I never thought i miss mucles

[roseyfox]

I been losing all my muscle. I was super built before being 5-8 180 pounds with only a average of 6 percent body fat. In six months i lost 20 pounds and now says i have a average of 14 percent body fat. Now i can barley lift anything without pains and feeling utterly weak. This is so depressing considering i use to be able to do alot more before hrt. I would lift 4 Wheeler and dirt bikes as well as tractors with ease as i use to do landscaping when i lived in Kentucky. Now it hard for me to lift a 32 pack of water as a cashier.

I mean it just wow, I never had to try to keep my muscle and i am still very athletic. But i am still losing weight and gaining more fat. I don't mind shrinking i just didn't expect it this rapidly.

[SiobhánF]

Did you lose muscle all over, or just more in the upper body? I kind of expect the whole upper body strength loss due to lower T and more E. How did your workouts change? I'm interested to see what I should start doing now before starting HRT.

[Rachel_Christina]

I have so far maybe slightly lost strength, nah I don't think so. My strength comes from the mind I think, my work is very physical and I need to keep strong I will soon be ruined.
Though I am planning to change jobs when I come out, try a much more typicaly female role, will be nice not to have to break myself all day long :/
Though as to your huge amount of strength, I don't know how you could stabalize it and regain stregth, just work out more?
Sorry I'm of no help

[RobynD]

I've had to adjust my workout. I have lost considerable strength, although the side benefit of that is my upper body looks more feminine.

[becky.rw]

I've lost a measurable amount of endurance and lifting strength; but I expected that side effect.  I don't seem to be losing a huge amount of mass, but I am eating enough to support the changes and getting enough sleep allowing for a longer anabolic phase..   

Also helping me I think is that I started at a non-cut weight, 5'8 210lb'ish; so there's a good 20-30 lbs of fat there for my body to play with.  Thus it doesn't get the idea to cook down muscle tissue; though eventually I will start to provoke that as my calves are just to large to ever pass uncovered.   Complete deal breaker.

The price of transition can be very high...

[kelly_aus]

I spend a lot of time in a kitchen.. And now there is the odd jar that defeats me.

[Lady Sarah]

I have also lost a lot of raw strength. I don't really miss it. Part of being a woman is that I can usually get someone to help me with anything that requires it. One bonus is that my flexibility has increased.

[LShipley]

For me I could feel the change in muscle immediately. I remained a golfer through transition and my distance went down within weeks. Grip is weaker... Rough is harder to escape. Sigh

[Eva Marie]

I have also experienced a loss of strength - I used to be able to hoist 2 50lb bags of fertilizer up onto on my shoulders and carry them around the house, but now I struggle to pick up a 35lb jug of cat litter at the local discount store using both hands.

With the loss of strength has come a very welcome reduction in arm and shoulder size - I once avoided any clothes that showed off my shoulders but now I can wear them and not feel like I resemble the incredible hulk.

Oddly enough, I seem to be able to muster extra strength on occasion - I recently was faced with torquing some nuts on my car to 173ft lbs and I was (barely) able to do it.

One new concern is self defense. With the weakness came a realization that I am no longer able to defend myself, so I now carry two forms of (legal in California) self defense in my purse and hope that I never have to use them.

One of the things i'm having to adjust to is allowing men to carry heavy stuff for me; it is a mental shift from the old days.

[AoifeJ]

Rosey, I can so relate. Before I started HRT I was 5'11 and 175 lbs, very strong and athletic. Now at 8 months HRT I still have an athletic build, and I am still strong compared to girls, but weak compared to guys. My strength has diminished significantly. I used to play basketball all the time, competitive pick-up games full court, and haven't played in forever. It's definitely the biggest thing I miss from before. I also used to lift weights a lot, which I have barely done in the last year. I can feel that I am much weaker. My partner can easily hold me down, and push me off of him with ease. It's crazy, how in the bed I find I actually enjoy those feelings, but in the world I feel shame and melancholy over how much less stamina I have, and anxiety towards having less force at my disposal. My fitness practice now consists almost entirely of yoga. It works, and helps me to feel good and combat aches, tightness, cold feet/hands, but I miss doing intense exercise.

It's my sincere hope that later in transition when I have more 'stabilized' my hormones and my body is not changing so intensely, that I can get back into recreational sports and a 'gym rat' lifestyle. But right now I have so little money and stress from thinking about college loans, insurance, clothes, food, etc etc. that I don't know how to get there. But I so pray I can.

I want to get back to a place in my life where I can follow a training regiment, get into martial arts, and compete in sports again. I grew up enjoying athletics and I feel it's an integral part of myself that has been mostly shelved for the time being, and I feel very sad about it

[becky.rw]

Tested this evening...

Bench pre-hrt  ~220lb;  now  145lb.

Arms haven't changed much in size.

[ButterflyMelissa]

Ouch!
I work in a physical environment, I already feel the kilograms pulling things down. But, such are things. A lady gets a (gentle)man to do the lifting....LOL
Anyway...
Keeping yourself in physical shape is key, I plan to build regular visits to a gym in my weekly routine...I was warned for this to happen...but, such a small price to pay...
Melissa

[becky.rw]

Its not really an ouch, more an anti-ouch;  my skeletal frame was never compatible with what I did to it; so much so that my right shoulder's been fully dislocated twice, and my left has been surgically reconstructed from such a wrecked state that one of the two orthopods that did the surgery remembered my name several years afterwards, commenting, "dang, that was messed up." when I called for some rehab advice.

So this is really a good thing, a little bit more and I won't be able to lift anything I shouldn't be lifting in the first place.    Was still perfectly strong enough to split firewood this morning, as any God fearing pioneer woman ought to be able to do!  (lol).

