So there is a downside of working out, over the last couple months I've started to get stretch marks around my biceps. Muscles are growing too fast for my skin apparently. 

That's EXACTLY what's happening to you, just as you put it. Quickly adding on muscle mass will force the skin to stretch beyond its ability. Stretch marks are the result of skin being stretched beyond its natural elasticity. This stretching causes a disruption of the body's collagen production. Collagen is a special protein that helps keep the skin elastic and, therefore, able to stretch when we gain weight. When this collagen production is disrupted, however, the skin loses its elasticity, which makes it more prone to stretch marks. Stretch marks are scientifically known as a form of scarring.

Here's a couple of recommendations:

1) Drinking plenty of fluids helps maintain the skin's elasticity. Water is the preferred choice.

2) Apply lotion to the areas that typically get stretch marks or already have them, for prevention and/or stopping growth (typically body joints). A natural cocoa-butter lotion is good for that and fading them away a bit, according to popular wisdom. Others say Vitamin-E based lotions work marvels on them. Vitamin K-based lotions are another alternative many stretch-mark sufferers swear by. You can do your own research

3) Take lots of Vitamin C (by lots I mean far more than 500 mg. daily). This Vitamin is a natural all-around healer and will help your skin adapt better to and repair itself from those excessive stretches.

4) Improve your diet. Green leafy vegetables are a must, they have lots of vitamin K and lots of antioxidants, which help skin elasticity among many other things.

5) You can also try exfoliation by removing dead skin cells to make stretch marks less prominent on skin. Use an exfoliation body scrub. I myself do this 2-3 times a week, with an affordable exfoliating glove purchased at Walmart, for every area in my body.

I hope any of these suggestions help you. I stress this: Drinking plenty of water all day long is a must, as well as taking lots of vitamin C, either in its natural sources (food, specially fruit and vegetables) or as a supplement, to keep you healthy in general and of course for your stretch-mark little problem!

Cheers

Bibi

Quote from: Tad on January 16, 2011, 02:06:56 PM
So there is a downside of working out, over the last couple months I've started to get stretch marks around my biceps. Muscles are growing too fast for my skin apparently. 

I've heard some people just rubbing straight Vit. E onto stretch marks (the capsules of it are usually gel so you just break them open). Not sure if that works as I haven't tried it.

The place I got stretch marks (and I'm afraid they're pretty permanent at this point)  is over my hips, right around the crest of the hip bone. Kinda looks like stripes haha. I had gained weight years ago and then lost it and that's where they came from. So far I've escaped the bicep stretch marks. Of course I've also been slowly increasing my weights. I started with only 10lbs on the barbell and after 4 weeks I've increased it to 30lbs.

Im still pre t  but ive been liftin dumbells 15 mins a day for 3 days a week on average,
my shoulders an arms seem to be bulkin up pretty nicely, but i still have that feminine
curvature at the hips.

Anyone got any tips or pointers for tryin to lessen the curve of the hips?
are there any excercises that not neccesarily remove the curve completely but help to
shape it in a more masculine way? if that makes sense.

cardio really works the hips

Quote from: Afakasii on January 27, 2011, 10:45:13 PM
Anyone got any tips or pointers for tryin to lessen the curve of the hips?
are there any excercises that not neccesarily remove the curve completely but help to
shape it in a more masculine way? if that makes sense.

Work out your obliques.  There is only so much you can do for hip shape (especially pre-T), but if you build up your obliques, it will make your hips look like they have less curve since there will be less of a difference between hip circumference and waist circumference.

Any advice for those of us naturally curvy and narrow waisted? I love that my arms are starting to shape up a bit and that I've been loosing weight as well. I do however remember being slightly underweight and still having a very noticeable curve.. And to be honest I'm a little worried about actually passing less than I already do.. Any tips?

Allright, took a month and a bit off from lifting weights or doing any exercise, and got back into it a few weeks ago. Few muscles around my neck/shoulders have visibly grown, upper arms have grown too, but since I'm fat and haven't been lsoing any, not much for definition has resulted.

Here's some advice for those seeking to look less curvy -more manly, inverted-triangle shape as opposed to guitar-shaped--

I can tell you this with 100% assurance, since currently I'm struggling to get the feminine shape many of you guys hate to have, and I still have the manly shape you guys long for. I ALREADY DEVELOPED HIPS, I MEAN HIP WIDTH, WHICH IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO ACCOMPLISH FOR AN MTF SUCH AS MYSELF, yet my shape is still more masculine than feminine. WHY?

