GIBSONIA, Allegheny County — Even though Lisa Bernardo is a Penn State Master Gardener Butler County Class of 2003, she doesn't really have time to stop and smell the roses.

That's because she's also a Pilates instructor and studio owner, certified cancer exercise trainer, nursing consultant, owner of a garden design business and author of a newly published book touting the benefits of exercise for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Bernardo said for cancer survivors physical activity and exercise can help ease symptoms, reduce fatigue and improve not only treatment outcomes but quality of life.

It all started, Bernardo said, when she was teaching nursing at the School of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh.

“I was teaching yoga classes at the nursing school, and I noticed some students were having difficulty with the yoga poses,” Bernardo said.

They turned out to be cancer survivors who had never gotten any rehabilitation after their surgeries, Bernardo said.

“Oncology nurses came to me and said, 'We need somebody to integrate physical activity into cancer care,'” Bernardo said.

This started her down a road that led to her own recently published book, she said.

She wrote the book “Physical Activity into Cancer Care: An Evidence Based Approach” with co-author Betsy J. Becker.

“The two fields were compartmentalized. This puts the two of them together,” Bernardo said.

“When you are a cancer patient, there are so many things out of your control,” she said. “With exercise, the more you can do going forward puts you in control. It can also be a metal boost. 'Oh, I can do that' leads to a positive feedback loop.”

Physical activity can start with something as simple and brief as going to your mail box, she said.

Breast cancer survivor Mary Triulzi of Allison Park, Allegheny County, finished her last cancer treatment in 2008, joined Bernardo's Pilates studio the next year and has been going to twice-weekly sessions ever since.

Triulzi, who underwent chemotherapy following a bilateral mastectomy, said, “You lose your hair, your immune system is suppressed. You are tired and lethargic because your body is working overtime.”

“It was after the chemotherapy sessions that I knew I wanted to retain my mobility,” she said.

“Due to the chemo, it was a full year before I joined a (Pilates) studio.”

At first, Triulzi said, just going for a walk for four or five minutes proved exhausting.

And, Triulzi remembered, she had it easy during chemotherapy.

“I never really got sick. I just remember being fatigued,” she said.

That's why Pilates has been so good for her, she believes.

“You are engaging your core muscles for overall strength. It strengthens your balance and endurance for anything,” Triulzi said.

Starting out small with exercise dovetails perfectly with gardening, Bernardo said. “It's snipping and reaching to pick flowers. It's listening to your body.”

Pilates helps Triulzi when she is doing her own gardening, she said.

“I can just go all day. I know what muscles to use,” she said.

Triulzi had two bouts of cancer, one in 1998 and a second bout in 2007 that required more drastic surgery.

Bernardo said survivors can combine physical activity and exercise with gardening, she said.

Bernardo said, “I always liked to garden. It was always something I wanted to do.”

Bernardo said to become a Master Gardener, she had to interview, take a pretest, go through eight or nine months of education and then take another test. Prospective Master Gardeners also have to put in volunteer hours on Butler County projects.

She and her husband garden on one and a half acres where they have flowers, shrubs and fruit trees, as well as chickens and bees.

“It's all about the bees. Our yard's ecosystem is the plants feed the bees and the bees feed the plants,” Bernardo said.

She gardens all year round tending to her hellebore and witch hazel in the winter.

“Cancer patients should not be afraid of the outdoors,” Bernardo said. “One day you are picking flowers and the next you are using a hand trowel.”

Either way, she said, it benefits both the garden and the gardener.