More Workout Tips for Beginners/Transmasc/Chronically Ill People
I am still working out which is cool so I wanted to share more advice that would’ve helped me to know earlier since some people seemed to like the last one of these posts I made. Also, I am not a professional, this is just what I’ve learned that works for me.
- Everyone’s starting point is different, I have made the mistake of looking at people’s four month progress photos and feeling like I’m doing something wrong when my four month progress looks like their starting photos but obviously everyone starts at different places and has different goals
- Even small changes can make you feel a lot better but it takes so much longer than you think it will to see them especially on yourself.
- I usually work out 4 days a week strength training for 35-45 minutes but that’s partially because I take a lot of breaks. I don’t do explicit cardio because my heartrate is already too high when standing/doing anything active and I get dizzy but it’s probably good if you can do it.
-Kinesiology tape and compression braces are great and can help with pain if you’re disabled, so can stretching before or after and a warm shower or bath with epsom salts
- If you want to lose weight nutrition is important but to give some perspective I haven’t cut out any foods and I pretty much just try to prioritize protein and be somewhat mindful of what I’m eating and portion sizes, you don’t have to do anything crazy and changes you can maintain instead of crash diets might make things go slower but it’s also more sustainable and you don’t want to be starving yourself or not enjoying life at all.
- It takes time to work up to protein goals, my general strategy is two high protein meals a day and a protein shake to consistently hit 120+ grams of protein a day
- If you can be an obsessive person or have mental health challenges I would consider whether you want to count calories, personally I try not to but tend to add up general guesses in my head anyway. Tracking protein is easier on my mental health because I feel like I’m doing something good when I eat a lot of protein vs. feeling bad when I pay attention to calories.
- Don’t underestimate the power of progressive overload, I spent a long time doing relatively the same weights and waiting for it to get slightly easier which takes a really long time with that approach. Instead focus on pushing yourself as much as you can, even adding one rep or using heavier weights for the first set is a good way to build up faster.
- On that note it’s also okay if you can’t do as much as other people, probably most people aren’t doing as much as fast as it looks online, especially if you’re not dedicating your entire life to it.
- One thing I read recently that helped me was that just trying already puts you above 90% of people
- A lot of these are things I’m not good at but I still wanted to share because they are useful when I manage them and it took some trial and error to learn.
- If you can afford to get a personal trainer, even for a couple months, that makes a huge difference to knowing how to train effectively
- My split to try to get a more masculine physique is Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms
- Mentioned WL here if anyone doesn’t want to read. Last year when my chronic illnesses were at their worst and I wasn’t active at all was the heaviest I’ve ever been (165lbs) now I am 145lbs. That being said when I really started trying to lose weight was January so I’ve only lost about 16lbs since then.
- Numbers go up and down so much, probably especially if your body is estrogen dominant because hormones change so much throughout the month and affect water weight and stuff.
- Follow up to the one above weighing yourself too frequently can suck because it might make you feel bad when it’s not always a steady decrease. I used to do once a week but it made me feel discouraged so now I do a month or more between weighing myself and it honestly helps.
- If you’re gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time the numbers on the scale might not change as much as you expect, taking progress pictures weekly can be a more positive way to track progress.
- Sharing something that makes me super dysphoric but when I was heavier I didn’t realize what a thing period bloating actually was, now for like a week out of the month I literally feel like I’ve made zero progress and every time I struggle with it it goes on long enough I start to wonder if I even have made progress. Anyway try not to spiral over it too much if you notice that, it will go away eventually.
- Don’t compare your progress to cis guys or other trans guys especially if you’re not on T yet (literally me) those things do make a difference to how easy it is to build muscle and strength. I just try to view it as giving myself a head start so when I do start T I will hopefully see results quicker (Not that I haven’t seen results already, just not as much as I want)
