Any athletes here? How and when do your muscles weaken on estrogen?

[Eliza C]

I'm going to start HRT and I have some concerns as to how our muscles will weaken on HRT.

I'm not a competitive archer, but I do strive to beat Olympic recurve shooters at 20 yards using traditional archery equipment. I shoot a 38 lb (38 pound draw weight) bow as my main competition bow, but I practice with higher poundages to condition myself to shoot better with the 38 lb bow.

One of my goals for Spring 2019 is to shoot a 50 lb bow for practice. And I'm afraid that I may be too weak to do that on HRT. What if I practice with a 50 lb bow consistently on HRT and hope my back muscles don't weaken too much?

What has your experience been in sports and exercise while on HRT?

[Margarine]

Mackenzie Brown, America's only female archer competing in the 2016 Rio games, draws 46.5 pounds in the . She is not a large woman. Practice and you should loose nothing. Brady Ellison (male) typically draws a 53 pounds. I still draw a 50 pound bow, but I can no longer one hand a 50 pound sack of dog food or 50 lb one handed bicep curls or bench 333 lbs (I had my testosterone delivered by patch or injection since I made nearly none)  I can lift 25 lbs with no great ease and bench 135 +/- now.

[Asakawa]

Not sure if I am an athlete but I practice martial arts and a couple at that. Never been particularly strong but I did notice some loss of strength after starting hrt. Though at the same time I also became vegetarian and then tried vegan and was really bad at cooking and lost like 20 lbs of weight at that time. Definitely felt weaker but it could have also been my bad new diet. I still am a vegetarian. I don't focus on strength training, but I feel that if you do like lift heavy weights with low repetitions then you should be able to gather muscle cells and get physically stronger. You just need to know which muscles you use and Target them specifically. So if you are worried then add weight training to build muscle/use what you have more effectively.

So like I said I did feel weaker but practice makes perfect so if you are devoted to your art then that will make you improve. For me cardio has been a weakness but I have a heart syndrome and my red blood cells came back lowish likely from lack of iron due to me not eating enough iron foods. But now that I know I can at least fix this with a proper food or supplements. In my martial arts class I am told I am good mainly because I focus a lot on technique. Mainly with kicks since that is what I like.

[KathyLauren]

It's been a while since I did anything athletic.  I did notice, about six months after starting HRT, that my chainsaw had put on about 20 lbs since I had last used it!

[Eliza C]

Mackenzie Brown, America's only female archer competing in the 2016 Rio games, draws 46.5 pounds in the . She is not a large woman. Practice and you should loose nothing. Brady Ellison (male) typically draws a 53 pounds. I still draw a 50 pound bow, but I can no longer one hand a 50 pound sack of dog food or 50 lb one handed bicep curls or bench 333 lbs (I had my testosterone delivered by patch or injection since I made nearly none)  I can lift 25 lbs with no great ease and bench 135 +/- now.

Wooo fellow archer!!! Hey, if men can shoot 70+ women can totally shoot 50+. Heck, I know an elderly cis woman who shoots a 100 lb English Longbow

[CindyLouFromCO]

For me it was about two years for my running times to be in range with a average female runner at my age.  Mid 40's 30 to 34 min per 5K, cross country running.  It's getting harder to maintain this after four years.

Most governed athletic agencies like the Olympics say one needs to be on HRT for at least two years to be able to compete and for fair competition.

For me it was two years.  Your miles may very.  Maybe as others have stated you can work those muscles and not lose any performance?

I'm not sure how.  I would assume because of not having much testosterone to maintain muscle is my guess.  If we stop producing testosterone we lose muscle. 

[Harley Quinn]

I have been on hormones for 3 years. I hunt and still draw a 60 lb bow. I think it's more about lifestyle than muscle loss. I noticed the loss of strength in the first year, but with a little effort it hasn't slowed me down.  My grandmother bucked hay 6 teirs onto a 4x4 into her late 70s. If you work at it, it will not be an issue.

[jill610]

Welcome to womanhood.

Seriously though, it will take more work to maintain the same strength as a man, and you will lose it faster if you do nothing to keep it.

I have lost 75% of the muscle mass in my arms over the last ~2 years, a typical long sleeve medium shirt fits me the same as any other woman of my height/weight (loose). I can still draw a 60# bow, occasionally come in top of the cyclebar leader board and lift 100# but it takes more effort than before. Ironically, my running times have improved.

I noticed the most significant change in strength 6 months after my T fell into the <3 range.

[Eliza C]

Omg!!! So many fellow trans archers! I wish to shoot with all of you one day. Anyone in the NYC area?

Also, we are referring to recurve right? Or are we talking compound?

[Harley Quinn]

Omg!!! So many fellow trans archers! I wish to shoot with all of you one day. Anyone in the NYC area?

Also, we are referring to recurve right? Or are we talking compound?

I have both a recurve and compound... stringing the recurve bruises the crap out of my thighs anymore. LOL... But yes 60+ lbs isn't a problem. My compound is 65-80. Not an issue drawing 70 on a compound. 🙄

[Katie]

Played rollerderby for years as you can see in my picture. This was after SRS. I dont recall any changes to my muscles and i certainly was pretty dam strong. I will say however I played occasionally in CO ED games and the guys certainly had way more power than I did.......

[Asakawa]

Well it looks like I am the weakest one in here. How long have you gals been on hrt? I started when I was 21 and I am about to hit 34 in 2 months.

[Eliza C]

Well it looks like I am the weakest one in here. How long have you gals been on hrt? I started when I was 21 and I am about to hit 34 in 2 months.

I started yesterday...

[Ricki Wright]

I started yesterday...

^^^^^^
That is soo cool! Congrats

Just over 3 whole months on HRT and I can still draw my 45/22 compound bow without too much issue. I have noticed that the 4th set of 5 arrows weigh a lot more when pulling them back  I think there is something odd with the lay lines that run thru my archery range.