Having trouble gaining muscle while on propecia?

[sebasmarin]

Hi guys

I been working out for about 5-6 months now, about the same time i started taking propecia, and so far i have gained pretty much no muscle. Any else having this problem? I could use some advice

Thanks

[mattj]

Do you have any past weight training experience that leads you to believe that propecia is making it more difficult to gain muscle this time? Some guys are just naturally hard-gainers. Are you consuming enough food (and the right kind of food) to gain muscle?

Diet is such a major part of body building. A lot of guys neglect to eat correctly and find that their training efforts get them nowhere.

I'm not discounting the idea that Propecia could be playing a part, but there are common mistakes that people new to weight training make.

[KeepTheHair]

Propecia has no effect on my weight training gains.

You might just be an ectomorph.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

I am glad you brought this up because Propecia has affected my weight lifting as well. I haven't been able to lift as much but this could be due to the fact that I previously took some time off from the gym. But I noticed that when I came back to lifting, my muscles were flabby and soft, even right after I worked out. And as I said before, I couldn't lift as much. When I stopped taking Propecia for even a week, I noticed a difference in that I was stronger and had more energy when lifting. I really think that Propecia can erode muscle, especially when taken for a long time. Why can't they put Finasteride in some kind of shampoo, or have it so that it would only stop DHT production in your scalp, and not in your entire body. God, we really have such shit options when it comes to hair loss.

[Kayman]

Hello, i doubt its the propecia affecting your gains, this is a question i've seen time and time again. There are plenty of bodybuilders on fin that are huge, i think if anything you might benefit from that extra testosterone that isn't being converted to dht. Bare in mind you've only been training for 5 months so i wouldnt be expecting anything to significant in terms of visable gains at this point, no matter what these miracle muscle building routines might tell you, "get ripped in 3 months" its not happening. I would say its either your diet (not enough calories, you must eat to grow) or your perhaps lifting too light, on most excercises you should be looking at a rep range of 6 to 12, if you can do more than 12 on your first set increase the weight. Work hard and feed your body what it needs to grow and it will whether you take propecia or not. Look up a calorie calculator online and find out how many calories you need to grow. Also you might not be seeing a visable change but what about your strength gains? Has the weight you've been lifting increased over those 5 months? If its yes then thats a good sign your muscles are developing. So be patient, eat big, lift heavy, get about a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight in your diet everyday. Im not saying fin doesnt cause fatigue in some people im saying fin or no fin there are still plenty of gains to be made in the gym. Good luck.

[NotBelievingIt]

As kayman alludes too...beginners often do not develop muscular size but yet they get stronger due to CNS stimulation that basically 'activates' the muscle fibers you already had and were going unused.

As long as the weight is going up that's all that matters. Actual size will come as it becomes necessary.

[cs2257]

Hey OP,

Do not worry about it, some people are just hard gainers.

Hello, i doubt its the propecia affecting your gains, this is a question i've seen time and time again. There are plenty of bodybuilders on fin that are huge...

A lot of body builders are on fin because they are using steroids hahaha.

Anyway, Im starting fin regardless, just thought your post was hilarious.

[PatientlyWaiting]

I've had trouble gaining muscle before fin and on fin is the same thing. It's my fault, bad diet, lazy, etc. Gaining noticeable muscle is hard man, if it was easy every man would be muscular. Muscle takes time to build, it takes time, lots of essential amino acids, rest, and a good diet. Hard work and dedication.

[Kayman]

Hey OP,

Do not worry about it, some people are just hard gainers.



A lot of body builders are on fin because they are using steroids hahaha.

Anyway, Im starting fin regardless, just thought your post was hilarious.

Yep very true i forgot to put that in my post, fin is often used during a cycle.

[Woodyy]

It's probably your diet, I didn't acknowledge just how much you should be eating to bulk up during my first year of bodybuilding and made pretty bad progress.

Most people advocate 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight and I've been going with that for years now and it has worked well. I do believe over caloric intake is more important than protein intake though, if you're not eating above your maintenance calories you wont gain anything. Going with 500 over maintenance is a safe bet to reduce fat gain but ultimately fat gain is inevitable, you can always lose it when cutting.

Try concentrating on compound movements and try and go between the hypertrophy rep range (8-12) and go to failure on nearly every set except your warm up sets. So many people don't advocate this but I find it really helps, overtraining a word that's thrown around a lot but it rarely happens from just pushing yourself to your limit in the gym, there's a lot of factors involved if you were to really "overtrain".