The effects of different weight lifting sessions on shortness of breath in individuals with advanced lung cancer

This is a within-subject, repeated measures design, with participants serving as their own controls, completing both experimental conditions. This study is designed to compare the effects of two different resistance exercise RE configurations on dyspnea and affective responses in individuals with a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer Participation in this study will involve one baseline assessment and two experimental conditions. The baseline assessment will be used to perform 10 repetition maximum testing for each of the exercises to determine the load used for both experimental conditions. Participants will begin testing for each exercise by completing a warm-up set of 4-6 repetitions. Participants will then perform multiple sets of each exercise with stepwise increases in weight until they performed the lift with the maximal amount of weight with correct form for 10 repetitions. Patients will be allowed 2-3 minutes of rest between 10-RM effort attempts. This session is anticipated to last approximately 60 minutes. The intensity for each experimental condition will be defined by this 10RM load, using 100% 10RM. Each of the experimental conditions will involve a series of 3 exercises targeting both the upper and lower body. Specifically, the exercises will include leg press, seated row and chest press. Three sets of each exercise will be performed in each session for both conditions, whereas the rest taken during each set will differ in each experimental condition. Each session will be performed in one-on-one fashion, supervised by an exercise physiologist with extensive experience delivering exercise interventions for individuals with cancer. Each session will last approximately 45-60 minutes. The traditional set (TS) will be completed with no intra-set rest, completing all 10 repetitions consecutively in each set. The cluster set (CS) will allow for intra-set rest of 20 seconds with every 2 consecutive repetitions, until 10 total repetitions have been reached. The traditional set will include 3 x 10 reps with no intra-set rest for each exercise, cluster set will include 3 x 10 reps with an intra-set rest of 20 seconds every 2 reps. The order of experimental conditions will be randomized and counterbalanced across patients. Each condition will have a washout period of at least 72-hours.