Last night, a couple of friends and I went to see Kris Kristofferson live in concert. Man what a sweet performance! His voice is still powerful and thick, stage presence was commanding and a lot of good humour thrown around. Silver Tongue Devil duet with his daughter Kelly was my favourite. Crazy that he has a 23 year old daughter at the age of 77 haha, what a pimp!
Anyway it was cool to see this, as it’s the first real social event I’ve managed to attend since I first got sick in October. Over the past six months I’ve missed Bruce Springsteen, Deftones and Pearl Jam; all acts I’ve wanted to see for many years. So yeah, really happy I made it to this one.
Cycle 3, Week 1, Day 2
06/05/14
Barbell Bench Row
3 x 50kg
3 x 57.5
1 x 65
6 x 72.5 (amrap)
1 x 75
1 x 80
1 x 82.5
1 x 85
8 x 50
8 x 50
8 x 50
Chin Up
10 hammer
10 underhand
5 overhand
Rear Delt Fly
10 x 10kg pair
10 x 10
10 x 10
10 x 10
10 x 10
Cycle 3, Week 1, Day 3
08/05/14
Press
3 x 32.5kg
3 x 37.5
1 x 42.5
6 x 47.5 (amrap)
1 x 50
2 x 50
5 x 32.5
5 x 32.5
5 x 32.5
5 x 32.5
Speed Bench Press
10 x 42.5kg
10 x 45
10 x 47.5
10 x 50
10 x 52.5
Dumbbell Side Delt Raise
8 x 10kg pair
8 x 10
8 x 10
Dumbbell Front Delt Raise
8 x 10kg pair
8 x 10
8 x 10
Happy with today. I’ve added an ice cream berries peanut butter greek yoghurt banana smoothie as dessert to try and help gain weight. 765 calories of doom haha. Delicious… but takes effort to consume!
Keep doing your thing, you’re the man!
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
Keep doing your thing, you’re the man![/quote]
Haha, thanks bro. Slowly chipping away at repairing this broken body, will get there sooner or later!
Cycle 3, Week 1, Day 4
09/05/14
Squat
3 x 60kg
3 x 67.5
1 x 77.5
3 x 85
1 x 90
1 x 95
1 x 100
Deadlift
3 x 60kg
3 x 67.5
1 x 77.5
3 x 85
1 x 90
1 x 95
1 x 100
Single Leg Calf Raise
15 x 10kg
15 x 10
15 x 10
15 x 10
15 x 10
This is my week off chemo, been feeling good as. Did some renovations around the house; took down a wall to turn two small bedrooms into one large one. Plastered and painted, and installed wardrobes in two other bedrooms. My old man came down from Auckland to help me, good times.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned, but due to my incision I’m only doing set reps on Squat and Dead, and I’ve set my max even lower than I’m capable of (which is low to start with haha)… my long term plan is to do the 5kg add every 3 week cycle, and within a year be close to my previous Deadlift max and hitting a squat PR. There will no doubt be obstacles and glitches, but that’s my goal anywho :).
Overhead Press is a but tough on the abdomen too, but Bench Press I’m pushing as hard as possible because lying flat on a bench isn’t likely to give me a hernia!
Just found your log, inspirational read. Things like this always make me appreciate what it can do rather than what I can’t. Regarding the strain on your core, not exactly the same thing, but I once had a suspected hernia (intestines bulged out but did not split through to tear the ab wall), during this time I had to be careful not to strain or hold my breathe while lifting. For a while I did bench press with my feet up on the bench so that I was not stretching or straining the area and stopped a rep or two short of straining each set.
Felt really weird to start with pressing that way as it removed all my leg drive, but I felt more confident in pushing knowing I was less likely to bust my abs open! Built upto more decent weights doing that before getting the all clear as bulge went back in. Just something you might want to think about. I also did the bench supported rows as well.
[quote]Lift and Eat wrote:
Just found your log, inspirational read. Things like this always make me appreciate what it can do rather than what I can’t. Regarding the strain on your core, not exactly the same thing, but I once had a suspected hernia (intestines bulged out but did not split through to tear the ab wall), during this time I had to be careful not to strain or hold my breathe while lifting. For a while I did bench press with my feet up on the bench so that I was not stretching or straining the area and stopped a rep or two short of straining each set.
Felt really weird to start with pressing that way as it removed all my leg drive, but I felt more confident in pushing knowing I was less likely to bust my abs open! Built upto more decent weights doing that before getting the all clear as bulge went back in. Just something you might want to think about. I also did the bench supported rows as well.[/quote]
Yeah very similar situation to me from a surgical point of view. When I first started lifting after getting out of hospital, I did all my benching with my feet up, then progressed to feet down and no arch, and now using a slight arch and minimal leg drive. It took a while for me to regain flexibility in the abdomen also.
Bench supported rows are awesome! I am surprised more people don’t use them. I know Wendler has mentioned not using them as a primary lift in 531 because it’s so taxing to the lower back and good form is hard to maintain at max effort.
