I never believed it would happen to me but a month in I have lost a good bit. Trying to get a sheet of plywood off the shelf at Home Depot is a challenge. I gave up and asked a store associate. Well at least he ma'amed me.
The loss of physical strength is pretty rapid. The loss of muscular bulk is surprisingly a lot slower in comparison.
Is that so? Huh. If only gaining muscle was that rapid.
I definitely struggle to start my arms moving .
Cliched as it sounds I have trouble opening jars these days.
Quote from: Wynternight on January 03, 2015, 02:24:30 PM
Cliched as it sounds I have trouble opening jars these days.
lol that is like the one thing I can still do, I have lots of strength in my hands and forearms somehow, but none anywhere else.
I remember how more than anything THAT effect stood out! A few months in nearly everything is gone (and I was pretty darn weak to begin with). Pulling muscles left and right, overestimating my physical capabilities...
Ah well, you get used to it XD best part imo is when I had to move all my male friends rushed to my aid and didn't expect me to help with the furniture.
pros and cons lol
Three months into HRT we had to move. Sweetie has spinal stenosis and couldn't help. I had no idea how much strength I had lost, and it's even worse now, a month later. I was in pain for weeks!
As I look to start low dosage HRT, this is one of the questions I have. I am wondering if anyone has continued their gym workouts and how the training has been affected. I am wondering about my tennis. I presently play league against the boys (at least for the present as I am not out there) and am wondering if I will be able to keep up with what I am doing. I guess I will be spending much more time in the gym. With muscle loss and possible weight gain, what is a girl to do?
Dumb question, but...
Has anyone been strength training?
If the bulk is going to stick around, might as well make sure it's trained, and tight.
Besides, you can do strength training (High weight, low reps), and still lose the bulk, with Estrogen.
Just remember to recalibrate, of course, to GIRL strong, not GUY strong... You'll always be a bit above "girl strong" if you maintain some strength training, because the body mechanics are different: Shoulder girdle, arm levers, etc.
But you'll lose too much strength to compete with the guys, which is probably a good thing. ;-) Who wants to compete with a gorilla?
At the same time, don't misunderstand - I LOVE my strength, and I DESPISE losing what seems like 10% - and that's from just not making it to the gym for the last two months!
But if we can only choose column A OR column B, and we can use old skills to maintain some extra strength or "gas in the tank" - why not do it?
Just remember to NO train for hypertrophy, we want small, dense, strong, womanly muscles... ;-)
And curves in all the right places, as well. :-D
I'm going to resume my strength training when I get back to work (gym is at work) but I have to figure out how to do it smart without bulking up. I'm thinking high reps and lower weight.
Cardio, and low weight/high rep exercise for muscle groups is what was recommended by my physiotherapist after my la injury (torn muscle in my right forearm from too much tennis!).
This whole topic has had me out on the road for a long power walk. Need to keep in shape going into the next phase.
I already do lots of cardio. The incentive is to control my diabetes and so far I'm doing well.
I've also lost 'turbo mode' as well. Before if i couldn't move something, i could work my self up and grunt a bit and add about 5-10% strength. Now? If it doesn't move the first time, it ain't moving lol.
Oddly, I kind of look forward to strength loss. Not sure why, maybe because it seems like something tangibly feminine. Mostly I'm hoping that my already fairly puny muscles become even less impressive. My upper legs are fairly defined, at least by comparison to the rest of me, but in a definitely blocky male sort of way.
I don't mind losing muscle bulk but I lament the loss of strength. I do a lot of things requiring some strength, such as climbing radio towers and lifting pieces of electronic equipment. I guess I'll have to hit the gym and I'll have to figure out how to do things smart.
Today I was doing a brake job on my car (i'm broke so I have to do that stuff myself). One of the more difficult tasks you have to do is to force the piston in the caliper back to its original position. I always used a large pair of pliers to squeeze the piston back and didn't think anything of it. Well TODAY was a different proposition :laugh: I just did not have any strength in my hands; and i fussed with it for a long time before finally getting each piston moved back.
