McQuaid's Memoirs - A Progress Log

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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I plan to post here about once a week to give updates on my PE routine as well as any other random thoughts or observations I have along the way. I've made some threads already that you should check out if you want to follow along with my journey. For those that missed them:

"Long time lurker with photos to prove it's possible for anyone" - My first post, summarizing my PE story.
"McQuaid's Hanging Pulley For Homemade Comfort" - Whenever I mention hanging below, it's with this.
"Progress Album" - NSFW PE Gym album of every 1/8" gain

Offsite Albums:
"PE Gains" - - NSFW picture album of every 1/8" gain - but hosted on imgur for larger sizes that load 100% of the time
"PE Gains (Raw Images)" - - NSFW picture album - Same as above but not aligned and cropped to the same size
"McQuaid's eBay Vacuum Hanger Guide" - SFW picture album of my equipment


I'll use this first post as an index to link to topics I write about along the way, to help with navigation if this turns into a multi-page thread.

As always, my measurements are in my signature and obviously in my photo album. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them on the open forum or in a private message.
 
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MulejuiceMcQuaid

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A quick backstory (mostly covered already in my Success thread), I started my PE journey with a 20 dollar noose extender back in June of 2016. I experience real gains from it and I loved that fatigue feeling it created to let me know it's working, but I just couldn't keep using that extender. The noose system was uncomfortable and limited my set time, and because my erect length is shorter than my flaccid stretched length, whenever I became even slightly erect it created enough force to pull me out of the noose.

So a month later I committed to long term PE and bought a cheap vac chamber online and ditched the extender, opting to use the included leg strap to create tension by tying one end around a piece of solid furniture while I sat down. This was extremely comfortable and helped me hang for long, continuous sets which I couldn't do before. But using the strap this way meant I didn't have consistent tension, and if I moved even slightly it would change the force applied. I also felt like I was starting to max out the tension it could create with elastic resistance and I needed more force to keep gaining.

It was September 2016 when I decided to solve this by creating my own pulley system to suspend weights. This meant whenever I moved, the pulley would move too and maintain a consistent force. For the next year I hung every day for at least two hours this way, usually in a recliner with my feet up and pulling at a straight down angle with the cable just above my feet. I'd also hang for long sets under my computer desk, pulling straight out, but these sets were less frequent. I was making great gains pulling straight down so I never even thought of changing the angle. During this first year of pulley hanging, I stayed in the 4-6 pound weight range, with sessions of one to two hours, as often as I could get them in. Probably an average of four hours a day under traction, with some days only two hours and other days up to eight hours.

I made great gains this way, but it was in early 2018 when I was increasing the weight to the ten pound range that I started experiencing fluid blisters. I was only using a glans cap and it always had a chance to slip and form uneven pressure points, especially when I was hanging for two hour sets with eight pounds or more. This set me back a bit while I healed, thought everything was okay, and then hurt myself again a couple weeks later. Eventually I figured out 3M micro-pore tape was the solution, since it adheres directly to the skin and can't slip. I had tried other tape in the past and it was terrible and never worked so I discounted the idea entirely until I saw a post here suggesting micro-pore tape. It was stupid of me to struggle finding a solution by myself instead of using the PE Gym as the resource of knowledge that it is, and that's one of the reasons I decided to lurk more and eventually start posting and helping other guys.

From July through the end of October of 2018 I had a pretty reliable routine. I would hang for a set of one to two hours every day after work (with an extra set twice a week on my free days) and I would only take a rest day when my social life made it impossible to PE. That was probably about one day every two weeks. I was hanging in the 10-13 pound range here, only hanging in my reclined position pulling at a straight down angle just above my feet. I used my under the desk hanging position barely at all, but when I did I backed it down to six pounds so I could hang a long session with much less risk of hurting myself.

Then at night I would hang in bed with my pulley cable running straight down past my feet, pulling at a straight down angle with a five pound weight. This was the most weight I could do while still being comfortable enough to fall asleep and make it though the entire night. Even then, if I had to use the bathroom I just took it off and didn't put it back on, or if it was bugging me for any reason after a few hours and I couldn't sleep I took it off. The only times I didn't attempt night stretching was when I had a girl staying over, when I stayed over at their place, or when I just wasn't in the mood and needed guaranteed uninterrupted sleep. So I attempted night stretching five times a week on average, and my success rate for wearing it the entire night eventually reached 50% which I think is pretty good for a routine like this.
 
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MulejuiceMcQuaid

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Right now I've been taking a little bit of a break this past week. It's the longest break I've taken from vac hanging in at least six months. The goal wasn't to decondition anything internal to increase the efficiency of future PE routines (even though that's a plus) but just to recondition my glans. After such prolonged vac chamber use this year I formed some really leathery glans. They grew callouses about the size of a thumb print on either side of my urethra, either in response to a lack of moisture that taping them every day causes, or from a response to the extreme forces applied to them while hanging. They weren't painful, and they weren't necessarily decreasing my pleasure because the skin underneath was more sensitive from the daily vacuum, but it was rough to the touch and caused peeling skin which really made them look terrible and like I had some kind of disease. Not the presentation I want during sex at all.

