How to build muscle strength after chemo
Loss of strength during cancer treatment can greatly reduce your 5-year survival and increase cancer recurrence risk.
In fact, during chemo, you can lose up to 14-20% of your strength, and the worst part is that most survivors don’t gain this strength back.
Loss of strength is directly related with increased cancer risk, heart disease, diabetes, and early cancer mortality.
The good news is that your body is incredibly resilient. You already had the mental capacity to go through cancer treatment,
so you already have all it takes to follow a proper strength-training program.
Therefore, we made this blog to help you, because we believe in you and your capacity to build strength after chemo.
In this blog you will learn:
How to build muscle strength during and after chemo.
The best exercises to gain strength after cancer treatment.
And how many reps, sets, and rest you need to build back muscle strength.
Now, if you are worked about your fatigue, check out “How to Exercise When Cancer Fatigue Hits.”
Check with your doctor before exercising
Strength training during or after cancer treatment can be daunting.
To help, we have made a free exercise program already designed for you to get started at no cost.
All the exercises are chosen for you to exercise safely and are quick and easy to do—with most requiring no equipment, so you can work out from home.
This plan will also include movement tutorials, so you know proper form and technique when doing each movement, and lastly, you will get free access to an exercise physiologist in case you have any questions.
Always make sure to consult your doctor or physical therapist first before getting started,
but you can get it downloaded today and show it to them later to make sure you can do all the exercises.
Click here to get it sent to you for free.
Strength is the foundation of human movement
Muscle strengthening can be done at home, in a gym, in a pool, or at the park. However the order of which will give you the best benefit is:
Gym
Park
At home
Pool
While strength training can be done everywhere, it’s important to choose the form the will help you the most today, because strength training is essential to independent living (i.e. helping you to avoid need of a nursing home).
Lack of strength is a predictor of cancer mortality. However, many cancer survivors do not feel comfortable going in to the gym because they are immunocompromised.
Therefore, one of the best ways to get started building strength without going to the gym is through the use of calisthenics.
Calisthenics is the use of body weight exercises as a way to build muscle strength during or after chemo.
“I didn’t want to go to the gym, but once I learned I could exercise from home it was much easier to return to work and start working out again.”
Example of calisthenic movements include:
Shoulder press: Raising your hands above your head.
Squat: Standing up and sitting down.
Chest Press: Pushing your body away from something.
Pull or Row: Pulling your body towards something.
Dead lift: Hinging at the hips.
Lunging: Taking wide steps, or stepping up.
Each exercise is based on a movement you need for daily living. Therefore, by training the movement pattern, you are strengthening your body for everyday life after chemo.
We all need to squat down to sit,
hinge at the hips to pick something off the ground,
and push/pull a door open.
So, strengthening your body for day-to-day tasks is a big component of getting back in shape after cancer.
The best exercise to build strength is a squat, hinge, and press
The first movement to master is the Sit to Stand—AKA the squat.
Click the video to learn how to start to squat safely, and make it progressive harder so you can build strength.
Squatting is a full-body movement that involves your core, hips, legs, glutes, and back.
Once you have mastered the squat, you can then progress to the step ups, or lunges.
For more information on building up your leg strength check out “The 6 of The Best Leg Strengthening Exercises During Chemo.”
The second movement to learn and progress with is the Hip Hinge.
Click below to learn how to safely hip hinge.
The hip hinge is an exercise which prepares you for different variations of the row and deadlift.
This is a protective and versatile strengthening exercise that can be used to strengthen your legs, glutes, back, and core after chemo.
And, when learned correctly, it guarantees you the physical capacity to get you off the toilet for the rest of your life!
Lastly, incorporate the Shoulder Press.
Click below to learn how to keep your shoulder’s healthy.
The shoulder press can be scary to do if you’ve had surgery to the chest, ribs, neck, back, or armpit area.
The benefit, however, is that shoulder presses, when done correctly, can help you increase shoulder range of motion and reduce aches and pains from surgery.
It’s still important to know that there is some caution to be had if you are a breast cancer survivor.
So check out “Can I lift Weights After Getting My Lift Nodes Removed” before getting started.