This kind of stuff used to be easy, but now I am weak as all get out and can't do it anymore :P Luckily with the loss of strength my muscular arms also shrank which is what I wanted.
One of the things I really regretted about starting HRT while still in the Army was we still had to do our pyhsical fitness exams. It lined up that I had to do 2 after I had started HRT I don't know the exact numbers, but the Army acknowledges that females aren't going to normally do as many push-ups as males I think my age group had to do less then 20, maybe even 15. I was of course still a male in the Army and I had to do the required 39 pushups for my age, I had previously been able to average over 70 push-ups no problem, my first test not even 3 months after starting HRT it was like the fight of my life to make it to 40 and then collapse to the ground exhausted and spent.
Quote from: Leila on January 03, 2015, 01:15:36 PM
The loss of physical strength is pretty rapid. The loss of muscular bulk is surprisingly a lot slower in comparison.
I found this to be true too.
I never really cared about being strong, but I am saddend by how I can't play basketball very well anymore. Not a strength thing, but a physical thing for sure. It's one of the few maleish things I liked and could do well, but now I can't anymore.
Quote from: Eva Marie on January 03, 2015, 10:33:21 PM
Today I was doing a brake job on my car (i'm broke so I have to do that stuff myself). One of the more difficult tasks you have to do is to force the piston in the caliper back to its original position. I always used a large pair of pliers to squeeze the piston back and didn't think anything of it. Well TODAY was a different proposition :laugh: I just did not have any strength in my hands; and i fussed with it for a long time before finally getting each piston moved back.
This kind of stuff used to be easy, but now I am weak as all get out and can't do it anymore :P Luckily with the loss of strength my muscular arms also shrank which is what I wanted.
I use a vise. Makes it a lot easier. Don't worry, I do my own brake work too.
I kept my gym work going right through my transition and noticed that over time it became a polite question to some of the guys if they could put the weights on and off my machies, because no way I could.
@marcellow, hit the gym young man, you will bulk up on T and you can sculpt your body into a hot dude
Hi,
In my talks with many trans people what keeped coming up was lose of strength ,hmm funny that i thought, so did a bit of home work and yes it effected most trans and some was a lose of 60 % wow i thought , were the meds to strong or other or health issues , the blood tests seem to not show any thing out of order so quess you well most any way have to just take it on board and live with it or with out your male strength.
This is where its totaly different for my self ,i trained on the sites i worked on as a chippy and a little before that in the cabby shop and did weight lifting not your normal gym type it was lifting furniture on to a rotating table to spray it so quess who got very strong , in the begining two of us did it till i got sick of that and did my self was the furniture heavy yes yet i got strong enough to do it,
Now youll say i would have big muscles and bulk no not at all and have remained the same weight 11 1/2 stone =154 lbs,+ for 47 years no fat ever no bulk at all just a normal female body fit as strong as and light on her feet and quick, now at 67 ,
Meds did not change my body concerning weight or much else as you know im a intersexed female so meds have no power with in my body as to weight strength or over all shape , and that proves a matter with my difference from those of you who are, like it or not male bodyed , and when you go on meds they work very differently from us ,now i wont say all intersexed people , just a few who may be like my self ,
And as a beside my bodys own hormones did more changes than meds did.and that started over 21 years ago , Just some thing to think about we are not all the same in how our bodys work ,
...noeleena...
My loss of strength became really noticeable after a couple of years, or maybe it was because I tried to do something I had not done for a couple of years and thought; crap I am weak!
