I never thought i miss mucles

[TransAm]

I don't mean for this to come off as odd (Christ, I'm such a socially awkward penguin), but your new profile pic looks great, Deborah; very feminine and really pretty.

[AoifeJ]

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.

It's always neat to hear these accounts from trans men. Enjoy it, I wish it were possible to retain the strength and vitality while still transitioning in the other direction 😛

[Deborah]

I don't mean for this to come off as odd (Christ, I'm such a socially awkward penguin), but your new profile pic looks great, Deborah; very feminine and really pretty.

Thank you.  :-)

I don't miss the strength so much because I didn't have that much to start with.  I really haven't seen any perceptible difference.

I do miss the ability to run myself into the dirt and recover quickly enough to do it again tomorrow.  Improvement comes a lot slower.

[barbie]

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.

Wow! You run so fast. In my case, I run slowly, fearing any leg injury. The speed like 8 min/mi is possible only when I participate in half-course marathon events.

barbie~~

[barbie]

It's always neat to hear these accounts from trans men. Enjoy it, I wish it were possible to retain the strength and vitality while still transitioning in the other direction

Yes. I agree. Very interesting and informative!

barbie~~

[Harley Quinn]

Ha ha ha ha...  Well, I imagine that the muscle thing kind of works in phases...

1. Pre HRT Testosterone fueled muscles
2. Early HRT Little Testosterone and your body is fighting to break down those muscles and give you some cushion around your hips and breast buds.  ( ie...  you feel excessivly weak from a combination of your body working overtime to correct it's construction plans)
3. Mid HRT when most of the big Hormone changes have occured things will get slightly better strength wise now that you have almost equalized.
4. Steady State HRT. You're done feminizing and your body can concentrate more on the dense muscle you will achieve as a woman.

Just a theory...  but I think it will get better once your body isn't trying to "rebuild"... Similar to a body builder that stays up all night and gets up at the crack of dawn and continually tears down his muscles in the gym 3 4 and 5 times a day will make little to no progress in gaining muscle bulk or density.  You make bigger gains by allowing your body to rest between workouts...  well, with the introduction of Estrogen, your body is never really resting early on.  It's working on the laundry list of body issues that it reads as subpar for a woman.

[DawnOday]

Always been a weakling even when lifting weights I never have what would be termed "Guns " I have had a six pack, that is until it turned into a keg.  But I have lost 78 lbs over the last two years. From 296 down to 218 and still losing. I could not do a single pullup. I once did a hundred push ups. Thought I was gonna die. That's way before I knew I had heart problems which were with me when I was born.

[roseyfox]

I can still do pull ups about 10 in a row before dieing of exhaustion however before hormones i could do it without end. I use to run miles like nothing while still being to maintain my speed it much harder and my body feels like it being torn in every direction at the end of everyday. Lose so much way so suddenly and i am getting much more fat according to the scales. It horrifying but brilliant it feels brilliant while feeling horrible.

[Harley Quinn]

I totally understand the brilliant/horrible horrible/brilliant...  I was 178 lbs and had just got out of the military where I was extremely active. In 3 months I was down to 135 and at 6 months back up to 158...  where I have been hovering give or take 10 lbs.  Im sure you'll steady out eventually.  I felt horrible during my weight loss and major fluctuations.  "This too shall pass".

[Michelle_P]

Oh, yeah.  I'm totally seeing this now.  I've been trying to work out and keep some strength up, but I find myself defeated by the oddest things.  Wrenching on the car, of course, so I need a bigger breaker bar and am contemplating a pneumatic wrench.  Pickle jars!  Now I'm jimmying the lids to loosen them up so I can open them.

I did lose two inches of chest size (under the new growth, which has added a couple inches 🙂 ).

More recently, I haven't been able to work out for two weeks from a recent surgery, and am looking at several days more before I can go running or use the elliptical.  I'm dreading what my endurance will look like.

[LizK]

I had my daughters and their boyfriends over to help me sort out the gardens and lawns around my home. Traditionally I have always been tasked to mow the lawns and do the "heavy" outside work.

I got one hell of a shock on Sunday when I tried to go about my normal mowing the lawns and weeding, using power tools to trim up the edges and get rid of unwanted overgrown grass. What I found was, I could not lift as much, my stamina seems to have dropped away, my body shape has changed subtly ...I kept banging my breasts/buds(?) (Tanner stage 3) on things and wow that hurt.

After about 4 or 5 hours I was totally shattered, so thought I would just do a few minor things around the place to finish off. I could hardly stay standing and my arms were shaking badly when I tried to prune some small branches off a tree with a hand held axe, at the end I couldn't even lift it... I felt like I had done 8 hrs really hard work. Since Sunday I am hardly able to even move my arms in certain ways...I have very stressed out arm muscles...never happened before.

I knew I had lost "some" strength but nothing compared to the reality of Sunday in the garden...Something I am going to have to get used to and make allowances for.

Liz

[AoifeJ]

Ha ha ha ha...  Well, I imagine that the muscle thing kind of works in phases...

1. Pre HRT Testosterone fueled muscles
2. Early HRT Little Testosterone and your body is fighting to break down those muscles and give you some cushion around your hips and breast buds.  ( ie...  you feel excessivly weak from a combination of your body working overtime to correct it's construction plans)
3. Mid HRT when most of the big Hormone changes have occured things will get slightly better strength wise now that you have almost equalized.
4. Steady State HRT. You're done feminizing and your body can concentrate more on the dense muscle you will achieve as a woman.

Just a theory...  but I think it will get better once your body isn't trying to "rebuild"... Similar to a body builder that stays up all night and gets up at the crack of dawn and continually tears down his muscles in the gym 3 4 and 5 times a day will make little to no progress in gaining muscle bulk or density.  You make bigger gains by allowing your body to rest between workouts...  well, with the introduction of Estrogen, your body is never really resting early on.  It's working on the laundry list of body issues that it reads as subpar for a woman.

This makes a lot of sense to me and I really hope it is the case! I am definitely in the rebuilding stage right now.. with all the tiredness and aches and strange sensations that come with it

[DawnOday]

whoo. Just got back from Costco, and boy do I know what you are talking about. Only on E for a month and when I went shopping today they packed up a box around 50 lbs. and I really struggled with it and was exhausted by the end. With my heart problems I've been on restricted lifting for 25 years. But I usually just ignore it. I can't any more.