My shoulder and back width. I'm telling you, if you want to look like men, forget "losing your curves" and focus on broadening your back and shoulders!

I'm sure my hips do compete with or even surpass many of yours guys, yet I just can't accomplish looking like a guitar, because of my shoulder and back width. I totally HATE looking at so many GGs --and even a few transwomen as well-- who have ridiculously narrow shoulders and LOOK VERY curvy --even though they have much smaller hips than me-- because their hips look broader than their shoulders and back. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I developed wide back/shoulders by doing lots and lots of chins and pull-downs. You don't even need to develop your shoulder muscles themselves --i never did myself!--; by just broadening your shoulders through back-widening exercises, you will look way more masculine than a guy with small hips and narrow shoulders and back. It took me years to do broaden my back and shoulders and I looked extremely manly, because that's what I wanted to look like at that time, and I thoroughly regret having done that today, because once you broaden those areas, they stay like that for good!

As a secondary thing, very developed oblique muscles help your waist look less curvy, so if you want to look more blocky and less curvy in your waist, then you should do side-bends, with enough weight to do sets of 8-12 reps. Use dumbbells preferrably. Here's an interesting version of the exercise:



Sit-ups on an inclined table, bending to a side as you go up, (right elbow touches your left knee/thigh and vice-versa-- also help.

Today my measurements are 38-30.5-41 AND I STILL DON'T HAVE A FEMININE SHAPE, because of my broad shoulders and back, which make my hip width look almost non-existent  --I'm hardly an A-cup, in case you wondered why I don't look curvy with a 3-inch difference between bust and hips--. I think my hips would need to be around 45 inches for me to start looking guitar-shaped as I dream of being!

Here's a wardrobe tip as well: Wear light colors for the areas you want to make look big and dark colors for the areas you want to be less noticeable. Here's the extreme example: White for above your waist and black for below it. When I wear light-blue jeans I look curvier than when I wear black jeans, because my legs, hips and butt look bigger in lighter colors.

Hope this helped!

Bibi

Quote from: Afakasii on January 27, 2011, 10:45:13 PM
Im still pre t  but ive been liftin dumbells 15 mins a day for 3 days a week on average,
my shoulders an arms seem to be bulkin up pretty nicely, but i still have that feminine
curvature at the hips.

You will find that estrogen blockers and T will significantly reduce this as it is classic female pattern fat distribution

Thanks for the tips again Bibi. I've been working very hard for the past couple of months doing many chin ups and lat pull downs, and I think I'm starting to notice a difference in my back width. I've also been doing oblique exercises too, and it does help. Been going to the gym 5-6 days a week, and I'm seeing results very quickly, small bits changing at a time. It's a really neat thing to experience. Also thanks for the tip about color. I have to admit, the other day I was wearing a white tank top with my white binder underneath and a light button down jacket draped on my shoulders and back, while wearing some dark blue jeans. I looked in the mirror and I noticed how much of a difference a different wardrobe can change how you look! My normal attire is usually a very dark T-shirt (almost always black) and blue jeans, and the jeans contrasting with my dark shirts must have drawn attention to my large hips. Guess I'm doing some shopping for new clothes very soon lol.

Quote from: Kohdy on February 16, 2011, 12:32:29 PM
Thanks for the tips again Bibi. I've been working very hard for the past couple of months doing many chin ups and lat pull downs, and I think I'm starting to notice a difference in my back width. I've also been doing oblique exercises too, and it does help. Been going to the gym 5-6 days a week, and I'm seeing results very quickly, small bits changing at a time. It's a really neat thing to experience. Also thanks for the tip about color. I have to admit, the other day I was wearing a white tank top with my white binder underneath and a light button down jacket draped on my shoulders and back, while wearing some dark blue jeans. I looked in the mirror and I noticed how much of a difference a different wardrobe can change how you look! My normal attire is usually a very dark T-shirt (almost always black) and blue jeans, and the jeans contrasting with my dark shirts must have drawn attention to my large hips. Guess I'm doing some shopping for new clothes very soon lol.

Clothes most definitely make a huge difference. Best thing to do is when you go clothes shopping try on things together (like outfits) and take a bunch of things with you in the dressing room and mix and match it.

