Skinny arms! T, Exercise, and so on.

[aleon515]

It's summer here in the southwest US and it is HOT already. I am wearing short sleeve button down shirts. (Instead of long sleeve.) I'm sure it is my imagination gone wild but sometimes I seem to be misgendered for fun. In any case, I am getting misgendered more in the last month. I think it must be my skinny arms and perhaps shoulders.

I've had a bit of muscle development 3 months on T,  but I am very small framed and besides this have no hair on my arms except very light that I had before. It might be thicker??

Know of any good exercise to help develop arm muscles? Esp forearms? This seems the hardest.

Have been thinking of going on shots for awhile. I am on T- cream. I have definitely gotten good changes with my mood, voice, and body shape but muscle and hair have been a lot slower. I am working out, but not madly. I do push ups, a rower (nothing for lower arms I think) and free weights.


--Jay

[Contravene]

I've been working on building up my arms and shoulders since my arms are pretty skinny too, especially my forearms.

Here's a great video I came across a while ago about forearm workouts:



Like he says in the video, the forearms usually develop along with the other parts of your arms which is why they seem to take longer. If you only focus on your forearms, they'll start to look disproportionately bigger so you sort of have to work on several muscle groups at once. Usually I see most guys focusing on their shoulders and lats to make their arms and upper bodies look bigger and wider so that may help you out too.

Here's what I started out with for arm workouts:
Military presses and rows for my shoulders.
Hammer curls for my biceps.
Skull Crushers for my triceps.
Pull-ups for my lats.

I've also done some of the exercises in the video for my forearms but they seem to be develop a lot better with the hammer curls while I work on my biceps.

Hope that helps!

[aleon515]

As long as you bring up pull ups, anybody know of a good video on this. I don't know if I can do them now, but I  couldn't pre-T. May mean nothing as I couldn't do a real push up either. But might need to modify one. So looking for modified pull ups? (And while we're at it-- a nice inexpensive pull up bar-- for on the door).

--Jay

[AdamMLP]

You can put a chair beneath you while're doing our pulls ups and rest your feet on either the back of the chair or the seat.  By resting your feet on the chair it takes some of your body weight off you and makes it easier.  As you get stronger you can move the chair further away from the bar so that your arms take more of the weight.  Some people suggest using a chair to get yourself up to the top of the pull up and then step of and lower yourself down slowly, but that's never worked for me.

Don't get discouraged if you find it really hard though, I've been messing around with pull ups for what seems like forever occasionally when I feel like it, both this house and where I used to live have convinent beams, and I can still only do about 3 max.  Gripping with your palm facing towards you is a lot easier as well, but builds the shoulders less.

Push ups with your hands placed wide apart are also good for building your shoulder muscles.  I can't really help on the forearms as mine naturally seem to be muscly, maybe try lumping heavy plates around for a few hours several times a week...

[chuck]

Eat more.

[aleon515]

>Eat more.

Just goes to the stomach.


--Jay

[GnomeKid]

I got a pull up bar from target... can't recall the brand, but it was only 20 dollars and works really nicely.  You can do 3 variations of pull-up each targeting different things.  You can also flip it over on the ground to use it as a push up bar which is nice especially for starting out on such things (being brought up going to tae kwon do I've been no stranger to push-ups my whole life, and even I enjoy having the bar sometimes as it takes strain off of your wrists) 

I'd just advise you that the foam on the ends wears through quickly, so either be willing to re-paint the doorframe or have some foam/string handy to fix it.

They say you can also use it for situps, but I've never figured out how thats really useful.... Just stick your feet under the couch or something or try other (more effective) ab exercises.

check out bodybuilding.com you don't have to be a bodybuilder, but they certainly will know workouts.  Theres a whole lot of free information and work out plans ect. on there if you're into that sort of thing

[D0LL]

^ I REALLY want one of those pull-up/push-up bars. I've always loved using them at other people's houses. My only worry is that my door frames might be too weak for it. The townhouses here are what I call "practice houses", because they look like they were built by people who've never built a house before. xD

Quite honestly, this has always been my favourite site for workout tips, video and exercises:
http://nowloss.com/#/home
That guy is pretty legit. He's got a LOT of knowledge on the subject, and has plenty of at-home workouts for people who don't have access to a gym.

[Jayr]

So looking for modified pull ups?

Pullup Negatives.

Meaning jump to the bar and lower yourself as slowly as you can.
Eventually your lats will be strong enough to not only lower you but lift you as well.