The 6 best leg strengthening exercises during chemo
The #1 predictor of needing to be in a nursing home after cancer is not being able to get up off the toilet.
Loss of muscle strength is a strong indicator for heart disease, poor cancer survival, and diabetes.
However, doing leg-strengthening exercises can help reduce other long-term side effects from chemo.
Many influencers will tell you that to build strength, you need to lift heavy weights.
And while this is true, during chemo, many survivors don’t have a safe gym and proper supervision to help them train.
Therefore, in this blog, you will learn the 6 best leg strengthening exercises to do at home and how to progress with them so you can safely build up your leg strength.
Sit to stand—Squat
The sit to stand is the most basic movement of a squat. The more sit to stands you are able to do, the closer you will be to being able to do a full squat.
The more you can squat and get close to a full butt-to-the-ground squat, the more strength you will gain on your:
back
legs
butt
hips
calves
core
Squatting is an essential movement for life which allows you to stay mobile as you age. The goal is to progress as you get stronger.
The following are the progression exercises for squatting:
Sit-to-Stand
Touch-and-Up
Goblet Squat
Full Squat
TRX (Total-Resistance Exercise)
Kettle Bell Goblet
Barbell Squat
The slower you progress, the stronger you will get, and the safer each exercise session will be.
Many times, fatigue can cause you to stop exercising, but there are ways to reduce fatigue (check out How To Reduce Chemo Fatigue for more information.)
2. Hip Hinge — Deadlift
The hip hinge is a protective, versatile, and strengthening exercise. The more you can work on your hip hinge and get to working on full range of motion, the more benefits you will see on your:
lower back
upper back
legs
butt
hips
calves
core
Working from a hip hinge to dead lift is an essential movement for life which allows you to stay mobile as you age. The goal is to progress as you get stronger.
The following are progression exercises for hip hinges:
Hip Hinge (with assisted pole on back)
Hip Hinge (with pole across the knees)
Romanian Deadlift
Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Hex Deadlift
Conventional deadlift
The hip hinge is a strong, stabilizing exercise that when executed properly, guarantees you the physical capacity to get on and off the toilet for the rest of your life.
The number one limiting factor to getting up and off the toilet is not your thighs but rather your glutes and back to help straighten your body up.
Start slow (without weights), and work on technique before adding weight.
If you are struggling to exercise in the midst of cancer fatigue, check out “Exercising When Cancer Fatigue Hits. “
3. Assisted lunges — weighted lunges
Lunges are an excellent single-leg strength exercise that improves your balance and muscular strength, targeting your:
butt
hips
legs
calves
ankles
back
core
The lunge is a great exercise that helps to improve your posture and balance.
Working with a variety of lunges in different directions help you improve your bone strength in multiple directions.
You can do them assisted or unassisted:
Lateral Lunge
Backwards Lunge
Forward Lunge
Walking Lunge
Elevated Lunge
Weighted Lunge
Lunging is a fundamental human movement that is important to master through life, so take it slow, and work on strengthening this single-leg movement.
4. Knee raises— leg raises
Knee raise (also known as the hip flexion) is an incredible exercise that improves your cancer survival.
Knee raises help improve your:
hips
lower back
butt
groin
Doing knee raises is a great exercise which helps improve your balance and targets smaller muscles groups that the squat and hip hinge miss.
The key, however, is to work in a variety of directions and can be done seated, standing, assisted, unassisted, lying down, or with or without weights.
You can do:
Lateral Leg Raises
Knee Raises
Butt Kick Backs
Donkey Kicks
Clam Shells
Research shows that strengthening your hip flexor muscle is indicative of better survival.
The hip flexor is a muscle that gets extremely weak due to prolong sitting, causing movements such as walking and going up the stairs to get more and more difficult.
By strengthening the hip flexor, this will help support your core and build your balance.
You can focus on one leg at a time or alternate as if you were marching in place.
5. Soleus push ups— calf raises
Both soleus raises and calf raises help strengthen the muscles and tendons in the foot.
The foot is a complex structure because it has a tendon which runs right below the bottom of the foot.
This tendon, when not strengthened, can bring about daily pain.
In order to help reduce and prevent foot pain, soleus push ups and calf raises are essential for strengthening the muscles and tendons around your foot and ankle.
Both are great exercises to improve your balance and reduce fall risk.
In this case, the more stretch you get on your ankle, the more benefit you will get.
So, the key is to raise your heels as high as you can and drop them as low as you can, so being on an elevated surface is essential for the most benefit.
6. Glute bridge—hip thrust
Once you feel comfortable using your body weight and getting up and off the ground, you can start doing exercises on the ground.
Glute bridges are a great exercise to add to your lower body workout routine.
Learning how to do a glute bridge is simple.
They help strengthen your:
lower back
but
hips
core
legs
If your goal is to increase strength, you can slowly incorporate weights and make the exercise harder as you go.
You can start with no weight and slowly progress:
Glute Bridge
Weighted Glute Bridge
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Weighted Single Leg Glute Bridge
Weighted Hip Thrust
The glute bridge is a priority exercise for reducing back pain and improving back and core strength.
It helps reduce sciatica and is protective for smaller muscles in your back.
In conclusion
There are many exercises and variations that you can do to strengthen your legs during cancer treatment.
However, the main 6 movements to do target all 6 major muscle groups in your legs:
The sit to stand and different squat variations target mainly the the front of the thighs (quads).
The hip hinge and dead lift variations mainly target the back of the thighs (hamstrings).
Lunges hit multiple muscle groups but work on single legs strength and movement
Leg raises strengthen your groin and smaller muscles around the hips
Calf raises and soleus increase ankle strength and balance
Glute bridges prioritize strengthening your glutes (butt).
Each movement is designed to keep you functional, mobile, and strong.
Yet, the best part is that you can get started today from the comfort of your own home using your own body weight.
We have designed 101 free work outs, providing about 2 work outs per week for a year.
With the free guide, you will get how-to videos so you know how to properly do the foundational functional movements for better quality of life and a free fat-loss guide.
The fat-loss guide will include how many steps to get to improve your health and how much protein you need to maintain muscle.
If you follow this guide, you will be a totally different person by the end of a year. One work out won’t change you, but with 2 work outs a week for a whole year, you can see tremendous improvement.
One of our online clients was able to lose 30 lbs in a year with just two work outs a week and a proper fat loss guide.
Click here to receive your free guide.
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