On a different note about clothes, I just threw out half the stuff in my closet because it was too tight around my back and arms. And I've only been working out for 12 weeks now. I really didn't see that much difference but by trying on some old clothes it was definitely noticeable.

This thread is awesome! I've only begun working out 4 weeks ago at a gym, before that I'd been working out at home (pre hysto, had to take a while off to recover from that). I've seen a fair amount of progress in just four short weeks, and can't wait to continue developing my muscles!

I've been working out at the gym now for about a month and a half, twice a week- or three times a week at best. I am doing pretty well as far as I know (I haven't really dropped any excess weight yet, but I feel better) but there is one thing that keeps concerning me.

My joints pop. Especially my knees- really dramatically. I don't have to have any weights, but if I am crouched and I stand up straight, my knees pop. Every. Single. Time. It doesn't hurt, but its concerning me. I don't know if its the fact that I'm just that out of shape or if I should be worried that its medical. I don't have a bad diet, and although I am technically overweight for my height, I'm not considered extremely overweight or anything. My knees have always kind of popped when I did stuff, but I'm just now starting to worry since I started working out.

Shimei:
I used to have the same thing, mostly noticeable with my shoulder joints. When I started working out at the gym about a year ago I used to kind of avoid the shoulder press because I was worried about the weird popping, and because I found it really hard.
When I started working out at home I decided to concentrate on the shoulders, hoping the popping would eventually go away.. And I'm happy to say it has! It improved quite quickly in fact, and I rarely ever get it now.
There's probably some vitamins you can take, but I didn't change my diet at all. So my advice is just keep at it, don't avoid the problem areas, and your joints should get much healthier.

Just started doing pushups would highly recommend them for convenience and the workout really gets the heart pumping and builds chest muscles, I'm busting out 1 rep of 30 deep all times of the day lol.  I'm thinking of getting this

Quote from: bibilinda on September 25, 2010, 05:16:39 PM

**Chin-ups or Pull-ups**[/b]

NOTE: THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST EXERCISE EVER, TO BUILD SHOULDER WIDTH, A FEATURE MANY FTMs WISH TO DEVELOP; the trick for me was to do the "behind the neck" version (which many say it is more injury-risky) for both pull-ups (free weights) and pull-downs (with machine), as my priority, and leave the regular "popular" version (chin up, chest-touching version) as a  secondary exercise. I never got injured from doing that, but I always made sure I had a very good warm up before starting the exercises.

I mentioned a variety of examples of that exercise, here:

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,84448.msg597954.html#msg597954

Look for Reply #4 , in case you don't get directly in there.

Then, scroll down to: 2) HOW TO REALLY, REALLY BROADEN YOUR SHOULDERS,
I thorougly describe the exercises that helped me really broaden my shoulders, my back, build powerful biceps and indirectly help develop my trapeze muscles.

First, thank you for posting this--I'm just starting to work out and it was very useful to read!

I tried the machine lat pull-down behind my neck at the gym today--and I can see why you mention the in front versions as being safer! I hit my head with the bar! It was only the once and not too hard, frequently, but the machine was set up (with a padded bar thing to go over your thighs) so that it was hard for me to get forward enough so that this didn't happen.

Is there a fix for this, or should I just not try going behind my neck with this particular machine?

a lot of dudes will sit the other way and not use the knee padded bars.

Quote from: Tad on April 18, 2011, 01:42:19 PM
a lot of dudes will sit the other way and not use the knee padded bars.

Hah! That certainly seems like the obvious solution. Thank you!

Hey, just wanted to throw in my two cents. First of all, to Sophie, those 'perfect pushup' things are a waste of money. They're not proven to give you a better workout. I highly suggest doing the '100 pushups' program. I'm pre-T and I went from being able to do 4 pushups in a row to 25 in two months. My shoulders are getting huge and my triceps really pop. I can also feel my pecs growing under my boobs, which has made them slightly more pronounced, but it's totally worth it if I plan on getting chest surgery. Plus, the workout is all free. Now I'm doing a program where I do a minimum of 200 pushups daily (3 days on 1 day rest, repeat). What I am currently in the market for is a weighted vest that I can take from 5lbs to around 30lbs so I can keep doing pushups where I max out around 25 and keep adding weight as I get stronger. That way I can keep gaining size in my muscles.