hi comrades 
a while back I made a comment promising to share a customized workout routine catered towards forming a more traditionally feminine body shape - this is that, only a couple weeks late! I'm going to divide it up into two sections - the routine itself, and some notes I've made on transfemme fitness in general.
the routine
I have designed this as an upper/lower/upper/lower. Most fitness routines put more than 50% time into upper but we're not most fitness routines. The idea is M/Tu/Th/F, or whatever 4 days on 3 days off you have in a week. Only rule is no 2 same days in a row and no 3 any continuous days in a row. Skip upper days before you skip lower days. All exercises are 3 sets unless specified otherwise. I'm not going to go into things like form, choosing your weight, etc. here because these things are covered well by existing fitness guides and I'm not more qualified than they are. To warm up, before each exercise, do the exercise for one set at the specified number of reps with half to two thirds the weight you intend to lift for the main sets. Don't skip your warm-up. 
The exercises:
Lower A
Lower A
| Exercise | Reps | Notes |
|
|
|
|
| Back Squat^1^ | 10 | activate your glutes on the way up and at the top |
| Romanian Deadlift | 8 | also activate your glutes at the top |
| Leg Extension (Single Leg) | 10 | |
| Hip Abductor^1^ | 15 | hold open for a second or two, return to closed slowly |
| Leg Curl (Single Leg) | 10 | |
| Calf Raise | 12 | hold at the top for a second or two |
| Glute Machine^1^ | 12 | each gym will have a different machine for this, change your reps based on what feels right. consider holding at the top/bottom and returning to neutral slowly. |
| Leg Lifts | ??? | this one tracks reps, not weight! |
Upper A
Upper A
| Exercise | Reps | Notes |
|
|
|
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| Overhead Press^3^ | 10 | |
| Lat Pulldown^3^ | 10 | |
| Dumbbell Bench Press | 10 | |
| Dumbbell Row | 12 | |
| Tricep Cable Pushdown | 12 | |
| Supinated Dumbbell Curl | 10 | |
| Pectoral Fly^1^ | 12 | do this one nice and slow for chest definition, this is your most femme-affirming exercise of the day 🍒 |
| ^2^ | | |
Lower B
Lower B
| Exercise | Reps | Notes |
|
|
|
|
| Leg Press^1^ | 10 | if you have crunchy knees like I do, do 10 to 20 seconds of standing quad stretches between each set. really do this twice a day every day if you have crunchy knees. |
| Hip Abductor^1^ | 10 | hold open for a second or two |
| Hip Adductor | 10 | |
| Leg Curl | 10 | |
| Calf Raise | 8 | hold at the top for a second or two |
| Bulgarian Split Squat^1^ | 10 | form >>>> weight for this exercise more than any other, smooth, stable, fluid movements and hold at the top |
| Barbell Hip Thrust^1^ | 10 | my favorite exercise of all time <3 make sure you're holding at the top! this is where the 🍑 is made |
| Weighted Crunches | 12 | |
Upper B
Upper B
| Exercise | Reps | Notes |
|
|
|
|
| Seated Cable Row^3^ | 12 | |
| Incline Dumbbell Bench Press^1^ | 8 | |
| Chin-ups^3^ | 10 | use an assist machine if you can't make 10 very clean reps 3 times in a row |
| Dips | 10 | same as above |
| Hammer Curl | 10 | |
| Dumbbell Shrug^3^ | 12 | |
| ^2^ | | |
Routine Footnotes
Routine Footnotes
^1^: These are your priority exercises for these days - this means that if you have extra steam, throw on an extra set or two. Do not lift more than you are comfortable lifting. More sets is better than more reps. Inspired by this article from the original thread.
^2^: This is where I'd add an obliques exercise, except that oblique work widens your waist so I've omitted it. If you like a more robust waistline, I'd do dumbell side bends and weighted twisting crunches here. There's something to be said for targeting the transversus abdominus in slimming your waistline, but I don't know enough to do that sooo comment down below with ideas? maybe planks on these days?
^3^: this is shoulder work. I personally like my broad shoulders, but many transfems don't. That being said, back work leads to good posture and good posture is both sexy and healthy, fem or masc, so if you don't want bulky shoulders and upper back, I recommend still doing these and doubling the reps and halving whatever weight you were gonna do.
Additionally, I do have arm work in here, same goes for the notes on shoulder work except that arm work is less relevant for posture - if you don't want to add bulk on your arms, double your reps and halve your weight, and if you really don't wanna work arms, you can skip the isolation exercises (both curls and tricep pushdowns) and let the compound exercises take care of it.
Another note on practicality - the reason for choosing the order I did is to 1) put the more important/bigger lifts at the front while you're the freshest, and 2) to avoid hitting the same muscle group 2 times in a row. The order is also largely preserved from the 4-day split in Jeff Nippard's Fundamentals Hypertrophy program that was the basis for this program. You'll probably run into situations where you can't do these in the order specified - that's fine, just make sure you don't do the same movement twice in a row (rows into chin-ups, squats into leg extensions, etc.)
General Transfeminine Fitness Notes
General Transfeminine Fitness Notes
Gyms are not the friendliest environment to be trans. Shit sucks but it is what it is. You will see the most progress by a lot if you have a complete set of equipment, so it's imperative to find a gym you are comfortable and safe in. Notes:
- Give every place a fair shake. I've been at affirming gyms in reactionary shitholes, and I've been at toxic gyms in progressive bastions. You should try your best to tour as many gyms as you can reasonably expect to go to, because finding one with a good vibe will drastically impact your willingness to get up and go.
- When touring for the above, trust your gut. If it feels off, it's not the gym for you; the feeling probably won't go away.
- If you have a friend you could make into a workout buddy, drag them along! It's a lot less intimidating to go with someone else, and especially if that other person has an intimidating demeanor, you can win yourself a nice personal space bubble with this.
- Consistency is more important than anything else. If it's music, if it's a little treat afterwards, if it's some kind of little points based system you come up with, if it's alarms, come up with a way to get yourself in the gym. Us trans folks are very often neurodivergent and building habits can be hard so put as much thought into getting yourself to the gym as you do about what you'll do when you're there.
- Consider adding a stretching routine to your time at the gym. Not only does this help you in your fitness goals, but being flexible is also fun.
- You belong. You're here to work on your fitness just like everyone else. Don't feel guilty for taking up space. This especially goes for squats into RDLs in Lower A - squat racks are highly sought after equipment and you're using it for two exercises in a row. Don't rush it - you deserve it because you are precious and deserve the world.
- When you get home, you need to get some protein in you. Also depending on your body type (I'm skinnier than I wanna be and maybe you are too??) keep in mind that in addition to getting sufficient protein you're going to want to get a lot of good fats too - many bodybuilding recipes leave this out because that's not conducive to 3% body fat. Working out in a healthy fashion lowers cortisol and lower cortisol promotes a more feminine fat distribution. I'm going to leave this as an exercise for the reader (I have a few recipes I lean on heavily, future post???
)
I want this to be a living document. I'm not the most experienced weightlifter and I'm also not a binary transfemme so this will likely not be the perfect post - please make suggestions and notes if you have any in the comments! I'll try to roll them in for the lifetime of the post.
love y'all, solidarity, and happy lifting 😘
advice and got an ab wheel.
