Question regarding resistance training.

If you take a day or two off prior to your PSA your workout should be non-contributory.

Stay Strong Brother!!

I had RP 4/05/23. I've been lifting weights since age 12, not as a body builder or power lifter, but to support general health and my sporting interests of triathlon and skiing.

While my PSA has been < 0.02 since surgery, were it to start rising as yours is, I assume I would begin some form of radiation and androgen deprivation. Were that the case, lifting weights would become even more important.

In my thinking, even if the increase in Testosterone from weight lifting were contributing to a growth of residual cancer, I would not stop weight lifting. I feel its positive benefits outweigh the risk. I mean, even in the absence of weight training, I'm still making T anyway, right?

Unfortunately, I don't believe that the increase in your PSA is directly associated with your workouts and I agree with @trusam1 that even if it was, I would recommend to continue the workouts.

I'm only a patient, but can share my experience that I resumed workouts after my RP and also eventually had rising PSA values similar to yours. My blood tests for PSA also included measuring testerone levels, amongst several other tests. I shifted to 6 week tests after the PSA levels started to increase, because I wanted to understand the doubling time characteristics. I didn't do a PSMA scan, because I knew at levels below 0.2ng/ml, the likelihood of anything showing up were very small. After getting educated on options and discussing with my doctors, I decided to initiate salvage radiation when my PSA got to 0.15ng/ml in early February of this year. My thinking was to hope the residual cancer cells were localized in the prostate bed and I wanted to treat them before they could spread further. I chose salvage radiation at a center of excellence and I know that my regular workouts served me well through the 35 treatment routine and my first post-treatment PSA test results were better than I had hoped.

I do recommend having the discussion with your doctors on next step options. Although many doctors will advise to wait until the PSA rises to 0.2ng/ml (BCR - biochemical recurrence) given your Gleason history and seminal vesicle invasion, you may also want to consider earlier treatment options or at least be prepared if the PSA value continues to rise. Your PSA value is still very low and if any residual cancer cells are localized, post-RP treatments can still be curable. There is a lot of information available (PCF.org, PCRI.org, etc.) about post-RP BCR treatment options to help prepare you when you decide to discuss with your doctors.

Best wishes for whatever you decide.

I’m pretty much in the same boat as you. I had RP in November and my first two PSA tests were < 0.01. I did lose some muscle mass during recovery. I just started with a more aggressive weight training routine and feel keeping my body stronger will strengthen my immune system and help me fight and beat PC. Best wishes!

Thanks' for the input.
It looks like the workouts carry the day.

jsh327: were 5 hypo fractional treatments available to you instead of 35?

Theoretically, yes. I decided to go with the 35 after consulting with several RO’s and deciding to get as much of the prostate bed covered with 2mm photon radiation over a longer period of time. I was purposely seeking the time duration of radiation to as much of the area that was most likely to have PC spread with minimal exposure to bladder, rectum, etc. I appreciate that there are also reasons for the 5 hypo fractional. If it was only in my prostate, I would have gone with 5 hypo fraction.

I should add that I would have not know to inquire about the 5 hypo fraction, if I had not gotten that information from one of your posts. I thank you and do recommend that others consider. Certainly much less time.

Dennany: what were your testosterone levels when your PSA was .01 without intense resistance trading vs when your PSA was 0.1 with intense resistance training, if you don't mind sharing?

Hi:
That is a good question. In all my appointments etc. nobody ever suggested one. It probably would answer a lot of questions.