Adjusting RPE during chemotherapy

I thought I was going to my first meet this year, but it seems like a bone marrow lymphoma diagnosis has put that on hold for now. It’s treatable and my health (thank god for training hard previously) means aggressive chemo ASAP.

What’s weird though is that I feel exactly the same as during my last heavy volume squat session. I’m a bit out to sea with regulating training intensity given that I appear asymptomatic but the CBC results are pancytopenia. I guess what I’m wondering is what are some assessment tips that could help when chemo then goes onto to make you further immunocompromised? Is RPE still a good guide or is it now a poor indicator given my normal perception of training just had a giant, confounding wrench thrown at it?

(as an aside, I’m not looking to progress. I get that regression will happen. I just don’t want to easily lose the strength and muscle that are probably my greatest advantage in terms of getting through this)

Thanks!

Hey there – sorry to hear about your diagnosis. We hope you make it through ok!

RPE doesn’t need to be “changed” here in my opinion – it just is what it is, a subjective metric of internal training load, which is an extremely useful metric. The fact that everything feels harder / more stressful naturally gets accounted for when applying RPE to your training – that’s kind of the whole point, right?

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Thanks Austin, that makes sense. I guess I’m just concerned of overdoing it under “new normal”–perhaps because most non-lifters think a barbell is suddenly off the charts strenuous.

I’m trying to wrap my mind around what excess (junk) fatigue looks like in an immunocompromised state. My model so far is that it’s much like regressing after injury with low stress weeks like in The Bridge. Have you guys ever worked with trainees in a similar situation? Simply training doesn’t seem like that’s going to make me more susceptible to infection.

BTW, complete aside, do you find most physicians are a bit puzzled by creatinine levels in strength trainees? I’m a bit amused that every new doctor looking at my results mentions that “it’s a little high…but you workout.”