But when on a bench, these points are both eliminated. To me it’s really the reverse of a bench press and I try to treat it as such.
Thanks for the input 
Still following man, hop your getting better each day.
Stay strong
[quote]young n wrote:
Still following man, hop your getting better each day.
Stay strong[/quote]
Thanks bro, approximately 12 weeks of treatment remaining and then it’s back to a normal life.
I expect they will increase my dosage for the coming cycle so it could get a little rough, but I feel as long as I can keep my calories up and get in my workout days I can keep on top of the nasty side effects :).
Hope your own training is going awesome!
Panzer, do you take modified citrus pectin? I have read several unrelated articles claiming that taking it daily during treatment makes chemotherapy more effective. It is also a naturopath supplement for suppressing cancer cells. You should check it out if you don’t take it.
Panzer, do you take modified citrus pectin? I have read several unrelated articles claiming that taking it daily during treatment makes chemotherapy more effective. It is also a naturopath supplement for suppressing cancer cells. You should check it out if you don’t take it.
[quote]MytchBucanan wrote:
Panzer, do you take modified citrus pectin? I have read several unrelated articles claiming that taking it daily during treatment makes chemotherapy more effective. It is also a naturopath supplement for suppressing cancer cells. You should check it out if you don’t take it.[/quote]
I actually hadn’t heard of it - thanks for that, man.
…it seems to fall into the “promising” alternative supplementary treatment category. Which is the category that interests me; will discuss with my oncologist on Tuesday. It’s easily sourced here in NZ.
Speaking of alternative treatments, I got recommended something from the polar opposite end of the spectrum… Black Salve. Google it if anybody wants a fucking grim read. Can’t believe the stuff people put themselves through due to pure desperation. Warning: google image search will shock you.
Cycle 3, Week 1, Day 5
10/05/14
Dips
10, 10, 8
Chins
10, 8, 8
Incline DB Hammer Curl
15 x 10kg pair
13 x 10
10 x 10
DB Curl
12 x 10kg pair
10 x 10
10 x 10
DB Skull Crusher
15 x 10kg pair
12 x 10
12 x 10
Yeh I think bench supported rows are great, they have been used in the rowing community for years, which is where I knew them from & are often done in clubs on a purpose built bench
I think for weight lifting purposes people often prefer reg bb rows, but I think they make a great supplementary exe for getting in more pulls whilst saving your low back, esp if you’re doing lots of heavy deads & squats.
That’s a pretty cool setup, might look into building something similar. ATM I sit a flat bench atop a second flat bench at one end and a plyo box at the other end.
For focusing on the upper back muscles, I’d assume bench rows have to be superior.
Cycle 3, Week 2, Day 1
12/05/14
Bench Press
3 x 50kg
3 x 57.5
1 x 65
1 x 72.5
1 x 75
5 x 80 (amrap)
12 x 50-7 x 50-5 x 50 (closegrip, rest-pause)
Incline DB Bench Press
10 x 20kg pair
10 x 20
10 x 20
DB Chest Fly
10 x 12.5kg pair
12 x 12.5
15 x 12.5
Pretty decent final lifting day before starting my new cycle of chemotherapy tomorrow
Recently I’ve been feeling very good within myself, and not contemplating an early death so much. I’ve also noticed my temper and argumentative streak have really dropped during this past several months; I guess when you’re giving everything you’ve got to try and survive, you don’t have time for excess negativity. I certainly can’t say I miss these traits.
Also pleased to report I’ve had no stomach pains for over a fortnight now.
Cycle 3, Week 2, Day 2
13/05/14
Barbell Bench Row
3 x 50kg
3 x 57.5
1 x 65
6 x 72.5 (amrap)
1 x 75
1 x 80
1 x 82.5
1 x 85
8 x 50
8 x 50
8 x 50
Chin Up
10 underhand
8 hammer
8 overhand
Rear Delt Fly
15 x 7.5kg pair
15 x 7.5kg
15 x 7.5kg
So I’m back on three pills in the a.m plus 2 pills in the evening. The doctors have given me some sachets of electrolyte balancers to take after movements, which hopefully will help ward off the dehydration.
They said my bloods are looking great except my kidney function has still not returned to 90, the baseline before I started chemo. It’s sitting around 108, which is ok as at its worst 150 was the region haha… but my oncologist did say there’s been some permanent damage done to my kidneys, and hydrating like a maniac right now will hopefully minimise it.
Ah well.
Just saw an item on the news where they were talking about research into timing of chemo depending on someone’s body clock. Apparently in trials people have reported less side effects when taking their chemo overnight, their article said 'The whole body tries to run to the same internal time, but cancers do their own thing.
Chemotherapy kills rapidly dividing cells, so researchers are trying to take advantage of cancer clocks by using chemotherapy when the cancer cells are dividing but cells in the rest of the body are not.’ Its called chronotherapy. There’s an article here:
Hopefully you’re be all done with it soon anyway & can get back to a treatment free life.