I've had great success from soaking for an hour, using a pumice stone to gently remove dead skin, and then using a hand moisturizer at points during the day. After just three days I had completely removed the callous and had normal feeling skin, although discolored yet because it was new. How I soaked for an hour was by using a standard 32 oz Gatorade bottle, filling it with warm water about 3/4 full, squeezing the remaining air out, and then using that suction to pull in my flaccid member which expanded inside and made the bottle water tight. Obviously this can be dangerous if you get stuck inside, but I know my little guy and I have a lot of skin, not much solid meat, and my girth is the right size to pull this off without any risk. I can slide over my skin to force an exit with a little work, but because the bottle is plastic I can just squeeze it to blow myself back out the opposite of how I entered. I would never attempt this with a glass or metal bottle, and even with a plastic one you have to be very aware of your girth and flaccid size if you want to avoid an embarrassing trip to the hospital. But the results were fantastic.

It's been about four days since my last soak and the skin color matches perfectly now and the skin is soft to the touch like the rest of me. I thought I could do some clamping while I stopped hanging, but since I've eliminated the callous I noticed the skin underneath bruised slightly from the internal pressure so I've stopped cold turkey from all PE while this skin reinforces. The only thing slightly worrisome is that my skin there is very smooth compared to the rest of my glans, which are more sponge like, almost like a cat's tongue if you've ever felt one. As the days go by it gets more and more wrinkled flaccid, but still noticeably smooth as it expands erect. I'm wondering if my previous fluid blisters had any long lasting negative effect on these areas. I'm going to wait another week to see how it looks before I start up again, but I'm pretty sure if I ever stop messing with vac hanging completely it would look and feel normal again with time. And even if I was somehow stuck with smoother glans for life, I would still do this again for the extra 1.5 inches in length which I absolutely love.

I'm circumcised and didn't do any moisturizing or preventative care at all when I started vac hanging, so it's really no surprise my glans dried out like they did. I've already purchased a foot cream designed to treat dry and cracking feet with the assumption it will treat any skin that has been beat up by rubbing and friction just as well. There just isn't a market for a dedicated glans cream for PE practitioners, and if it existed it would have the same 500% markup slapped on everything PE related. I've also purchased some tea tree oil soaking salt with the idea that a soak once a week might be a good idea as well but I'll wait and see. My goal is to maintain my PE routine but with added preventative care maintain the appearance and texture of my glans at the same time.
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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I went almost two weeks without any PE but as of yesterday I'm back at it again. In hindsight, I should've just used cream to soften the callous naturally over time. Using a pumice stone after soaking was not painful at all, but I fear it was too abrasive and it has left the remaining skin too soft and thin to pick up vac hanging where I left off. I was very happy with how my glans looked and felt, but after hanging yesterday I've noticed bruising under this new skin even at six pounds less than my old max. I'm not worried, but it will mean I need to be careful while I build up my vac conditioning again. Still a pretty successful experiment though and it gave me some peace of mind for the future.

I decided to change up my hanging angle after two years of only straight down, so I've mounted my hanging pulley behind my recliner on a Total Gym looking piece of exercise equipment. It's extremely sturdy and gives me three and a half feet of clearance off the floor to pull behind me, directly over my shoulder. I could've just flipped my chair around and used the same door hinge as a mount, but this way my chair still faces the TV set and it won't interrupt my after work relaxation time. I'll be hanging seven pounds for about 1.5 hours once a day the rest of the month, but I'll be giving my night stretching a rest until I regroup in December.

The change in angle was felt immediately. The most obvious is that my testicles tag along with the stretch now when they were mostly unaffected before. I think the scrotal skin is being pulled which leaves less room for the boys, so they end up split down the middle and shoved inside my body. It's not uncomfortable, just a very unusual feeling at first. There's also something going on deeper in the body too that's harder to describe. It sort of feels like I'm pulling on things I've never stretched before, which hopefully translates into gains at this angle. And finally, this could just be me not relaxing enough, but I'm experiencing foot and leg cramps like this. Weird.

After hanging today I felt huge, and the ruler agreed so I uploaded a new photo. It felt like I was reaching a plateau in October which may have just been in my mind, but it felt great to break through it. I'm not sure if Santa can deliver, but all I want for Christmas is another 1/8" lol.
 

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My Straight Up angle hanging the past two weeks has been sporadic, so I decided to compensate for that by adding in sleep stretching again since that was the only part of the day I had time to hang. I haven't figured out a good SU angle yet for night stretching, I've tried, so it's SD still for now. I don't expect it will help me gain much, as it's getting into "shotgun approach" territory mixing up the angles like this, but so far it's helped me rebuild tougher glans by giving me more time under vacuum, which was what I needed after my previous folly.

