Table 4.

Themes, quotes, and codes from qualitative interviews representing influences on physical activity and exercise.

Facilitators of physical activity and exercise
Category/Theme	Representative quotes	Associated codes
Disease-related motivation	“I believed in exercise, and I knew I was being attacked, and it seems like exercise was a reasonable way that I could try to make myself stronger.” –Female, 63 years old “My mindset was, ‘I had a month to prepare my body for surgery,’ and I wanted to get as strong as I possibly could.” –Female, 63 years old “You hit me at a time when all my synapses were firing like crazy. When the hospital offered me an exercise program and I had just got the death certificate that the doctors had diagnosed me with, I got quite motivated.” –Male, 71 years old “I was pretty well out of shape and was getting weaker and had lost some weight. And I needed to do it to strengthen myself. To go through the chemotherapy and the radiation and eventually the surgery.” –Male, 68 years old “I wanted to make sure I was in no worse shape when I got my surgery, or as good of shape as I could possibly be in for my recovery.” –Female, 65 years old “I wanted rid of this disease, so that was my motivation. To get well.” –Female, 74 years old “The sense of urgency and how critical it was, that helped me. The better shape I could be in coming into surgery, the quicker I was going to heal up and get over all of this.” –Male, 64 years old	Facilitator* Preparation for surgery* Improve recovery* Improve fitness* Treatment tolerance* Will to live Hope Commitment Desire to improve
Past exercise experience	“I’ve always been fairly active. So, the transition wasn’t hard.” –Male, 71 years old “I think it certainly helped me, having been used to exercising.” –Male, 77 years old “I always knew the importance of exercising, so that made it easier.” -Male, 80 years old	Facilitator* Routine Regular exercise Exercise history* Personal values*
Encouragement from physicians	“I really did hear the docs saying, ‘The better shape you’re in, the easier it’s going to be for you to recover.’ It motivated me.” –Male, 71 years old “I think each one of the doctors stressed how important it was to stay exercising.” –Male, 77 years old “I needed the support of [my surgeon] saying, ‘This is pretty critical. The stronger you are going into surgery, the stronger you are when you’re going to recover.’” –Male, 77 years old	Facilitator* Accountability* Timing Preparation for surgery* Improve recovery* Treatment tolerance*
Social support from family and friends	“My husband was like my whip. He reminded me every day that maybe I could do X, or maybe I could do Y.” –Female, 63 years old “I’m a very fortunate person. My wife has always been exercising. The community I live in and play golf with and know, they’d kick my butt if I didn’t. That encouragement really helped, because I didn’t want to have to tell them why I didn’t make it.” –Male, 71 years old “My niece and my husband were after me all the time. Telling me that I had to exercise, that I had to move. That helped, because they were there for me.” –Female, 74 years old “I’ve had tons of support. My family, they were the ones who hauled the exercise bike down here for me.” –Female, 74 years old “My wife has had three mini strokes, and every single day, she gets on the treadmill, or she does Pilates, and she does her yoga, without exception. For me, that was something to look up to.” –Male, 59 years old “It would come on the edge of nagging, but you know, [my wife] was right. I begrudgingly did it, but I did do it. She is a valuable asset when it comes to getting something done.” -Male, 80 years old	Facilitator* Spouse* Family* Companionship Accountability* Pushing me Encouragement* Motivation*
Neighborhood walkability and physical activity resources	“I like walking, and that made the walking part desirable. I live in a place that’s pretty, and the walks were a nice, pleasant distraction.” –Female, 63 years old “I remember filling out a form that asked, ‘In your community, is it safe to walk in your streets?’ Well, in my community, I walk right down the center line in the evenings.” –Male, 71 years old “I’m fortunate, because I’ve got a gym in my neighborhood. If I had only the resistance tubes to work with, I don’t know if I could have stayed with a strengthening program.” –Male, 71 years old “I joined a gym and got a trainer, and he helped me with the exercise program. To encourage me to get it done and to give me some more accountability.” –Male, 68 years old	Facilitator* Enjoyment* Neighborhood walkability* Resources Gyms or exercise facilities Location Home environment*
Accountability	“Having to keep a log, be accountable, that was motivational.” –Female, 63 years old “It was tremendous. The diary, the accountability, to track that stuff—it gave me some more motivation to get it done.” –Male, 68 years old “Those relentless reports—you know, every day—you’d always have something to do. It was always on your mind, so it’s not something that you can ignore. And so they helped motivate, too.” -Male, 80 years old “It was something that had to be done. It was a job. It was a commitment. I didn’t feel right unless my exercise was done.” -Male, 80 years old “The phone calls I received following my progress and seeing how I was, that was motivational.” –Female, 63 years old	Facilitator* Accountability* Self-monitoring Motivation* Commitment Follow-up Program staff Coaching Social support*
Barriers to physical activity and exercise
Category/theme	Representative quotes	Associated codes
Treatment	“I had a little trouble after the 10 days of chemo and radiation combination. I didn’t have the motivation or the level that I was able to do a lot.” –Male, 77 years old “On the bad days, there was no exercise. You know, 4 or 5 hours of infusions takes a lot out of you mentally, too. So I wasn’t in the mood for exercising.” –Female, 65 years old “Part of my chemo was the fact that I wore a pump for 3 days. I was really inactive because everything I did pulled on the catheter. The pump wasn’t too heavy, but it wasn’t convenient.” –Female, 65 years old “After chemo and radiation, I didn’t have quite as much energy, and it took a few weeks to kind of get my strength back up.” –Male, 64 years old	Barrier* Variance by treatment phase Fatigue* Chemotherapy* Radiation therapy* Physical or functional limitations* Energy Time* Motivation* Treatment cycles
Weather, logistics, and time	“It was hard to do it here in the extreme heat of summer.” –Female, 63 years old “If it weren’t cold out, I probably would have been a lot more involved than I was.” –Female, 65 years old “What got in the way were fatigue and other tasks, other items I had to take care of during the day. Doctors’ appointments, consults, and other activities.” –Male, 68 years old “There were obstacles. One was travel. If you stop at a motel, you can go into that gym, if they have one, but it’s limited. If you’re traveling as far as I’m traveling, you’ll be tired when you get there, from just sitting there, riding. –Male, 80 years old	Barrier* Weather Climate Time* Fatigue Schedule Obstacles* Barriers* Travel Accommodations Appointments
Lack of social support	“I’m a social person who enjoys exercise accompanied by other people versus alone. Having my husband walk with me was good, but doing the bands alone, I just wasn’t as motivated. It was harder.” –Female, 63 years old “Occasionally someone encouraged me, but otherwise it was, ‘Well, if you don’t do it, you don’t do it.’ I’m not sure there was a lot of encouragement. It was probably that they thought I should be sufficiently motivated on my own.” –Female, 65 years old “Friends were staying away, because they didn’t want to expose me to their colds or germs or anything like that. But I’m much more motivated if I’m in a crowd.” –Female, 65 years old	Barrier* Motivation* Social support* Encouragement* Lack of support Spouse* Family*

^*Denotes a priori codes