Returning a HS athlete to strength training following cancer treatment

[btchannell]

I am a HS strength coach with a 9th grade athlete that was diagnosed with leukemia in July and spent most of the last 4-5 months in the hospital with treatments of various kinds. He has now be cleared as cancer free. I have my own ideas but would like to take input from educated and experienced coaches as to how to proceed with helping this young athlete return to the weight room and hopefully return to the playing field in the future.

[Tom Campitelli]

Fuck. That is tough for the kid. I wish him well. I would probably do a linear progression with him. I would be conservative with starting weights and increases and keep an eye on how he responds. It is possible that he will do quite well. If he is not recovering, dial back the application of stress. Make sure he eats enough.

[JimtheConquerer]

It seems like he would probably be a good candidate to jump to "situational intermediate" programming like HLM pretty quickly.

[Steve Hill]

It seems like he would probably be a good candidate to jump to "situational intermediate" programming like HLM pretty quickly.

Maybe, maybe not.

OP: What type of treatment did he undergo? Did it affect testosterone production at all? I'm in agreement with Tom that LP for now, provided testosterone production is normal.

[Shaun Pang]

I'm currently training a 36-year-old male who recovered from stage 4 lymphoma. Like Tom said, start him on LP but be conservative. When my client first started out, he had difficulty squatting his own bodyweight.

2 things that I've experienced with this particular client that you might encounter training your athlete.
1. Progress is slower and programming switched to advanced novice quite a fair bit earlier than what I would normally expect from someone his age/sex/height/weight.
2. When he falls sick (flu/diarrhea/colds etc), it takes quite a while to fully recover. When he fully recovers and is back to training, he needs to back off quite a fair bit from the previous session's working weight.

[Jayson Ball]

Good luck to that kid. It's good he has someone like you investing time in him. With your help he can get his life back and kick serious ass in his future.