I am 67 years old, I have metastatic prostate cancer.
I've had chemo (6x docetaxel) and hormone therapy, for life.
The chemo was not that bad , but my general physical condition, strength and endurance were seriously deteriorated.
Where I used to regularly run 10-20 km, I could still jog for 1 hour at walking pace with difficulty.
A few months ago I started with oncore rehabilitation. It is really tough, but gives results. Running is going back, not like it used to be, but it is improving visibly.
However, that hormone therapy is bad. You no longer produce testosterone, no more muscle building, fat growth everywhere you do not want it, etc.
Now both the oncologist and my coach say that progress is still possible, and that it is just a matter of training very hard, paying attention to your diet and having a lot of patience, but I doubt that anyway.
The fact is that I have been training intensively for several months now (2 x per week endurance run, 2 x per week strength training and cardio). And, as said, the condition improves, but figure improvement is next to nothing.
Are there actually people who have been on hormone therapy for a few years, and who nevertheless manage to have a bit of a toned body?
Surely it would give me courage if this is the case. It's not that I want to look like a Schwarzenegger, but a little sporty body is nice, even if it has an ugly old man's face on it. 🙂
Regards ,, Willy
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Dear Willy_ , I don’t know if progress in muscle building is possible without T? For me ,It is now more about about movement and halting the joints hopefully from rapid deterioration .. Keep it up!
I don't have much personal experience with exercise and ADT - just about 5-6 months worth. The effects for me were pretty much as you described them for yourself. My athletic ability (which was probably never as good as yours) declined significantly but frequent exercise kept it from completely disappearing and made the quality of my daily life much more acceptable. I could work all day (computer programming, not loading trucks :), keep my weight the same as it was before ADT, and manage my day without excessive tiredness.
For more information you might try a Pubmed search on ( androgen deprivation therapy and exercise ). There have been many published studies on the subject. See: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?te...
Hi Willy,I'm 68 and into my 5th year of intense exercise to offset ADT impacts at 1-2 hours per day.
As a citizen nordic ski racer I came into this with a lot of historical body performance data so I already knew how to factor the impacts of ageing.
I now use Body Composition Analysis to track changes ( not as accurate as a Dexa scan, but adequate for reviewing periodic delta changes).
Lean muscle loss is around 12% but the bigger physcological impact is the loss of resiliance so there is little bounce in my step or scope to drive harder - just that brick wall. Still I can do a full day's heliski and then go out and repeat that the next day. Usually ski 50 days a season. Body tone is one issue, but beware hidden issues like osteoporosis. I started with good bone density and added high impact exercise with a 12lb vest for good measure. Only showing minimal loss.
There are many good exercise studies out there for those with PCA.
I'm 78 an d have castrate resistant metastatic prostate cancer. Starting doxetaxal 2 days' time. Have run 4km 3 times week and resistance training. The big mistake for runners is to do too much when your body is resisting. A short run is as good as a longer one for aerobic fitness. Good luck my friend.
I can tell you that it is possible to actually gain muscle when on ADT but it’s not easy. I was so concerned about what it was going to do to my body and I went to one of those muscleman bodybuilders. I walked into his gym and took off my shirt and said I’m going to have zero testosterone and I want to look no worse than this in a year. He told me “if I look like that after a year in his gym he would close the doors”. He works me like a dog three days a week for over an hour each time. All muscle groups with reps until exhaustion at least 3 or 4 sets. I watch what I eat and I’ve actually lost weight and gained muscle. Each time I go in I swear it will be my last time. But in truth I’ve only missed five days in 3 1/2 years. The only other exercise I do other than weight training is golf. But his weight training definitely gets my heart rate up. As he tells me there’s plenty of women in his gym that have zero testosterone and still have muscles. Picture below with a T of 11.
My husband has a trainer too. He has gained muscle back - ADT for 18 months did a number on his confidence too. Now after working hard for 6 months he feels and looks good. I now work out with his trainer and my outlook is brighter too. Expensive but we gave up extras to afford it.
Listen only to those who say you can get stronger, feel vastly better and mitigate every side effect of ADT with weight training in particular. Running is great but some very good runners make the mistake of doing only that on ADT.
Unless you work as hard as BodySculpture (hard) you are unlikely to see big gains, but that’s not the point. With no T, preventing loss and making more modest gains is a very attainable and supremely valuable goal.
I feel for you brother, I’ve had the same thing going now for 56 months ( thank god ) tummy bulge, gained 20 pounds, lost but gaining back some of my upper body strength. Slow process. Never Give Up. Keep on fighting warrior 🙏🙏🙏
I’ve been on ADT for 7 years now and I like to think that I have been able to maintain body tone through regular weight and resistance band training that I do every other day for a half hour to forty five minutes. I have a bit of belly fat and a bit of man boobage but I don’t worry much about it, I think that’s pretty normal at 62. I’ve been able to maintain a normal BMI and a solid core, for me it’s more about keeping a healthy body to fight the fight, a healthy weight and a strong core to prevent SRE’s rather than gaining muscle.
Hi Willy. I’ve been on ADT since early 2017. For me it’s been more about halting muscle loss and visceral weight gain. To gain muscle back to where I used to have it takes a lot of effort and pain and I do it somewhat. For me, I’ve just gotten used to a more lanky look - looks great in suits! More importantly are the bones - do that weight training and running/walking to maintain your bone strength. You need strong bones for everything else to look and feel good! ✌️ DougNOLA
I am 68 and been on double ADT for 2 years. I workout 5-6 days a week, cardio and weights. I also golf, hike, will be starting softball and bowling soon. I definitely don't have the same energy and stamina, but I feel good, look good and don't think this ADT thing is a big deal. So far!
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