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Any fellow bodybuilders out there? FTM

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by Kal, Aug 18, 2016.

  1. Kal

    Kal
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    Struggling to reduce the size of my chest appendages with my typical lifting routine. I do fly variations and chest presses galore. Any tried and tested methods? I'm pre T so work on the basis that they aren't reducing on their own.
     
  2. anthracite

    anthracite Guest

    I wouldn't exactly call myself a body builder, but I'm into lifting and looking hot. I do exactly the same exercises for my chest and I think it became a bit flatter. What other exercises are you doing? I do all my body, mostly arms and back and a little less legs than I should but I've noticed that the amount of T in my system has increased noticably. How often do you work out? And how much?
     
  3. Kal

    Kal
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    I do training splits and lift 6 days a week. I do a lot of super sets, progressive overload and focus on big lifts twice a week. Been training for 5 years now, 5 to 6 meals a day. I go for at least 30 sets a session, which equates to over an hour sometimes more.

    When it comes to chest day, I hit the dumbell chest press first off with light but high reps, 22 kilos and progressive overload 8 to 15. Move on to two cable fly variations to hit the upper and lower pectoral, again light but high. I'll shake it up after that, hexagon chest press is good with a superset of incline push-ups. Weighted pull-ups for the all over aesthetic and strength too. Plus some other exercises depending on how I'm feeling. A good finisher is a military press, which people often think is a shoulder isolated move but it's throws in the chest, lats and delts.

    Maybe I am doing all the rights things but restless on the time. Don't know.
     
  4. Rickystarr

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    You watch Ty Turner?
     
  5. anthracite

    anthracite Guest

    So you have a lot more experience than I ^^ With that you already have some mass, I suppose? Maybe do a definition phase and reduce your body fat percentage. Body fat is resposible for estrogen. Good for me being an ectomorph, I don't have much of it ^^ How about we start another bodybuilding thread for FTMs to motivate each other? Btw have you tried shrugs? Works wonders for my neck ^^ And don't forget: Salad shrinks the biceps (said a german rapper)
     
  6. Kal

    Kal
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    On occasion, but he annoys me.

    ---------- Post added 19th Aug 2016 at 02:50 AM ----------

    That's possibly the struggle then, body fat. It's weird, I used to be tiny and couldn't put weight on (a far distant memory and a long time ago now). I then tried a particular antidepressant, got fat and decided to lift weights to combat it. Ever since then putting on weight isn't a problem for me. I am constantly battling the belly bulge and junk in the trunk, I assumed this was due to being a biological female. I've been thinking about fat burners and throwing some cardio in.

    A bodybuilding thread would be great, totally up for it. I have to be careful of my neck and not isolate the traps because of a longstanding hypertension problem I have. As soon as I throw some shrugs in, I'm left with shooting pains up my neck and in my head. Stems from a rotator cuff injury I had years ago, which I left without treatment and recently a chiropractor decided to go mental on it. It's fucked up now. My back, traps and delts are pretty big with compound movements anyway so I'm okay with that. I like attacking the anterior delts too. Just this blasted chest fat that increases in size as my muscles do. If I dial it back or drop my carbs, the mass I lose is ridiculous. I hate estrogen.
     
  7. xClemKrczx

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    Do ever use barbell to hit your chest?
    I'm not FTM but I've been training for 9 years now and competed 3 times.
    I truly believe you should try to increase the weights you're using, don't focus so much on high reps, 6-10 reps works fine. You can throw a superset at the end if you feel the need.
    Also, I don't know if you're doing cardio or how your diet is structured, but to lose fat you need both > exercise + diet <
    Have you ever done a cutting phase? You mentioned that if you drop carbs you lose a lot of mass, maybe you need to change a few things to make sure you don't lose lean mass while trying to burn fat.
    It would be helpful to know your bf%, sometimes people think they're gaining only lean mass but when they start to diet down they realize that a good percentage was fat.
    In my case, after training for so long and mainly when I competed that my bf% drops too low my chest (breasts) are almost shredded. When I bulk or get back to a maintenance phase, fat comes back to my chest, but they're definitively not the same size I had before I started training

    Hope it helps...
     
  8. Kal

    Kal
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    Thanks, I've read some stuff that suggests the same. I've gone through a few different shapes and sizes but my chest seems to retain fat. My diet is protein heavy, hitting my macros and sticking to healthy carbs. I tend to have my carbs early morning and at lunch time. If I'm hitting legs that night, I'll carbo load straight after but that's only twice a week. I think I need a bit of cardio, I've adjusted everything else and my chest (although building some decent muscle) is losing any fat. I've got an old shoulder injury that niggles when I hit chest too much so that's my measuring stick really. Otherwise I'd be going all night, as my chest is actually one of my stronger areas but just will NOT decrease these...lumps. I'm not exactly big chested and never have been but I'm not flat chested either. Binding terrifies me because of the restriction and previous problems I had with anxiety and panic attacks.
     
  9. anthracite

    anthracite Guest

    As for binding: Do you have the same problem with sports bras? And maybe try low-carb/ carnivore diet, it makes your body use your fat as energy.
     
  10. Kal

    Kal
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    I really don't want to wear a bra full stop, I'm done with that. Yeah I'm starting from today with low carbs, I think my body naturally just wants to store store store.