Ye olde reality check at the gym

Went to the gym in the early afternoon, and when I finished on the bike, I “hit the weights.” However the chest pressing machine I like to use was in use, so I decided to do some bench presses – specifically the sets and reps I used to do as a strength test.

I stopped doing bench presses as part of a regular routine five or six years ago, when I decided the benefits were not worth the risk of injuring myself, and switched over to using a Cybex chest press machine. The benefits of the machines are not as good, but on the other hand there’s less likelihood of an injury, dropping the weights on yourself, etc.

However, every three weeks or so, I would do a simple bench routine, just to be sure I wasn’t quietly deteriorating. I would do five sets of five reps, with my knees bent and my feet up flat on the bench (so all the effort is through the chest, shoulders and arms). I would do it with the bar and two of the large discs for a total weight of 135 lbs., and with one minute between sets. To some people this sounds like a lot of weight while others (especially my rugby friends) are rolling around laughing at what a weak wuss I am ("Hey Faranda, what’s your max?").

18 months ago I started doing three weight sessions a week, rather than two, (on the theory it was good for my immune system) and added a sixth set.

Prior to starting chemotherapy I was able to pretty well cruise through the sets – a little difficulty but always able to finish them with good form.

When the medi-port was installed in early September, I stopped the benching. The port’s installed midway between my left clavicle and left nipple, just below the skin. It’s made the chemo easier on my veins than having IV’s put in my arm – the nurses simply stick one needle through the skin and into the port (which feels like it’s made out of a hard rubber – I have actually never asked) and the chemicals go into a very large vein. And when it was installed, it seemed common sense that banging it with a barbell of 135 lbs. was a bad idea. So I stopped the benching.

But today I thought, “Just be careful and let’s see how we do.” In the last two weeks I’d gotten my weight training routine back to where it had been on the machines.

But the bench results were not good. I was surprised at the difficulty I had. I did five sets, and here were the reps: 4-5-4-3-2. I pushed myself, without going crazy – stopped when there was any chance of failing to complete the next rep. Can’t drop the weight on the port!

So – we can say for certain that four months of chemotherapy has knocked back my strength – on a guess about 20%. This despite the fact that I am back to the same routine on the machines.

I’d hate to do a cardiovascular test – say a run! Even though I am back to where I was on the bike and elliptical trainer (just about, anyway), I bet my cardio capacity is also off.