Training someone with cancer. (Redux)

[JM3]

I got some good advice and encouragement when I brought this up before. So I wanted to drop in and ask for more.

This person is amazing me. She is coming straight from treatments and tearing it up. The lifting seems to cause the nausea to go away. Right now the treatments are ramping up and I am trying to throw things in that will be good for her morale. And this is why I decided to ask for opinion on something I've been doing,

her lifts aren't moving- it's the chemo, but she digs progress. So, I decided to throw in some singles and doubles to give her some PRs. So far so good- she is loving til This is not a lazy client.

Is there a reason not to do this? Following are her stats lifts
42 140lbs.

Work sets
Squats 135
Press 75
Bench 75
Deadlift 165

Some maxes we have done.
Squat 150
Deadlift 185
Press 95

She isn't done with linear progression- it's the chemo. and normally I wouldn't do something like this - but it's pumping her up and she is maintaining her work sets. We could Deload - but it doesn't feel right for the personality vis a vis the situation.

Is there a better way? Would switching to 6 sets of 3 and trying to eke out progress make more sense ( my assumption is that volume is harder to recover from and she needs to save energy for recovery from treatments)

I would enjoy reading any suggestions on how to do this better- or, more importantly any warning on why hitting some heavy sets would not be good.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You're going to have to feel your way through this, but my advice is to put her on a cycle of some sort that corresponds to the chemo. She will be strongest right before her next treatment and shittiest right after. Depending on her schedule, you need to load according to her treatment proximity. She's on a 2/3/or 4-week cycle, so periodize accordingly.

[Oldman]

You're going to have to feel your way through this, but my advice is to put her on a cycle of some sort that corresponds to the chemo. She will be strongest right before her next treatment and shittiest right after. Depending on her schedule, you need to load according to her treatment proximity. She's on a 2/3/or 4-week cycle, so periodize accordingly.

JM3, Rip is totally right on with this advice. I think I posted on your last thread, but the periodization approach around her chemo schedule is the way to go. I did this during chemo: you can look my approach over at http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=40279. My chemo cycle was every three weeks, so I did two weeks of Callador's 4x4, working up to a heavy double, and then doing back off 4x4 sets (last one was actually an AMRAP, until it was too hard to do because of the chemo). The week after my treatment was my deload week. So it was two weeks on, one week off. The heavy double and 4x4s were just right for my level of endurance/fatigue.

In fact, now, after chemo and after my surgery, I went through several weeks of SS LP and then back to the 4x4 plan, due to my persisting endurance issues due to the surgery and recovery. I may even be able to start PRing this summer.

You are doing a great thing for your friend. Thanks, man.

[Oldman]

I wanted to also add that I PR'd my squat (not great at 370x1, but for an old guy like me, it was cool) during chemo. This actually kept me positive and focused on recovering from the surgery I was going to have, so that I could get back to lifting. I don't know if this is medically sound, as I am not a doctor, but for me it was psychologically necessary.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

This is great fodder for a case report. Just sayin'.

[David Kirkham]

I wanted to also add that I PR'd my squat (not great at 370x1, but for an old guy like me, it was cool) during chemo. This actually kept me positive and focused on recovering from the surgery I was going to have, so that I could get back to lifting. I don't know if this is medically sound, as I am not a doctor, but for me it was psychologically necessary.

Holy cow. You give me hope man!

[JM3]

This is great fodder for a case report. Just sayin'.

Thanks guys. It's helpful and yeah, I'm feeling my way which is why I deviated- sense that PRs help fight the depression as well as be maybe a little easier to recover from. Old man- nice validation for me there.thanks.

But Sully, aside from logs what type of stuff would be helpful to document that would be generally useful? I wonder if some of these anecdotes would serve as basis for a good article for people dealing with cancer.

In massage school we had the living shit scared out of us with respect to working on people with cancer, all of that has been reversed. You can massage normally for most stages and types of cancer.

For Parkinson's it used to be that people were encouraged to take it easy to avoid falls. We basically saw most symptoms of that disease go into remission by the second month, presses that used to collapse in spasms - now fly up at double weight.

Big medicine indeed.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

But Sully, aside from logs what type of stuff would be helpful to document that would be generally useful?

Logs, videos, interviews. By "case report" I meant perhaps a short article for this or some other site; you'd have to clear that with Rip, of course.

I wonder if some of these anecdotes would serve as basis for a good article for people dealing with cancer.

This is an interrogative of the self-responding genre.

Big medicine indeed.

What is this "Big Medicine" thing I keep hearing about?