I went throught this whole thread, and I didn't think I saw this link here, so I figured I'd post it since it might be helpful to some people in addition to all the other information here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5_routines_for_women.htm

This is an exercise routine, tips, and schedules/logs provided by a female body builder, Marika Johansson. I've heard some guys express some concern about how being a bio-female won't allow them to bulk up or look like a bio-male, and this link is aimed at bio-females who do want to bulk up. Most weight-lifting articles I've read are for females who just want to get stronger without any bulk. Marika looks amazing, and as far as I know she hasn't done any steroids, just 15+ years of intense exercise and a strict diet. I think this could be helpful for pre-T guys.

what are you folks thoughts on resistance bands? I just got some and am now starting to up my endurance by doing some resistance strength training everytime i feel restless during the course of the day and not trying to focus so much on routine mostly cause i feel less motivated if i feel like i didnt complete an hour session so i decided to spread it across my day.
in any case, what suggested routines for biceps chest shoulders would anyone have for me that involve resistance bands.

thanks in advance

Quote from: krakenshay on February 18, 2013, 09:19:40 AM
what are you folks thoughts on resistance bands? I just got some and am now starting to up my endurance by doing some resistance strength training everytime i feel restless during the course of the day and not trying to focus so much on routine mostly cause i feel less motivated if i feel like i didnt complete an hour session so i decided to spread it across my day.
in any case, what suggested routines for biceps chest shoulders would anyone have for me that involve resistance bands.

thanks in advance

We discussed them a little bit here: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,133125.msg1057513.html#msg1057513
I found that even the heaviest resistance wasn't strong enough for me after awhile, so I just went and got weights. They're probably good if you're just starting out. I have some workout guides in pdf format that shows you how to do things with the weights (my corresponding dvd shows how to do it with the bands) if you want I could e-mail to you... for the bands you just do the moves the same as the weights, you just step on the bands. There's also a lot of videos here: Resistance Band Exercises : Resistance Band Exercises: Teaser with Reverse Fly

I never did ANY bodybuilding (too lazy, lol. I'm lazy as hell!), but nonetheless want to, because I just hate my low muscle mass (my floppy arms just scream "FEMALE!"), this thread is extremely helpful for total newbies like me, thanks a lot for sharing!

Ditto what Eric said. I've never been good when it comes to exercise but I hate how my body is so weak and I'd like to have more muscle and mass. Thankyou for sharing this info!

Quote from: Erik Ezrin on May 08, 2013, 05:46:59 AM
I never did ANY bodybuilding (too lazy, lol. I'm lazy as hell!), but nonetheless want to, because I just hate my low muscle mass (my floppy arms just scream "FEMALE!"), this thread is extremely helpful for total newbies like me, thanks a lot for sharing!

As someone who's been going hard for the past year and a half, let me give you a tip: lose the fat before building muscle!
And I don't mean that's necessary for your entire body. But MAINLY your arms.
I've built a decent amount of arm muscle up, and can't see ANY of it unless I flex (and even then only my biceps show through, since most of my fat is covering my poor triceps). If your arms are fat, you need to build a SUBSTANTIAL amount of muscle to be able to tell. I've also seen guys at my gym who don't cut, and just build. And their muscles look like inflatable water wings you put on a child in the pool!

To burn my arm fat, I'm currently using Sweet Sweat. I put it underneath my neoprene arm bands, and go out for a bike ride.
A lot of people knock on Sweet Sweat and neoprene bands, because they either don't workout hard enough to know they're working, or don't cut calories to actually lose the fat. But I am proof that it works, as is my friend.

We both lost INCHES from our already small waists in two weeks. She went from 130lbs to 114, and I went from 126 to 120. While also building muscle (which means we burned even more fat than we lost weight in total!) And this weight ONLY dropped from our waists, where we chose to use the Sweet Sweat and neoprene bands! Normally, if we were just losing, we would have lost quite a bit of boob and butt, too.

My arms are my current project, because they are WAAAAYYYY too fat. Or, at least my upper arms are. Somehow my forearms look skinnier than a dopehead's. (*SIGH* Oh, my anatomy...) I haven't worn them enough yet to see a difference, but let me tell you, I will come on here crying tears of joy once I do! I HATE wearing short sleeves because of my fat arms! >:[ I'm probably going for a ride tomorrow; I feel like I'm running out of time, and summer's basically already here! =__=

BTW, I prefer bike rides because they're fun, easy, and you don't even feel like you're burning all the calories you are. Also, it's a GREAT leg workout! I can ride for HOURS and still want to keep going!


I really need to hit the gym, too, though. Now that I'm having serious thoughts of transitioning, I need to start working out my arms again, rather than my usual butt workouts. I already beat most of the guys at the leg press, I guess it's time I give those muscles a break and focus on my upper body strength again. x3

I don't want to be overly muscular like most of the men here, though. I'm ok with being a little scrawny. But even as a female I've been striving for muscle tone and a general look of fitness, so I want to go just a little bit further than that as a male. And...maybe I should let my butt muscles atrophy just a little...since 40", all ass is pretty big for a 5'4" dude...

EDIT: Oh lawd, you can tell how fat my upper arms are in my picture...And...they're literally twice that size when my arms are down against my body...Motivation to workout!

