Day: January 21, 2020

Being Prepared for PE

So, you’re ready to begin your PE journey, eh? Well, before you begin, there are a few important things you must know in order to do PE both safely and progressively. What are these things you might ask? Well to start, it is important to understand what goes on behind the penis; the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles are the muscles located in between your genitals and rectum. They assist in both urination and defecation, and in sexual functioning as well.

According to continence.org, “In men, it is important for erectile function and ejaculation.”¹ It should go without saying that the pelvic floor is one of the most important components in PE but on the same token, it is also the most neglected. Consequently, I will be discussing tips and tricks on both assessing the state of your pelvic floor and exercises for those muscles so you will know exactly how to do them properly and not injure yourself.

Not only will we be discussing the pelvic floor, but this article will also cover the mental aspects of PE, porn use and its potential effects on both the pelvic floor and one’s training, and some important pelvic floor “no-no’s” to avoid doing when training. If all that wasn’t enough, we also have a very special guest. Drum roll please… World renown AJ “Big Al” Alfaro will be here to assist us! Big Al has been involved in male enhancement since the 90s and has coached numerous men on achieving their goals. So enough of my bantering, let’s get started!

Pelvic Floor State

The first thing to be aware of is the current state of your pelvic floor. This is one of the most important elements because it is an indicator of whether you are ready for PE or not. Contrary to popular belief, pelvic floor issues doesn’t just mean weakness, and this platitude causes a lot of problems because most people don’t think to address the pelvic floor when young people have symptoms of a very common and possibly debilitating condition called pelvic floor hypertonia. “Hypertonic pelvic floor muscles are muscles that are too tight. Your pelvic floor muscles need to be able to contract in order to maintain continence and relax to allow for urination and bowel movements.

When these muscles are too tight and have too much tension (hypertonic), they may cause pelvic pain and discomfort.”² More info can be found on this topic all across PEGym so I won’t go into too much detail but I will put links at the end of this article of all the information and solutions to this condition.

Obviously, one should not engage in PE with a pelvic floor in this state. Luckily if you have this, it will be pretty noticeable and there are definitely treatment protocols for it and the condition is perfectly treatable. However, it is always better to avoid getting into this situation because according to Big Al, “treating the pelvic floor is difficult because it is easy to engage the muscles in everyday activity.”

Common causes include over Kegeling and excessive heavy lifting such as weighted squats. Another contributor is excessive sitting and bad posture,” Positioning your body in poor posture, especially for prolonged periods of time can lead to a breadth of pelvic floor dysfunctions. This may include pain with sitting, coccydynia, low back pain, urinary frequency, incontinence, etc.”³

Mental State

Your mental state is going to be the next important area to assess. A lot of men begin PE because they feel that they can’t measure up and are therefore insecure and wanting confidence. Let me warn you, this is a kiss of death. I cannot recommend PE to anyone who intends to do it out of an insecurity as it usually doesn’t yield good outcomes.

Understand that the average penis size is 5.16 inches⁴so chances are you fit right in that range. Porn (something we will discuss next) warps a man’s mind about his penis size and makes him believe that he needs to be big in order to satisfy a woman, which of course is largely untrue. Learning to be satisfied with your current size will always allow for a much smoother ride; failure to do so can result in overzealousness, causing injury.

Another element of confidence worth noting is what Big Al refers to as “Sexual Confidence”. This is that “you’re the man!” type of feeling that one needs in order to perform well in sexual encounters. If you lack this sexual confidence, it will have a profoundly negative result on the quality of your erections, or Erection Quality (EQ), and “good EQ is necessary for gains”, claims Big Al.

Aside from Sexual Confidence, lots of concentration and patience are required to do the exercises properly, being able to constantly gauge the amount of intensity one is using for their exercises such as manual exercises and pumping along with counting reps and sets. Motivation is also required to keep you consistent and on a final note, the pelvic floor plays a role in this area as well. Large amounts of stress and anxiety can cause tension in the pelvic floor muscles and even cause erection problems, making your PE journey much more difficult.⁵

Porn Use

Avoid porn. I will say it again, avoid porn. Porn is one of the most common addictions nowadays due to the boom of the internet, and it is actually one of the most common causes of erectile dysfunction in young men.

Yes, you heard that correct, porn lowers EQ which as mentioned previously, is necessary for gaining. This is due to the “desensitizing” effect porn has on our brains. When our brains are being trained to become aroused by a video/photo on a computer screen or magazine, our evolutionary drive a.k.a. that “excitement factor” deteriorates, making it difficult to be aroused by and get erections from a real woman in real life. Because porn gives us a false image of what is normal, it is also a common cause of performance anxiety (low sexual confidence). More information on this topic can be found in Big Al’s “The Detraining Effect” series.

Along with lowered EQ, porn (especially when used in excess) has the potential to affect the pelvic floor muscles as well. It has been noted that excessive masturbation/orgasm will overwork the muscles in the pelvic floor, potentially leading to hypertonia or an exacerbation of symptoms if the individual already has the condition.

