Firstly, I don’t mean any harm by this post and if you think any of this is wrong please let me know. This post is based of my own research, but not necessarily my own experience, as I haven’t done all of these, YMMV.
Contents
- Gaining/Losing Fat
- Gaining Muscle
- Strength Training
- Cardio
- Artificial
- Clothing
- Hip Pads
- BBL
Gaining/Losing Fat
There’s no problem with simply gaining some bodyweight especially if you’re underweight or gain within the ‘healthy’ range of BMI. In that case you might instead see some benefit from losing fat for a smaller waist to ass ratio. But do keep in mind that if you are currently not on Estrogen/T-blockers, gaining weight might add them to the wrong places, or places you might not want like your gut/ or arms. Estrogen also makes you gain weight, but this usually does this to the butt and legs, which makes gaining weight when estrogen more reliable, but even if you’re not on it you might have some good results without being on E depending on your genetics.
Gaining Muscle
Whilst this might not be something you initially think can make you more fem, it does work. I recommend some form of Resistance Training(Weights, Calisthenics). Personally I like Weights due to simplicity of structure, but you can and will gain muscle with both. If you’re AMAB consider risks of training your upper body since androgen receptors there are more dense and you can more easily gain upper body mass. For unrelated reasons(testosterone being anabolic(muscle promoting) you can also more easily put on muscle if you’re not on hormones. If you are on hormones, then you still can gain muscle but less than if you weren’t.
In regards to specific workouts I can only speak from my own experience. My personal preference is for training with weights. If you’re looking for something simple and full body, then Allpro’s routine is pretty good. You can also check reddits /r/fitness for their recommendations. If you want to do just legs, then you can check out /r/strongcurves. Personally I prefer the fewer workouts from Allpro, so I just don’t do the upper body but following the same progression scheme, and I added in a more leg work(Hip Thrust + Hip Abduction machine). Exercising takes time, but it is a sure fire way to increase the size of your butt/thighs. On a side note cardio is incredibly healthy for you to do and great for burning calories, but too much will make you have slower leg gains relative to just strength training. If you go from sedentary to cycling/running/any cardio you will still gain leg muscle. RP Strength is a great resource for info on this.
Other
I would like to preface this by saying that I have no experience from the below two, hip pads or BBl, and that these are just a couple of things that came up in my research.
Firstly are hip pads, you can buy these, or make your own, They work. BBL is a surgery where they take out fat from somewhere else (usually your midsection) and then re-implant it into your butt and thighs. I found the Mamaswole video on this to be informative
The easiest and fastest way is with clothing, you can make you legs seem wider by E.g. wearing baggy joggers, or skirts which flare out at the waist, or jeans which start high and are loose at the hips, or with flared bottom accentuating legs. ICKY has some great videos on this.
TLDR: Workout, Clothes are your friend, and other options exist if you want even more.
That was it, the extent of my knowledge. Since I don’t have reddit I’m okay with this being cross posted there for more eyes on lemmy. Any other tips are appreciated!
I have found this video showing various glute exercises helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rguEilBV5mk
It’s by the guy who published the Strong Curves book / program that /r/strongcurves is based on.
There are also a bunch of resources on feminizing exercises, e.g.
- https://www.wussymag.com/all/body-feminization-workouts-for-trans-women-and-femmes
- https://www.wussymag.com/all/body-feminizing-workouts-for-trans-women-and-femmes-part-2
tl;dr here are some of the exercises from those articles (I focused on ones that don’t require gym equipment):
Other good exercises include:
- side planks
- various leg raises
- bridges (a bit like a proto hip-thrust)
- Romanian dead lifts (you can do these with dumbbells as well)
- clam shells with resistance bands
Hip thrusts are touted as the best glute-developing exercise, esp. if you can work up to lots of weight.
Note that when you want to make a muscle bulkier (i.e. “hypertrophy”), you want to exhaust yourself with fewer reps, so instead of aiming for 30 hip thrusts you want to exhaust yourself in more like 10 reps (after warming up of course, to avoid injury).
For people unfamiliar with the jargon: a rep, or “repetition”, is where you do the exercise motion once. For example, with a squat one rep would be squatting down then coming back up to the starting position. 10 reps would be squatting down and coming back up ten times. Related idea is a “set” which is a group of reps with a rest between, so 2 sets of 10 reps would be 20 squats overall, but you would take a break between the two sets of ten. Taking a 3 - 5 minute break in between sets does make a difference, and is important for making the muscles bigger.