I might have mentioned this before somewhere but if anyone is looking for free working programs, try http://www.freetrainers.com I've used them for about 3 years now and while there's a limit to the variety of workouts they have, I've found them helpful for basic "getting in shape" type of stuff to more moderate weight training and exercise.

Would be cool to have a workout journal section on here. I think it would be good motivation.

Quote from: G on October 16, 2013, 12:33:02 PM
Would be cool to have a workout journal section on here. I think it would be good motivation.

There's a workout section of the board, you can freely start a journal thread over there.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,10.0.html

Quote from: LearnedHand on October 16, 2013, 02:54:22 PM
There's a workout section of the board, you can freely start a journal thread over there.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,10.0.html

Awesome! Might as well since I write it down

I love that people sharing scooby1961's videos. He does really great informative videos on both bodybuilding and nutrition. I don't know how to imbed videos, but here's one of his I saw years ago that I really like and find helpful:

Wow that is a lot of information! But it looks really really difficult, aha, maybe I should work on this getting in shape thing...

Quote from: Daydreamer on April 19, 2014, 01:45:13 AM
I love that people sharing scooby1961's videos. He does really great informative videos on both bodybuilding and nutrition.

Agree, http://www.scoobysworkshop.com is one of my favorite sources. He doesn't flog useless products and most of his stuff you can do at home or with cheap or DIY equipment.

His pullups and pushups for beginners how-to guides got me from 3x7 pushups to 5x25 (5x20 pre-T) and from 3x1 pull-ups to 3x6. 

He also has good info on nutrition, including stuff for vegetarians. (Rice protein + pea protein is the best approximation of whey for vegans, FYI, and can easily be found organic or non-GMO.)

My other favorites are http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html for the most comprehensive and scientific exercise and fitness information including video clips of exercises with proper form and just the video section at http://videos.askthetrainer.com for demos of exercises sorted by muscle group and equipment type, so if you're looking for something you can do for shoulders at home with dumbbells you can find it easily.  Warning - last I checked the rest of the site has a bunch of commercial hype and sexist crap on it.  I am just vouching for the videos.

Not really looking for body building info but I'm trying to get healthier. I do cardio 5x a week for 30-45 min. On my off days I do an hour or more of walking through the day. My cholesterol is high, so I'm eating better and trying to exercise. Since I've been busting my butt at the gym I've been losing weight faster which is okay. According to my scale which checks body fat percentage, I've lost one pound of "not fat" for every 9 or so pounds of fat lost. I'd like to change it around a bit so I can have no muscle loss.
So, what the heck do I do? I've got a Planet Fitness membership and do 5x5 on the machines, hitting each one (about) 2x a week. Open to suggestions, but keep in mind I have no idea wtf I'm doing on the exercise end of things. I keep my heart rate in the 145-160 range during cardio and on the borg scale I'm usually around 13-16.

If you're losing 1 lb lean body mass for every 9 lbs fat then you're doing well.  You must have your diet under control with good nutrition.

If you post some specific fitness and body composition goals I or somebody else here could give you specific workout advice.  But for general fitness it sounds like you're doing it right.


Sapere Aude

Quote from: Deborah on April 20, 2016, 06:22:06 PM
If you're losing 1 lb lean body mass for every 9 lbs fat then you're doing well.  You must have your diet under control with good nutrition.

If you post some specific fitness and body composition goals I or somebody else here could give you specific workout advice.  But for general fitness it sounds like you're doing it right.


Sapere Aude

I don't really have specific fitness or body composition goals. I'd like to have a body I'd be comfortable with shirtless by June 19th but that's a kind of complex thing. My main achievements are with my health. Blood pressure and cholesterol.

With my current trend and tracking via various apps, I started at 200.4 lbs with 34.7% body fat and I'm currently 183.9 lbs with 30% body fat. It's likely that I will be around 165lbs by June 19th.

I would recommend you set a goal to reduce body fat below 20%.  That will make you look good without a shirt.  After that you can decide if you want to work towards getting really defined (around 12% or less body fat) or to maintain at around 20%.


Sapere Aude

Quote from: Deborah on April 20, 2016, 08:35:32 PM
I would recommend you set a goal to reduce body fat below 20%.  That will make you look good without a shirt.  After that you can decide if you want to work towards getting really defined (around 12% or less body fat) or to maintain at around 20%.


Sapere Aude

I'm not looking for other people to think I look good without a shirt. I'd just like to feel comfortable shirtless. I also don't know if going from 30% to 20% body fat in 9 weeks is possible, likely, or healthy. I also don't know/think that's what I want.

Quote from: Nygeel on April 20, 2016, 08:38:26 PM
I'm not looking for other people to think I look good without a shirt. I'd just like to feel comfortable shirtless. I also don't know if going from 30% to 20% body fat in 9 weeks is possible, likely, or healthy. I also don't know/think that's what I want.

Why 9 weeks? You're right, that is not healthy, but doing that over like a year and a half would be reasonable.

I'd advise you to stay away from the machines, and do free weights. Stronglifts 5x5 is a good simple program for beginners. For cardio too, while what you're doing is great, it'd be even better to do HIIT (high insentisy interval training) instead of steady state cardio. You can google HIIT routines. In addition to all the physical benefits over steady state cardio HIIT takes a lot less time, and is not as repetitive.