optimization, and stress reduction.
Exercise helps people even if they don’t lose weight. Exercise is a powerful tool to improve metabolic fitness. What does that mean? Aerobic exercise and strength training lower the chemicals in the body such as glucose, insulin growth factor 1, insulin and inflammation markers that when elevated contribute to cancer and metabolic dysfunction in the body. Exercise can lower the risk of chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Strength training exercise lowers the risk and severity of lymphedema (swelling in the arm from lymph node removal) in breast cancer patients. Aerobic exercise lowers anxiety and depression. Both types of exercise decrease cancer related fatigue, improve quality of life, improve sleep, and bone health.
Coach Dave Spitz, International Olympic Weightlifting Coach/ Owner of California Strength and Dr. Natalie Marshall, Breast Medical Oncologist, Integrative Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine Physician
Introduction video and exercise videos:
“We want your muscles to be in charge, not your fat tissue.”
Natalie Marshall, M.D - Medical Oncologist
What is Sarcopenia?
Sarcopenia is low muscle mass and is associated with increased overall mortality. Sarcopenia happens with aging, inactivity and chronic health conditions. Cancer patients with sarcopenia have a higher cancer specific mortality rate as well. Strength training is the best way to increase muscle mass and fight sarcopenia. It also improves muscle strength that can be used to do aerobic exercise.
Strength training helps people with coordination, balance, bone strength, flexibility, and it also makes people less likely to fall.
See why Coach Dave Spitz, Olympic Weightlifting Coach and Survivor Strong Co-Founder, and Dr. Marshall developed the Survivor Strong Strength Training Program. Coach Spitz goes into more detail about the program here:
Physical Activity Guideline for Americans
Exercise experts recommend the following exercise structure for healthy people and for people with a cancer diagnosis. These are goals to work towards.
150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic activity
a minimum of two sessions a week of strength training
Moderate exercise is when you can talk but cannot sing , such as brisk walking or moderate paced bike riding. Intense exercise is when you cannot carry on a normal conversation while exercising, such as while running or swimming.
Do not feel discouraged if you are unable to complete the above amounts of exercise. Even 5 minutes a day is helpful. The highest benefit is seen in the person who goes from doing nothing to doing something. As you get stronger you can do more!
“NEVER DO NOTHING!!” - Coach Dave Spitz
The FemStrong Strength Training Team programming provides three days a week of strength training programming. You can start with your body weight and add weight as you get stronger. The exercises can be scaled ( less expansive or more expansive ) to provide a version of the exercise for any level of fitness.
In addition to the 3 days of strength training there are two days a week of mobility, yoga or stress reduction programing. We recommend to record you steps per day in the app and try to get 10,000 steps per day.
A foam roller is helpful to help with mobilization of the muscles and connective tissue which will help relieve soreness of the muscles.
We encourage you to track everything you do in the Survivor Strong App so you will be able to see your progress and so you can be encouraged by your accomplishments in building strength, balance, flexibility and endurance.
We want to be your partners in health and motivate you to Build Muscle For Life!
Survivor Strong STRENGTH TRAINING TEAM
Coach David Spitz
Dave Spitz is the owner and head strength and conditioning coach of California Strength, a facility in San Ramon, CA that specializes in human performance. He is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and holds the distinction of a USA Weightlifting Senior International Coach. Since 2008, California Strength has produced numerous NFL Athletes, world class Olympic weightlifters and helped people around the world achieve their goals through various online programs. His experience and knowledge in human performance has helped guide the development of the Survivor Strong program.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
University of Southern California
Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
USA Weightlifting Senior International Coach
Dr. Natalie Marshall
Dr. Natalie Marshall is a board-certified Medical Oncologist and Breast Cancer specialist and an integrative oncologist and Lifestyle Medicine physician. She was voted a Top Doc in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in San Francisco Bay Area and elected by her peers to Leading Physicians of the World. Dr. Marshall in intensely interested in the effect of lifestyle modifications on quality of life and recurrence risk reduction in cancer patients and in the prevention of cancer in unaffected individuals. It motivated her to approach Dave Spitz to design a strength training program for risk reduction and prevention. Survivor Strong is that skill translated for patients so access to this important treatment is available to anyone regardless of place of residence, financial resources, or fitness level.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Breast Medical Oncologist, University of California San Francisco
Medical School: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Fellowship in Medical Oncology: Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut
Fellowship in Integrative Medicine - Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of San Francisco.