Hi, I would like to start a workout program to gain muscle strength and size. Has anybody been able to gain muscle and strength despite having pfs?
I don’t want waste my time if it’s not possible to get positive results due to pfs.
Does anyone know if there is other biological pathways that muscles can use to grow muscle besides testosterone?
I managed to gain some 6 months ago. My lifts were improving and I added some pounds. That said I may not be the best to compare with as my hormones are all pretty normal.
Yes, absolutely, you can. Maybe you won’t get exactly the same results as if you didn’t have PFS, but you will put muscles on and it will help to fight the impression of physical weakness you might feel and help with sleep if you have insomnia.
I had muscle wastage and I experienced it first hand.
yes. but the gains are heavily reduced compared to pre-fin, more of a toning effect, but lifting weights has helped greatly with weight loss (i went from 70kg to 90kg in a year and a half after i had fin, the heaviest i have ever been, bad food used to have no effect on me now it greatly effects my weight, since taking up a PT and weights i’am back to 85kg) weights has helped with loss of appetite and insomnia, it’s still incredibly hard to get to sleep but i do sleep better throughout the night, and finally my sex drive improved a tiny bit but definitely noticeable. i would definitely call what i have achieved “positive results” which i feel would quickly disappear if i stopped. i had an amzing body pre-fin, taking weights back up after fin has helped keep/slow the progress of weight gain/muscle wastage.
Thanks for all the responses. My hormones are on the normal side also, but mt testosterone is a little low, but still considered normal range.
I guess I will give it my best shot to put on some muscle. losing stomach fat seems to be a lot harder than it use to be, but age also plays a factor I guess.
Not getting any younger.
smae story here, before fin i gained muscle easily, and now hen i am trying to gain muscle, i gain more fat than muscle.
with normal T levels and healthy thyroid&adrenal function, of course you can do it. you are not dead yet
A ~3.5 weeks water fast has improved my stamina with an order of magnitude, it also decreased my fat (about -15 kilos), prl and e2 but this is not the big thing, this is just the consequence of many little/big improvements. Before the water fast I usually felt like crap after a half or one hour of exercise in the gym so I hated going there. Now I can perform intense cardio several times in the gym (like 3x 10 or 15 minutes intense running or biking that makes me sweat - I could do even more if I wanted) and on top of this I can perform 1-2 hours of weighlifting depending on how much I ate (how much energy I have) and at the end of the training I feel very good - in fact I feel best during the day after the training as my sleep is still crappy so hormonally I’m probably in the best shape in the evening after the training. During the water fast I’ve lost 15 kilos of fat and since the end of the water fast I’ve gained about 5 kilos of muscle and maybe 0.5-1 kilo of fat along with even better stamina (I look great now). Unfortunately I still have relatively high prl and e2 (between the mid and top ranges) but its already much better than having prl and e2 that are twice the top range. Note that my new results (that were betwen mid and top ranges) were measured after a night where I had pretty bad sleep: slept only 3 hours, and woke up at about 2am and then the blood was drawn at 8am (and prl automatically rises as a result of insomnia according to some endocrinologists and prl screws up other hormonal things then).
I can gain fat a bit easier than before hair loss drugs but now it is manageable with heavy trainings and I can eat a lot. In fact, I feel best on days when I eat shit loads of food (3-4000kcals) and doing 3-4 hours of exercises but I don’t do this all the time as I’m afraid of exhausting myself.
Currently I’m experimenting a lot with eating and traingings:
Before the water fast I couldn’t win against fat and E2. To be honest I’m still a bit afraid of falling back the very high estrogenic states. Now I’m experimenting ith eating and training a lot to spin myself up a bit. If I fall back to bad high e2 states again then I do another water fast (I will probably do another 1-2 week fast again anyway in the near future…). My current problem is very bad sleep and for now eating+training a lot seems to improve the quality of my sleep somewhat. Of course I’m trying to eat highly nutritious stuff like seeds, veggies and high protein meals (meat/cheese) and since the previous few days I’m cutting out most of the carbs and try to eat high carb stuff only around trainings. Around the training time I allow carb heavy stuff (like honey) and it seems to feel very good and has a good effect on my energy restoration and sleep.
In my opinion try a 2-3 week long water fast (maybe longer if you can) and lets see if it helps. If you can not afford this then try a veggie juice fast. Somehow fasting makes your body much resistant and stronger.
My only problem seems to be the pretty bad sleep and I still have no clue how to fix it. My free T index (T/SHBG) is also around the lower range (30%) at least around the morning (when I feel worst during the day). If my T is low (13/27) then usually my E2 and SHBG are also low enough to have the minimum 30% FTI. But if I have a somewhat better sleep and my T is better as a result (for example 21/27) then my E2 and SHBG are also higher resulting in an FTI that is around the lower end (30%). I don’t have constant T levels but my FTI seems to be constantly low (even after the water fast) and despite this the water fast repaired some other things that have great effects (like increased stamina and the ability to gain muscle mass much more easily than before the fast).
Yeah, tell me about it.