An excerpt from A Headache in the Pelvis, “The fact that there has been a great rise in the availability of pornography on the internet may be a factor that has rarely been taken into account in the understanding and treatment of pelvic pain of certain individuals as compulsive masturbation can trigger what is commonly called prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome or pelvic floor dysfunction.”⁶

Pelvic Floor No No’s and Proper Technique

So now we’re going to get into to pelvic floor no no’s and proper technique. It cannot be stressed enough that technique can make or break you, literally. If you are using an improper technique when doing enlargement exercises, not only will it hinder gains, but it can also injure you, and Kegels are no different. According to Big Al, “Kegels appear to be the most abused male enhancement exercise.” This makes perfect sense, because not only are they extremely easy and convenient, but they also stimulate the prostate, making the pleasurable.

First things first, there are two big no no’s one should avoid when doing PE, and the first one is to involuntarily Kegel while doing exercises such as jelqing or even using devices. Once you start Kegeling while doing exercises, your pelvic floor will become trained to Kegel involuntarily and eventually may lead to pelvic floor hypertonia. There have even been cases where guys have developed hard flaccid from an extender only to find out their pelvic floor was hypertonic.

The next no no on the list is what I call “Kegeled stretching”. As the name suggests, it is when one holds a Kegel while they are stretching their penis. This puts an unreasonable amount of stress on the sensitive BC muscles in the pelvic floor, leading to a pull/strain. If this happens the pelvic floor can “Kegel lock” causing an extreme amount of tension in the pelvic floor muscles. This degree tension is so extreme that it puts pressure on the pudental nerve (pudental nerve entrapment)⁷, causing extreme pain, numbness, and even nerve damage making this is an extremely rare but serious injury.

How to Kegel Properly

Luckily, Big Al provides a fantastic Kegel routine for improving stamina. I will provide a link for it and I encourage everyone to do this routine. The reason it is so good is because it emphasizes the “less is more” concept commonly used in male enhancement. Doing tons and tons of kegels will just train the pelvic floor to be overactive, which is why the routine requires one to limit themselves to usually 50 Kegels, before starting over and increasing intensity (towel raises).

I always recommend doing your reverse kegels along with the Kegels, doing a single reverse Kegel for every single Kegel your do to maintain balance. Only use as much force as you need to complete the motion (don’t clench your muscles too hard) and finally, never do your kegels indiscriminately (outside of the routine).

Other must reads:

Works Cited

Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

Nearly a decade of extra life — that’s what you get when you move away from eating animal foods and toward a plant-based diet. This is really exciting science for anyone seeking healthy longevity (and who isn’t?)!

According to a recent report on the largest study of vegetarians and vegans to date, those eating plant-based diets appear to have a significantly longer life expectancy. Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer than the general population, which is similar to the gap between smokers and nonsmokers. This is not surprising, given the reasons most of us are dying. In an online video, “Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death,” Michael Greger, M.D. explores the role a healthy diet can play in preventing, treating, and even reversing the top 15 killers in the United States. Let’s take a closer look at what the good doctor has pulled together…

Heart disease is our leading cause of death. The 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Nurses Health Study was recently published, now the most definitive long-term study on older women’s health. Dietary cholesterol intake — only found in animal foods — was associated with living a significantly shorter life and fiber intake — only found in plant foods — was associated with living a significantly longer life. Consuming the amount of cholesterol found in just a single egg a day may cut a woman’s life short as much as smoking five cigarettes daily for 15 years, whereas eating a daily cup of oatmeal’s worth of fiber appears to extend a woman’s life as much as four hours of jogging a week. (But there’s no reason we can’t do both!)

What if your cholesterol’s normal, though? I hear that a lot. But here’s the thing: having a “normal” cholesterol in a society where it’s “normal” to drop dead of a heart attack is not necessarily a good thing. According to the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, “For the build-up of plaque in our arteries to cease, it appears that the serum total cholesterol needs to be lowered to the 150 area. In other words the serum total cholesterol must be lowered to that of the average pure vegetarian.”

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish showed that heart disease could not just be stopped but actually reversed with a vegan diet, arteries opened up without drugs or surgery. Since this lifestyle cure was discovered, hundreds of thousands have died unnecessary deaths. What more does one have to know about a diet that reverses our deadliest disease?THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO TAKING CARE OF YOUR MIND AND BODYSubscribe to HuffPost’s wellness emailThanks!You have been successfully signed up.

Cancer is killer number two. Ah, the dreaded “C” word — but look at this hopeful science. According to the largest forward-looking study on diet and cancer so far performed, “the incidence of all cancers combined is lower among vegetarians.” The link between meat and cancer is such that even a paper published in the journal Meat Science recently asked, “Should we become vegetarians, or can we make meat safer?” There are a bunch of additives under investigation to suppress the toxic effects the blood-based “heme” iron, for example, which could provide what they called an “acceptable” way to prevent cancer. Why not just reduce meat consumption? The meat science researchers noted that if such public health guidance were adhered to, “Cancer incidence may be reduced, but farmers and [the] meat industry would suffer important economical problems…” Hmmm, so Big Ag chooses profit over health; what a surprise.