Other things to keep in mind:
- eat enough protein (you can keep track of nutrition if you need to for a few weeks to get a sense of how much you are eating and if it’s enough), otherwise your body won’t invest in making more muscle
- support the body in other ways so it will invest in extra muscle production, like reducing stress, getting good quality and enough sleep, eating a diverse and nutritious diet, and making sure you are staying hydrated throughout the day
- consistency and long term trends matter more than individual days, so don’t be discouraged or quit if you aren’t able to do your exercises a couple days, persistence matters more for getting results than anything else
Hi! Randomly came across this in New, very cool guide! Hope you don’t mind if I chime in as an AFAB, if you do I’ll delete the comment, no worries ^^
There is a guide for gender-affirming weightlifting on hexbear that I really like - Link. I based my training mostly on that back when I lifted for like 6 months and the butt gains were really decent! I even slightly over-developed my Gluteus Medius because I like the Hip Abductor machine too much u_u
I found the Upper/Lower split made a lot of sense in general, as I could skip Upper whenever I needed to skip a session due to time constraints.In terms of clothing, there’s nothing I can praise more than a specific brand of Aliexpress butt-leggings called “NVGTN”. For some reason, they’re just really really good at pushing everything where it belongs lol. I usually wear them under jeans in winter or by themselves in summer
Something I had copied off of a reddit comment a while back. It’s a quick routine you can do at home. IIRC the reddit comment claimed to have gotten this from some sort of medical fitness professional, but I can’t find the link to the actual reddit comment anywhere. Upper body stuff is mainly meant to make breasts look bigger and lower body to make hips and butt look bigger. :
Free Weight Fly’s: 5-10lb Weight. (Dumb bells) Start by lying on your back with your arms horizontally out to the side. Next, bring your arms up and forward towards the ceiling. Next, lower your arms back down to the original position. Your elbows should be partially bent the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 repititions.
Note regarding elastic band exercises: Basically you’ll want to put a knot in the middle of the band and then put it in a door so the knot keeps it from sliding out when you pull on it.
Elastic Band Rows: Holding elastic band with both hands (arms stretched straight in front of you), draw back the band as you bend your elbows. Keep your elbows about 45 degrees away from your body the entire time. Repeat 2 sets of 10 repetitions.
Elastic Band - Horizontal Adduction: Start by holding elastic band with your arm out-stretched to the side. Next, pull the elastic band horizontally and across your body. Your elbow should be straight or slightly bent the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 repetitions.
Dynamic Hug: Start with one foot in front of the other. Hinge at the hips and have a slight bend in the elbows. Begin the motion by bringing your hands together as if you are hugging a tree. Complete 2 sets of 10 repetitions.
Elastic Band Shoulder External Rotation: While holding an elastic band at your side with your elbow bent, start with your hand near your stomach and then pull the band away. Keep you elbow at your side the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 repititions.
Elastic Band Shoulder Internal Rotation: While holding an elastic band at your side with your elbow bent, start with your hand away from your stomach,m then pull the band towards your stomach., Keep your elbow near your side the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 repetitions.
Lower Body: Focus a little on abs and quite a bit of stuff focused on emphasizing muscles in hips and butt.
Bridging: While lying on your back with knees bent, tighten your lower abdominals, squeeze your buttocks, and then raise your buttocks off the floor/bed as creating a Bridge with your body. Hold and then lower yourself and repeat. Repeat 10 times.
Hip Abduction: While lying on your side, slowly raise up your top leg towards the sky. Keep your knee straight and maintain your toes pointed forward the entire time. Keep your leg in-line with your body. Complete 2 sets of 10 for each leg.
Looped Elastic Band Hip Extension: While standing with an elastic band looped around your ankles, move the target leg straight back keeping the knee straight the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 with each leg.
Looped Elastic Band Hip Abduction: While standing with an elastic band looped around your ankles, move the target leg out to the side, keeping the knee straight the entire time. Complete 2 sets of 10 with each leg.
Single Leg Lowering: Lying on your back, keep your back in a neutral position. Bring your knees up to 90 degrees. Keeping your belly button pulled in (abs taut), slowly reach your foot forward and tap the ground. Complete 2 sets of 10 for each leg.
All exercises should be completed at least 3x per week.
you mention allpro’s routine, where can I find that?
I think this is the all pro routine that was mentioned?
https://web.archive.org/web/20240417114601/http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843
A Simple beginner’s Routine
You will do 3 work outs per week on non consecutive days. The first work out is your heavy work out. The second work out is your medium work out, use 10% less weight for your work sets. The final work out for the week is your lite work out, use 20% less weight.
Do a lite warm up with 1/4 of your work sets weight. Do a medium warm up with 1/2 of your work sets weight. Do 2 work sets with the same weight. Choose a starting weight and start light.
These are the seven exercises you will be starting with.
- Squats
- Bench Presses
- Bent-Over Rows
- Overhead Barbell Presses
- Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
- Barbell Curls
- Calf Raises
You will be running this program on a five week cycle as follows:
- The first week do all 4 sets for 8 reps.
- The second week do all 4 sets for 9 reps.
- The third week do all 4 sets for 10 reps.
- The fourth week do all 4 sets for 11 reps.
- The fifth week do all 4 sets for 12 reps.
If you got all of the required reps on the fifth week then increase the weight by 10% and
repeat the cycle. If you didn’t get all of the reps on the fifth week then repeat the cycle with the same weight. You shouldn’t need more than one minute rest between the warm up sets and you shouldn’t need more than one minute thirty seconds between the work sets. Do some cardio and abs work on non weight training days.
Please correct me if I’m wrong OP!!
Thank you for linking to it, yes that’s the one I was talking about. I still follow the same five week cycle from 8 to 12 reps I just changed up the exercises a bit to not do upper body, here’s what my workout looks like:
- Hip Thrusts or Deficit Reverse unge (If there’s nowhere to thrust)
- Squats
- (Stiff-legged) Deadlift
- Calf Raises
- Plank (usually 5 seconds more than previous week)
- Hip- Adduction or Abduction (depending on which machine is available first)
Since I focus more on simplicity this doesn’t take all too long to do usually 30-60 minutes, if I’m busy and want it quick then I’ll just do the first three.
