Exersize pre or post hrt? (MTF

[Abby9017]

Hello Everyone. My name is Abby.
I'm new to this forum though I'll admit I've been running into it through Google for several years now. I searched for this question but couldn't quite find the same question, so I thought I'd just post it myself.
I used to do yoga quite a bit, daily in fact, but due to a recent rough year I had stopped... for a year. I've been wanting to get back into it, but I'm looking to start hormones next month or so and I'm concerned about muscle mass loss, or more so that I want muscle mass loss and I don't want to inhibit this by exercising while on hrt. I'm assuming I'll be starting with anti androgens, and follow this a few months later with estrogen.
Basically my question is, should I wait a few more months before I start doing yoga again? or would it be a good idea to start it soon? would it help my muscle mass loss, or hinder it?
I want more core strength, but I want to be smaller in the shoulder/arm and leg areas.
Thanks guys

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. I don't know the answer but I would suspect that continuing  with yoga wouldn't result in excessive muscles. Yoga is more like running were the muscles are used but not pushed to the maximum. As such you develop strength but not bulk. Loss of muscle mass is a slow process and there is a limit as to what your body will lose over time. Besides that, yoga may help you maintain your weight which is also important in maintaining a proper figure.

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[Abby9017]

Thank you for the quick responce. I know that it is a gradual thing that is very dependent on genetics; I've read stories varying from no muscle loss years in to her wife was beating her in arm wrestling matches months in. I just figured no harm in asking before I got started working out again.
And thank you for the cautionary note. I am usually pretty good at not putting to much personal information up, I feel comfortable with what I had posted since it is none to specific, was there something I shouldn't have said I'm missing?

[Dena]

We recently switched to a uniform greeting message used by staff and greeters. Lately we had several people who wanted to delete their account and all of their posts because they had included trackable information. We prefer not to do it because it turns threads into Swiss cheese and it consumes a good deal of our time which is better spent elsewhere on the site. We don't mind removing a few posts but some people want far more than that removed. Besides that, even if we removed the post from our site, they can continues to live in other archival web sites and those can't be removed. The message is an attempt to control an issue that seems to be getting out of control.

[Anne Blake]

Hi Abby,

I used to lift quite a bit before hrt and transitioning. My lifting was combined with a lot of bicycling, this combination gave me great fitness but also a lot of muscle mass. I have been on hrt for a bit over a year now without much exercise at all (not the best combination). With no workouts most of the muscles have melted away and I quite enjoy the feminization of my figure. I have surgery coming up in another month and I started back at the gym a month ago with a fitness instructor; my intent was to get into the most healthy condition possible as to improve and speed up healing. I was open with my trainer that fitness and core strength were key and minimizing muscle mass was critical to me. She has kept the weights low and the reps high and pushed cardio and proper diet. The results are great, my endurance is growing leaps and bounds, my belly is getting flatter and my shoulders are not growing. I would expect that as long as you are keeping to yoga and not adding a bunch of weight lifting to your routine, returning to exercise will only improve the feminization of your body and add to your feeling of being you. Good luck!

[laurenb]

Hi Abby - welcome to the forums! I think you should get back into yoga asap. It's the best exercise I do and it is so complementary to both your trans body and your trans mind. Not to mention, it's a great workout. I always laugh when men try yoga and after a class they are covered with sweat (like I used to be ha-ha) and always say: "that was a lot harder than I thought it would be". I do a solitary practice these days but occasionally go back to the studio. If you want a really good workout, find a studio that specializes in Vinyasa flow or hot yoga. I think pilates would be a great choice too for core work. I used to run but it's too hard on the joints so now I power walk as much and as far as I can. That mixed with cycling and garden strength training (spreading mulch, moving soil and such) is plenty good for me.

[Megan.]

As others have said,  low resistance exercises,  and plenty of cardio will give tone but not bulk. I'm currently doing alot of cycling,  running and swimming in prep for a full triathlon next month. I started HRT 5 weeks ago and haven't seen any negative impact from it.
A fit and healthy body is going to cope with a transition better than an unhealthy one.  X

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[Abby9017]

Thank you all for the quick and friendly responses and for sharing your personal stories. I will definitely get back into yoga as soon as I can, I just need to move some of my landlord/roommates furniture first . I have a particular series of videos I do off of youtube that has a great balance of working everything pretty regularly. It's called The 30 Day Yoga Challenge with Erin Motz, on the Bad Yogi channel. 30 different videos, so lots of variety.
And as for the greeting, thank you for being so thoughtful. I understand that it is to cover yourself mostly, but it is still appreciated regardless. I'm sorry to hear that some people don't understand how the internet works I hope it has gotten better with the new greeting.
Thanks again everyone