After Dr. Ornish’s team showed that the bloodstreams of men eating vegan for a year had nearly eight times the cancer-stopping power, a series of elegant experiments showed that women could boost their defenses against breast cancer after just two weeks on a plant-based diet. See the before and after here. If you or anyone you know has ever had a cancer scare, this research will make your heart soar. Because there is real, true hope — something you can do to stave off “the big C.”

So, the top three leading causes of death used to be heart disease, cancer, then stroke, but the latest CDC stats place COPD third — lung diseases such as emphysema. Surprisingly, COPD can be prevented with the help of a plant-based diet, and can even be treated with plants. Of course, the tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently. Instead of adding plants to one’s diet to prevent emphysema, wouldn’t it be simpler to just add them to the cigarettes? Hence the study “Addition of Açaí [Berries] to Cigarettes Has a Protective Effect Against Emphysema in [Smoking] Mice.” Seriously.

The meat industry tried the same tack. Putting fruit extracts in burgers was not without its glitches, though. The blackberries “literally dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color,” and though it was possible to improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds, there were complaints that the grape seed “particles became visible” in the final product. And if there’s one thing we know about hot dog eaters, it’s that they’re picky about what goes in their food!

Onward to strokes: The key to preventing strokes may be to eat potassium-rich foods. Though Chiquita may have had a good PR firm, bananas don’t even make the top 50 sources. The leading whole food sources include dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and dates. We eat so few plants that 98 percent of Americans don’t even reach the recommended minimum daily intake of potassium. And if you look at killer number five — accidents — bananas (and their peels) could be downright dangerous!

Alzheimer’s disease is now our sixth leading killer. We’ve known for nearly 20 years now that those who eat meat — including chicken and fish — appear three times more likely to become demented compared to long-term vegetarians. Exciting new research suggests one can treat Alzheimer’s using natural plant products such as the spice saffron, which beat out placebo and worked as well as a leading Alzheimer’s drug.

Diabetes is next on the kick-the-bucket list. Plant-based diets help prevent, treat, and even reverse Type 2 diabetes. Since vegans are, on average, about 30 pounds skinnier than meat-eaters, this comes as no surprise; but researchers found that vegans appear to have just a fraction of the diabetes risk, even after controlling for their slimmer figures.

Kidney failure, our eighth leading cause of death, may also be prevented and treated with a plant-based diet. The three dietary risk factors Harvard researchers found for declining kidney function were animal protein, animal fat, and cholesterol, all of which are only found in animal products.

Leading killer number nine is respiratory infections. With flu shot season upon us, it’s good to know that fruit and vegetable consumption can significantly boost one’s protective immune response to vaccination. Check out the short video “Kale and the Immune System,” and you’ll see there’s not much kale can’t do.

Suicide is number 10. Oh yes, vegan food even has something good to offer on this one! Cross-sectional studies have shown that the moods of those on plant-based diets tend to be superior, but taken in just a snapshot in time one can’t tease out cause-and-effect. Maybe happier people end up eating healthier and not the other way around. But this year an interventional trial was published in which all meat, poultry, fish, and eggs were removed from people’s diets and a significant improvement in mood scores was found after just two weeks. It can take drugs like Prozac a month or more to take effect. So you may be able to get happier faster by cutting out animal foods than by using drugs.

Drugs can help with the other conditions as well, but instead of taking one drug for cholesterol every day for the rest of your life, maybe a few for high blood pressure or diabetes, the same diet appears to work across the board without the risk of drug side-effects. One study found that prescription medications kill an estimated 106,000 Americans every year. That’s not from errors or overdose, but from adverse drug reactions, arguably making doctors the sixth leading cause of death.

Based on a study of 15,000 American vegetarians, those that eat meat have about twice the odds of being on antacids, aspirin, blood pressure medications, insulin, laxatives, painkillers, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers. So plant-based diets are great for those that don’t like taking drugs, paying for drugs, or risking adverse side effects.

Imagine if, like President Clinton, our nation embraced a plant-based diet. Imagine if we just significantly cut back on animal products. There is one country that tried. After World War II, Finland joined us in packing on the meat, eggs, and dairy. By the 1970s, the mortality rate from heart disease of Finnish men was the highest in the world, and so they initiated a country-wide program to decrease their saturated fat intake. Farmers were encouraged to switch from dairies to berries. Towns were pitted against each other in friendly cholesterol-lowering competitions. Their efforts resulted in an 80 percent drop in cardiac mortality across the entire country.

Conflicts of interest on the U.S. dietary guidelines committee may have prevented similar action from our own government, but with our health-care crisis deepening, our obesity epidemic widening, and the health of our nation’s children in decline, we may need to take it upon our selves, families, and communities to embrace Food Day ideals of healthy, affordable, sustainable foods by moving towards a more plant-centered diet. If we do, we may be afforded added years to enjoy the harvest.

BY: KATHY FRESTON

* This article is a repost which originally appeared on huffpost.com.

Day: January 21, 2020

Being Prepared for PE

Sexual Improvement for Men