Over rest of the time, still losing "muscular" strength, but really happy with that.... hated doing all that sweaty muscular stuff prior, is over rated anyway :-*
L Katy
It took me about six months for it to become very noticeable. And to my surprise, it especially affects my finger strenght. I can still haul quite a lot of stuff if I pace myself and don't try to be a hero, which I did to great effect before since for some reason I had abnormally high arm strenght. My arms are still pretty fine, but anything I need to manipulate with my fingers like clamps, bolts, or yes, jar lids, is completely hopeless. Much more so than for the cis women around me, so I don't know what's up with that.
Ill be happy to lose some strength. In my trade ( stonemason) having to lift heavy things around, and mentally going ' yeh just lift it to there' and not thinking about 'bending the knees' etc. well I've got friends who are now regretting not lifting the right way or taking things on by themselves in their "younger years" and paying for it now in back problems and knee problems.
So yeh bring it on I'll still do lifting but only what my body will be capable of,otherwise I'll ask for help which should be done nowadays anyway.
I'm not very strong to begin with so I just stick to Bikram Yoga, running and bike riding. If I can't be as strong as I once was then I will have at least a nice shape to me :D
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I had no idea that mtf lost muscle mass. I'm not transgender so I decided to join to understand the transition phase (as support for friends) I'm one of those lesbians who enjoy "thy ol boobs"
Quote from: Vamapandaz on January 04, 2015, 02:17:33 PM
I had no idea that mtf lost muscle mass. I'm not transgender so I decided to join to understand the transition phase (as support for friends) I'm one of those lesbians who enjoy "thy ol boobs"
Yep. Lower testosterone levels means muscle atrophy
Quote from: Vamapandaz on January 04, 2015, 02:17:33 PM
I had no idea that mtf lost muscle mass. I'm not transgender so I decided to join to understand the transition phase (as support for friends) I'm one of those lesbians who enjoy "thy ol boobs"
Yep. That's why it's foolish when they try to exclude us from sports. Never played sports, never wanted to, but still....
Quote from: Dee Walker on January 04, 2015, 02:27:39 PM
Yep. That's why it's foolish when they try to exclude us from sports. Never played sports, never wanted to, but still....
That sucks, but I guess its also part of being an average woman. I'm stronger than an average girl (I don't look it to much being thin and sortta girlie) but I've always been very boyish, I was practicly a boy growing up.
Quote from: Dee Walker on January 04, 2015, 02:27:39 PM
Yep. That's why it's foolish when they try to exclude us from sports. Never played sports, never wanted to, but still....
Yeah it's an excuse just like the "some pervs will pretend to be trans which is why we can't allow trans to use the correct gender restroom." This is despite the fact that a lot of trans women on HRT have diminished male sexual function.
Quote from: Eva Marie on January 03, 2015, 10:33:21 PM
Today I was doing a brake job on my car (i'm broke so I have to do that stuff myself). One of the more difficult tasks you have to do is to force the piston in the caliper back to its original position. I always used a large pair of pliers to squeeze the piston back and didn't think anything of it. Well TODAY was a different proposition :laugh: I just did not have any strength in my hands; and i fussed with it for a long time before finally getting each piston moved back.
This kind of stuff used to be easy, but now I am weak as all get out and can't do it anymore :P Luckily with the loss of strength my muscular arms also shrank which is what I wanted.
C-clamp! Works great! (I've always done my own brake work too) :)
Quote from: Cindy on January 04, 2015, 12:27:23 AM
I kept my gym work going right through my transition and noticed that over time it became a polite question to some of the guys if they could put the weights on and off my machies, because no way I could.
@marcellow, hit the gym young man, you will bulk up on T and you can sculpt your body into a hot dude
Yes ma'am. I gotta take advantage of my banana body shape^^
Quote from: Marcellow on January 03, 2015, 01:36:27 PM
Is that so? Huh. If only gaining muscle was that rapid.
Lifting heavy and low reps can bulk you up pretty fast, with plenty of T in your system that's sure to help. Don't forget whey protein immediately after workout and at night before bed.
I know this sounds ridiculous if you haven't ever really been an avid weight lifter but doing around 80-90% of the maximum workload you could do for any particular lift 3-5 reps for about 4-5 sets will not build as much bulk as working with higher reps.