You can use your imagination about what years of near max weight squats have done to my knees and hips...

[Emjay]

One of the things i'm having to adjust to is allowing men to carry heavy stuff for me; it is a mental shift from the old days.

So true.....  Every time I'm at the store and the cashier asks "Would you like help loading this?"  Out of habit, my first reaction is "Um, yeah no thanks" 

The last time I was at the hardware store the cashier (a really sweet, older lady) was like "Nope, I'm getting you help.  You shouldn't be lifting stuff like this, that's what men are for!"   

[barbie]

Interesting.

I guessed that HRT would do that. How about running? Is there any change in the strength of legs?

I am not on HRT, but I have been relatively weaker than most men, but stronger than most women. When I was young, I though I am physically weaker. But nowadays at my age of 52, I am physically stronger than most men at my age. For example, I can hike (and run) to the top of the highest mountain in this country in 2 hours, but it takes more than 4 hours for most men and women. I can not run fast, but my endurance is stronger than most men. I am a kind of slow runner. Whenever the air is clean, I run about 20 km (12 miles), and sometimes more than 30 km (20 miles)

Regular running has helped me maintain my body figure, and I guess HRT would undermine it.

barbie~~

[Deborah]

Interesting.

I guessed that HRT would do that. How about running? Is there any change in the strength of legs?

I am not on HRT, but I have been relatively weaker than most men, but stronger than most women. When I was young, I though I am physically weaker. But nowadays at my age of 52, I am physically stronger than most men at my age. For example, I can hike (and run) to the top of the highest mountain in this country in 2 hours, but it takes more than 4 hours for most men and women. I can not run fast, but my endurance is stronger than most men. I am a kind of slow runner. Whenever the air is clean, I run about 20 km (12 miles), and sometimes more than 30 km (20 miles)

Regular running has helped me maintain my body figure, and I guess HRT would undermine it.

barbie~~

I don't think HRT changed my leg strength much.  But it did lower my aerobic capacity.  That's probably because it lowered my red blood cell count.  A couple of years ago, when I was 53, I could still manage a mile in under 6 min after a few months of running.  I could also manage 26 miles at about an 8 min/mi pace. Both feel like an impossible pace now.  I'd guess that I have slowed by at least a min per mile.

Also, I feel like I could get away with more frequent workouts before and still recover enough  in between.  I did have pretty high testosterone then.  On the other hand, that might just be my imagination as I was using the running to control the dysphoria so constant borderline exhaustion was my goal.  I managed to run myself into heart arrhythmia twice doing that.  The second time it took me three days to coax it back into regular pattern.

[judithlynn]

Yes losing strength sort of caught up with me after over 36 months on HRT. This weekend I decided to get mu Mountain Bike out of the garage to take it for a Gold service (new tyres etc. Its about time that I lose some of my tummy fat and I thought some exercise of my bicycle would do me good. I even bought some nice leotard pants and top to wear. Anyway I really struggled to lift the bike into my Jeep to take it to the bicycle shop, but the muscled sweet boy did the heavy lifting for me.  Don't worry Ma'am, I can do that for you, said he... swoon!
Judith

[Lady Sarah]

Its not really an ouch, more an anti-ouch;  my skeletal frame was never compatible with what I did to it; so much so that my right shoulder's been fully dislocated twice, and my left has been surgically reconstructed from such a wrecked state that one of the two orthopods that did the surgery remembered my name several years afterwards, commenting, "dang, that was messed up." when I called for some rehab advice.

So this is really a good thing, a little bit more and I won't be able to lift anything I shouldn't be lifting in the first place.    Was still perfectly strong enough to split firewood this morning, as any God fearing pioneer woman ought to be able to do!  (lol).

You can use your imagination about what years of near max weight squats have done to my knees and hips...

I can relate to that. The mind thinks it should still be able to do things I could when I was 20. As a result, my L3 and L4 discs are messed up, bad. So far, no surgeon has been willing to fix them. After more tests, I am hoping I can get that done by the neurosurgeon I am currently seeing. This might be my last hope before I am wheelchair bound.

[Deborah]

Yes losing strength sort of caught up with me after over 36 months on HRT. This weekend I decided to get mu Mountain Bike out of the garage to take it for a Gold service (new tyres etc. Its about time that I lose some of my tummy fat and I thought some exercise of my bicycle would do me good. I even bought some nice leotard pants and top to wear. Anyway I really struggled to lift the bike into my Jeep to take it to the bicycle shop, but the muscled sweet boy did the heavy lifting for me.  Don't worry Ma'am, I can do that for you, said he... swoon!
Judith

I few weeks ago I was in Walmart to buy a small convertible sofa bed.  I didn't need a big fancy one and Walmart had a good price. 

I was moving the box when a Walmart employee ran over and said, "I'll get that for you ma'am."  Yaaay

The thing was, I went there after work in the late afternoon and was still in work-time male drab.

[TransAm]

FTM here.
This has always been an interesting subject to me--that is, the relatively extreme strength difference between the sexes--and I never wanted to fully believe it prior to beginning HRT. I always considered myself to be strong and I'd soon as rather have died than asked for any amount of help when it came to anything. There were times when I had to get a little resourceful but I always prided myself in being able to get any task completed alone.

The effects of T are still blowing my mind. My stamina and raw strength have increased so much that I sometimes feel like a big stupid puppy. I break things without intending to (using the same force and inertia I applied prior to HRT) and I often find myself wide-eyed in astonishment when I use muscle memory to do certain tasks and it takes so little effort that I end up ham-fisting it on accident.

Honestly, I wish there were a way everyone, cis or otherwise, could experience life on both sides for a short period. There would be a great deal of much-needed empathy achieved.