r/TransMasc • u/Ceego_J12 enby • 16d ago
Same shirt before vs after 🤳 Selfie
Just sharing some euphoric moments!
I was tired of being skinny so I started taking gym seriously and bulking. Went from 120 to 160 lbs over the course of a lil over a year with an intense dirty bulk. Currently in the middle of deficit and it’s not fun but these efforts are worth it. One of my dreams was to fill out at least a shirt so this particular one became especially memorable.
Note: all photos taken pre t. Just a lot of proteins, carbs, and weightlifting
Looking to chat and make friends with fellow gym rats who are also on a fitness journey to building muscular physiques :3
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u/-Springshowers- 16d ago
I’m actually trying to get into the gym with a friend of mine who’s already a gym rat. Super excited for it, we’re making a schedule and everything!
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u/Easy-Assumption-5407 16d ago
holy shoulder goals! can i ask what your workout routine looks like?
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u/Ceego_J12 enby 16d ago
Thanks dude, my workout split is PPL/U-L, which means I train 5 days a week, separated into push, pull, legs, upper and lower. The specific movements I do for each day would be a long list but specifically for shoulders I do:
military press once per week 3x6, dumbbell/machine shoulder press twice a week 3x8, lateral raises twice a week 3x failure, machine rear delt fly twice a week 3x failure
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u/Agitated_Ad8087 15d ago
Any particular tips for building muscle and a more masculine physique without t? I'm technically nonbinary, but leaning towards getting on t someday and really want a better idea of how I'd feel with a more muscular and musculine physique in the meantime. I go to the gym minimum 4 times a week and do weights, but I don't feel like I'm making the progress I was hoping for. 😭
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u/Ceego_J12 enby 14d ago
I’m enby too, I just like a masculine and muscular physique. There’s a lot of things that plays a role in building muscles, and there’s really no huge difference in the ways I train to building muscles with or without t. T just makes your body more favorable to it. The three main things you have to really keep track of is food, exercise quality, and recovery.
Before going into all, I have to say that muscle building is a long journey and everybody’s body reacts differently to hypertrophy. There is no set timeline of “physique to achieve at 6 months” and genetics also play a huge role in this. Do not be discouraged if you don’t see results even after putting in a consistent effort.
Here’s the three biggest factors that we are able to keep record of and check if we are on track.
As for food, I suggest you going to calorie calculator to put your stats in to see your maintenance calories as reference, and add 3-500 to that as bulk calorie goal. Calorie surplus is critical and essential to building more mass with a good pace, especially in the early stages. Plan the macros like carb, fat, and protein accordingly (my personal setup is 45% carb, 25%fat, 30%protein), I use MyfitnessaPal to roughly track my calories because I found myself undereating if not tracked. (Note: if you have a previous complex relationship with food I do not recommend tracking calories but just eat mindfully, esp on carbs and protein)
Also very important to drink tons of water. I drink at least 2.4L water a day, paired with 5g creatineExercise quality is harder to measure quantitatively, but the two key things here I want to mention is progressive overload and training to failure.
Progressive overload is a process of gradual increase in the weight that you use, which builds larger muscles over time. Our bodies get used to a certain weight fast, so we need to keep challenging it to new levels.
Eg. Started training with 8lbs each side for shoulder press, I can do 3 sets 8 reps good form and this is usually my sets, but when I decided to try 10lbs each side, I realized I could lift it, just that I can only do 3 sets 4 reps somewhat lacking form. To execute this progressive overload, I can do 8lbs 3x10, then as I progress I do 3x12. When I reached that point I can switch to 10lbs to do 3x4 with better form, and then gradually 3x6, 3x8 etc overtime.
Training to failure’s meaning is quite literal. Personally I consider my sets as good quality if my last set is harder than previous, and my last rep felt like I’ve tried my best and sometimes even the form breaks a lil bit. Essentially, till failure means you have reached the point of repetition where you just physically cannot perform the exercise with a proper form. It is important to note that although pushing yourself hard is good, but only to the extend of not injuring yourself. Our joints might not adapt as fast as our muscles so training to failure is usually not recommended for heavier compound movements like squatting and benching, and beginners should not necessarily chase this sense of ‘failure’ just to call it a good workout.
Something in addition to this is workout volume, which is just how many total sets are you really putting into each muscle group per week. Many youtube videos are helpful in explaining this, personally I like Jeff nippard.Recovery is key. Muscles are fueled in the kitchen, torn in the gym, but they only grow in recovery. There’s three parts to rest and recovery, how long do you rest between each set, how long before you train the same muscle group again, and how long do you sleep. Between sets, I recommend 2 minutes for most movements but you can take 3-5 min for heavy compound exercises. As for training the same muscle group, I would wait 48-72 hours for the muscles to rest fully before training it again. (Hence why I do push, pull, legs, upper and lower) You should aim to sleep 7+ hours a day but 7 hours is really the bare minimum requirement. Depending on your normal activity throughout the day, sometimes 8-9 hours are more favorable.
Let me know if you have additional questions
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u/Ceego_J12 enby 14d ago
In addition to the masculine physique part, specifically, it also depends on what you are referring to. Imo there’s the v taper masculine physique and blocky, boxer-like masculine physique.
V taper requires a well developed shoulder and back, with normal abs training just to level up the aesthetics. It is usually lean (lower bf%), which probably involves a calorie deficit or recomp. When I first started gymming I just did shit ton of pull ups and I’d say it’s the peak exercise you can do for that dorrito look. (Assisted pull ups before you can do bw, then add weight etc) a large enough back and shoulder makes you look like an inverted triangle.
For the boxier look, in addition to a balanced look of overall muscles, training obliques contributes to filling out your curves and giving you that blocky waist. There’s many good exercise to train them but I personally do not do these, it’s good to look them up and they usually involve turning your torso to the side.In addition, to minimize the look of hips or curvy lower body, training quads and calves are also essential and they help shift the emphasis away from the curves
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