Higher reps and lighter workloads is hypertrophy and causes less strength in the muscle group worked but more stimulation which causes the muscle to grow.
Plus is you are on HRT you will not really gain any further muscle mass just burn fat and add tone. This is why you'll see cis women lifting crazy amounts of weight doing stuff like crossfit and be pretty tiny.
You can look at competitive body builders who use the hypertrophy ( high rep) method and then cross reference that with a power lifter in say the feather weight, weight class, and you will see what I am talking about. Body builders rarely ever lift heavy. It's athletes that lift heavy and they come in every shape and size, but they are more concerned with strength than size.
I have altered my lifting A LOT since I decided to transition, but as soon as I go on Estrogen and especially andro blockers I am resuming a heavy workload. It has been my best therapy, saving grace, and set back since I was in HS.
Quote from: Eva Marie on January 03, 2015, 10:33:21 PM
Today I was doing a brake job on my car (i'm broke so I have to do that stuff myself). One of the more difficult tasks you have to do is to force the piston in the caliper back to its original position. I always used a large pair of pliers to squeeze the piston back and didn't think anything of it. Well TODAY was a different proposition :laugh: I just did not have any strength in my hands; and i fussed with it for a long time before finally getting each piston moved back.
This kind of stuff used to be easy, but now I am weak as all get out and can't do it anymore :P Luckily with the loss of strength my muscular arms also shrank which is what I wanted.
Been there done that! ;D It takes all my might to remove a single lug nut nowadays. I still do all of my own automotive work within reason. Even using a 3 ton heavy jack is a chore. Years of HTR has happily made my arms nice and scrawny though.
Thankfully I use a compressor and impact wrench.
I try to avoid all upper-body exercise, and always have. In my life, I rarely had any visible muscle above my hips. My arms had more fat than muscle even before transitioning, so that seems to be working. Avoiding upper body work and taking long walks together helped me avoid excessive muscularity and prevent wide shoulders from developing. I did, however, have fairly large leg muscles - not bulging, just big. After 4+ months on HRT, my legs are still too muscular, although I have noticed slight changes. I, too, wanted atrophy because I just want to look as feminine as possible, but not much has happened. I think weight loss, which I am trying anyway to shrink my waist, should help with that as well.
As for strength, I seem to have lost much more of that than muscle itself. My fingers can't do much anymore; my arms can't lift as much, and my legs cannot move as quickly. I would have preferred to lose the muscle rather than the strength, but I guess any loss is progress.
Had to go in a tech center today to get my hands dirty and replace (lift!) some equipment. Wow, I had no idea how heavy it was... lifted up a wooden step ladder and I was clearly struggling with it now. Dang... I need to resume some strength traning asap. Good thing I had a colleague help me, I'd be up a creek without a paddle!
I've worked construction and was a competitive athlete most of my life. Needless to say, for my size I was pretty strong pre-hrt. Between month 3 and 4 I lost 20lbs in muscle. It happened pretty quick. I still work a labour job and feel like every day the load of tools I carry gets heavier and my arms are constantly getting smaller and squishier. It makes for an exhausting work day but is a totally welcomed change ^_^ my supervisor sticks me with light work more often than not which is also totally welcomed!
Wow, the more I read the more there is to ponder. I am a BIG guy; 56" chest 19+" arms, been lifting more on than off for 32 years. I just find this all so encouraging and helpful! Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I pulled muscle in my back opening my garage door Thursday. It gets harder and harder to get it open.
I run 25-30 miles a week. When I started HRT, within a week my times got much slower so I had to readjust my form to be more efficient. It seemed like I lost a lot of strength, but not the proportional muscle mass. After a few weeks on HRT, I started getting some visible muscle mass loss, especially in the arms and legs. My chest, shoulders, and back seem about the same as pre-HRT, though.