To build strength after cancer, soreness is not required
To build muscle strength after cancer, you do not need to be sore the next day.
Soreness is an indication of “newness.” But, at the same time, it also let’s you know that the exercise challenged you enough.
Soreness is your body telling you, “I was not used to that motion.” The more often you do a motion, the less sore you will be.
Some minor soreness is good but not necessary.
“I was very scared to start exercising after cancer treatment, but I knew I needed to rebuild the muscle strength I lost from chemo.”
— Breast Cancer Survivor
Follow the steps below to limit soreness.
Start with just 1 set, and aim for 2 sets total if you feel you can do 1 more.
Start slow and light. It’s better to start too low than too fast. You can always build up.
Give yourself 2 weeks to work on technique before making exercises harder.
Give yourself 4-6 weeks with a same set of exercises before changing them.
Warm up properly before working out, and stretch after every work out.
How to structure a strengthening workout as a cancer survivor
Warm Up: Start by doing 5 mins of general full body warm up.
This should be a brisk walk outside or on the treadmill (set the speed anywhere between 3.2-3.6 mph)
Shoot for a slight sweat.
Work Out: Focus on machines first to build up your strength if at the gym or full body movements first you are working out at home.
You should be able to do full body exercises 2-3 days a week in order to build the most muscle strength.
However, you can still split it up in whatever way works best for you. Your split does not matter as much as your consistency.
Cool Down/Stretch: Taking time to stretch after lifting is a good, healthy practice.
Each stretch should be held for 10-30 seconds and repeated twice.
Focus on 4-6 stretches and take time to really see how your body improves.
Shoot for a mild discomfort in your stretches, not aches, numbness, or pain.
Reps, sets, intensity, and rest to rebuild strength
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends cancer survivors to do 1-3 sets for 6-15 reps to build muscle strength during and after cancer treatment.
How intense should the exercise be?
In order to build muscle strength after chemo, your exercises should feel moderately heavy.
You should break into a small sweat but not be completely depleted after your lift.
Moderate is defined as being able to do between 6-15 reps, feeling like you worked out your muscle.
If it’s challenging to do 6 reps, then the exercise or weight is too hard or heavy, and if you can do a lot more than 15 reps, it’s way too easy.
So, choose a weight or movement that allows the flexibility to stay within 6-15 repetitions but no more than that.
Make sure to spread out your intensity throughout the week, with some days feeling hard and others being moderate.
And you can even add in some light intensity days, where you are going through the motions.
How much should I rest?
During your work outs 1-2 minutes is more than enough between exercises.
But, between work outs, resting for 24-48 hours while getting 7-8 hours of sleep is enough to give your body time to recover.
In addition to your rest, you should make sure to feed your body the carbs and protein it needs to replenish yourself and go on recovery walks on days you do not exercise.
Lastly, after your walks give yourself some time to stretch as well to keep your body active on days you don’t exercise.
What if I have shortness of breath when exercising?
A great way to exercise when you have shortness of breath is through the use of cluster sets.
Cluster set training is breaking down your set into smaller sets.
So, for example:
Instead of doing 1 set of 12 reps in one go,
You do 3 reps—rest— 3 reps—rest—3reps—3 reps, and that’s one set.
This is great to reduce shortness of breath while improving your strength after chemo.
Ready to get started?
The best way to put into practice what you’ve learned is to take action. So, if you are serious about building up muscle strength after chemo, take time to follow the steps below
📅 Look at your calendar and determine how many days a week you could go for a brisk walk.
⌛ Establish the minimum and maximum amount of time you can slot in a brisk walk.
📈 Start with the minimum, and work your way up to the full amount of time. Try to give yourself 2-3 months to achieve this goal. The longer you work at it, the more consistent you will be.
❌Do not rush the process; focus on consistency. Give yourself the next 2-3 months to work on this goal.
⚡Increase your intensity to the point where you can talk but not sing, OR see if you can sustain that walk at your minimal target heart rate.
Get help. Ask an exercise physiologist where the best place is for you to start. If
If you feel you are ready, click here for a free consult so we can best help you build muscle strength after cancer.
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