Training someone with cancer.

[JM3]

Ive been training someone with Parkinsons for several months and the progress has been great. not only with weight (20lb- 115lbs squat 40- 175lb deadlift for example) but also, the shakiness has been noticably less and less, I more or lesse spot her normally now. The mood and sense of hope and fight about the disease has been quite heady.

Today, I find out she also has cancer. Ive been pretty motivational so far, but Im suffering from an enthusiasm deficit and just fucking bummed for her.Im out of jokes.

Question: what can we do for people fighting cancer? Does lifting positively affect it in any particular way? Are there resources specific to cancer and strength training you could point me to? Im assuming that programming wouldnt change, but also, Ive wondered if throwing in hypertrophy work wouldnt somehow help. (Appearance based stuff to improve morale during chemo?)

conversely- should we ease off of anything?

She is a fighter and works very hard, how do we help people with this suck shit condition? ready for some good news here....please.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Depends on her diagnosis. Details?

[gormo3]

This may be just just hogwash. But I imagine it could help, strength training, a predominant anaerobic activity, could potentially limit the amount of the free glucose in the body available to the cancer cells. Since cancer cells predominantly use glycolysis (warburg effect) for energy production, it could theoretically(in my mind) limit the cancer cells ability to proliferate and grow. However, I have done no research and I am just throwing out a hypothesis.

[JM3]

Breast. Early, but not super early. Ive started googling, and it looks like strength training is reccomended highly by mainstream sources
Learned some contraindiciations. Seems like maybe chemo will be the challenge for programming.Ive just started looking into it, any help appreciated.thanks.

[JM3]

For example: i have no idea how to wade through a piece like this and seperate out what we are doing from some of these reccs.

http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/exercise/safe

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'll not go into specific details, but we have had some experience with breast cancer in various stages. A ketogenic diet and continued training as chemo and surgery permit has worked to maintain muscle mass and quality of life.

[Manimal]

It's going to be very difficult because of the Chemo. My mom is on Carbo and Taxol for liver+lung cancer, its also a possible treatment for breast cancer as well. She goes every 3-4 weeks for more, she has had to wait a bit longer on some treatments because her blood platelet count was too low. She is down for a solid 7-8 days when she gets back from treatment, and is pretty much stuck in bed because of joint pain and lack of energy for that whole time. After that her energy returns pretty quickly, we usually start her walking on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes at a time. She gets up to 3-4 times a week before she goes back. She does random things around the house to try and keep her mobility up. We never considered strength training because of the fear of bruising from training too hard. One of the side effects of her chemo drugs is a reduced ability for blood to clot. She also tends to get anemic

She drinks most of her calories in a smoothie we make for her daily, its 3 scoops of ON extreme chocolate protein powder, bananas for texture, and almond milk. The nutritionist at her cancer center recommended that she eat .75g of protein per pound of BW per day minimum. The shake contains all of her protein needs so if she doesnt feel like eating the rest of the day she doesnt really have to. We also put liquid vitamin D in the shake because fats really upset her stomach.

TLDR; know the type of chemo she is going to receive and its side effects before making a decision on strength training. Mobility might be your best friend.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

One of my clients is post radical mastectomy and chemo. Doing well.

[Oldman]

I was diagnosed with thymoma (a rare cancer) in 2009 and had open chest surgery to remove the tumor and a piece of lung. Following that, I trained SS and TM, made good progress and got strong, which has served me well. This year, I had a recurrence, and was diagnosed with metastatic thymoma (it's slow growing): I went through chemo, during which I changed my program to fit the chemo schedule, and even PR'd my squat at 370x1. I had surgery 3 months and am just starting over with SSLP, with the plan to get stronger than I was before in preparation for another recurrence. There is something to be said for training to get as strong as possible, to better withstand the rigors of cancer treatment. My "chemo" log can be found at http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=40279 . There is plenty of literature that suggests resistance training while going through chemo will preserve muscle mass; however, most of the research is with formerly untrained individuals. There is a local powerlifter here who has trained and competed successfully through chemo and surgery for breast cancer.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It's going to be very difficult because of the Chemo. My mom is on Carbo and Taxol for liver+lung cancer, its also a possible treatment for breast cancer as well. She goes every 3-4 weeks for more, she has had to wait a bit longer on some treatments because her blood platelet count was too low. She is down for a solid 7-8 days when she gets back from treatment, and is pretty much stuck in bed because of joint pain and lack of energy for that whole time. After that her energy returns pretty quickly, we usually start her walking on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes at a time. She gets up to 3-4 times a week before she goes back. She does random things around the house to try and keep her mobility up. We never considered strength training because of the fear of bruising from training too hard. One of the side effects of her chemo drugs is a reduced ability for blood to clot. She also tends to get anemic

The people we have worked with had a prior history of strength training. I might not recommend starting it in the middle of chemo, depending on the individual.