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Exercise Oncology...what say you?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 10, 2025 | Replies (77)Comment receiving replies
The hardest part of treatment for me was being told no biking for six months since that's my favorite thing. Even after the six months passed, it was still painful to ride so I had to buy padded underwear in addition to my usual biking shorts, and got a new seat for my bike that supports my butt bones and doesn't put any pressure on my perineum.
I was pretty depressed during treatment but still forced myself to go to the gym and lift weights, and I walked 4-5 miles every day with my dog. Last September, I did a 108 mile walk to raise money to fight PC (108 miles over the entire month, not all at once).
If I'm being honest, exercise didn't improve my mood at all. It made me angrier because I could see how much weaker I was. But I stuck with it anyway.
Now I'm really happy when I'm riding my bike and am back to about 30 mile rides but still get really angry and depressed at the gym when I see how little progress I'm making (my testosterone is dropping after stopping ADT rather than climbing) and I question if I made a mistake by agreeing to do six months of it (ended 9 months ago now). I can't help but compare how I looked two years ago to how I look now, especially now that I've become more feminine looking with less muscles and no body hair.
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Sounds like you enjoy biking and I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but the science indicates little to no measurable benefit (as it relates to slowing PCa progression) for extended light exercising (like walking).
That said laying down a solid base of Zone 2 (70% of maximum HR) training (moderate exercise) is foundational to making significant long term gains.
If you enjoy biking maybe targeting 30-60 minutes of Zone 2 level cycling, at least 3-4x per week is a great starting point.
I didn’t learn about the incredible long term benefits of Zone 2 training until I had taken up running for over two years.
Zone 2 training is definitely for the long game, major benefits and permanent changes are measured after years, not weeks or months.
However, some PCa treatments protocols, like ADT, involve similar timeframes.
So why not commit to another long term treatment whose only negative side effect is possibly the perception of the lack of short term gain.
For me Zone 2 training means running 85% of the time in the 130-135 bpm heart rate range for ~40 minutes per session, every other day.
I started this four months ago and now add 2-3 sessions/week of HIIT.
It’s definitely a long term treatment protocol; but at my age I’m not expecting to find any short term treatment that is going to “make everything like it was before”.
This video is probably one of the best, most realistic and authentic representations of what one can truly expect from Zone 2 training that I have ever seen.