Since the weekend I've been on my computer a lot more, working on hobby projects, so I've been using the pulley mounting point on the underside of my desk to pull straight out for hours at a time. This morning I spent one hour hanging SU from my Total Gym/Recliner position at 11 lbs, which felt great to do again. I followed that up later with an hour SO at my desk at 10 lbs, and now I'm still at my desk but backed down to five pounds which I've been hanging for two hours now without even feeling it. I'll probably hang one more hour like this while I finish up at my computer, then attempt another SD night session at 5 lb. I'd like to keep this going for the rest of the month if possible, but we'll see. I haven't done this much hanging in a day since I first started.

One more thing worth mentioning is that I've been clamping daily now. I'm trying to figure out a steady routine around my hanging so they enhance each other, but I'm not sure what's my best option for that yet. It feels very pleasing to clamp after hanging, so I've been doing that but it might not be the most efficient for gains. I've found a pretty good wrapping method that lets me clamp for 20 minutes straight, which normally I'd consider unsafe but as long as I keep kegels going at steady intervals I don't get any numbness or deep color changes that would make me worried. I set a timer so I don't lose track of time, but 20 minutes is about when the burning sensation around the clamp starts so it's easy to tell.

I've noticed a decrease in EQ this week, but I've been putting a lot of time in traction and clamping and I've also been masturbating more than usual (clamping sessions turn into edging very easily for me), so I'm not surprised or worried about EQ just yet. I've gained girth (temporary yet I'm sure) but seemingly lost an eight inch in BPEL (back to 7.5"). However, I think by the end of the month I'll be back to where I was and then some when my EQ pops back. Some days I worry I'm at a plateau and I won't be able to break it, but I think I'm just lacking perspective at the moment.

I've got some other crazy ideas I plan on experimenting with this week, so we'll see what happens.
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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I found the sweet spot to hang weights at my desk was seven pounds, which is enough to get a great stretch in while staying comfortable for more than two hours at a time. Meaning fluid intake and the bathroom breaks it causes are really the only limiting factor in this position.

I've been trying to do my daily over the shoulder hang at 10 lbs for at least an hour, but it was just too extreme today and I had to cut it 20 minutes short. The skin near my scar line on the underside of my penis is being sucked up and folded over itself at this angle which is very uncomfortable, so I'll need to think of a solution. Maybe it's as simple as switching to a fresh sleeve that's still tight.

I've been doing roughly six hours of hanging a day now when I combine everything together. I had to stop my night time hanging session after an hour last night because it was uncomfortable and distracting (haven't be able to wear it a full night in a few weeks so I'm going to drop it down to four pounds), but when I looked at my flaccid stretch before taking it off I was ridiculously long. I couldn't help but think if that was "real" penis length that no woman would be able to take it. I measured my BPFSL like this while still in the vac chamber, so I had incredible leverage on it and was extremely loose from hanging all day, but I was easily 8 1/4" which is a new high. I don't do measure BPFSL often, but I've never been past 8" before.

I measured BPEL today and it looks like I'm on track to reach my 1/8" goal for this month already. If I waited for the perfect post hang length boost and took enough pictures I'm sure I'd capture it, but I'm going to wait until the end of the month which will make it easier to document, and also make it feel like I'm hitting my next milestone quicker. When I need to take ten pictures to get the one I need to show growth, then I know I'm pushing it and lying to myself. A healthy ratio is around a 50/50 split between my old reading and my new milestone, with the difference being caused by EQ, lack of ruler pressure, camera angle, and so on. I have about 80 pics in total that I might toss on an imgur album eventually that are my outtakes and uncropped photos.

During the past two months I've felt really discouraged at times, like I had hit a plateau and wasn't gaining. But when I look back at my progress album, it's just not true. I think it just felt like a lack of progress because I started being active here on the PE Gym forums and have PE on my mind more often, so relatively speaking it seemed like more time had past than really had. Luckily I have the album to keep me sane, and show how far I've come this year.
 

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I've figured out a permanent solution to prevent sucking too much of my shaft skin into my vac chamber. I took a two liter soda bottle and cut out a horizontal strip to create an insert for the chamber. This insert lowers the inner diameter of the bell from 1.5" to 1.4" which seems to be enough to eliminate spillover at higher weight or longer time. I added duct tape around the outside to hold it together and give it a tighter fit into the bell, and I rolled this duct tape over the edges to keep them smooth.


View attachment 99348
Vac Chamber on the left, soda bottle section on the right, and the insert in the middle.

View attachment 99349
Bell with the insert inside.

It's ugly but it feels great which is all that matters. I was able to hang my seven pound desk weight for six hours Sunday, Monday and a bit less on Tuesday. This was combined with my 1 hour over-the-shoulder routine, about four hours night stretching, and 20-30 minutes of clamping each day. Wednesday turned into a rest day as I had too many errands to run, and today is looking like the same, but I should be back at it tomorrow and hitting things hard again after Christmas.
 

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So I've gained about 1/16" this month based on recent measurements. I've cemented my previous 6 and 5/8ths BPEL and am measuring close to the next eighth mark, but not quite. In hindsight, thinking I would gain a full 1/8" in a month after all these years was naive. I should know my body better by now, and even though I put in extra time it's still an incredibly slow process that you frustratingly can't rush. Steady gains are what PE is all about. Looking week to week and month to month it's hard to see a trend, but looking at 2018 as a whole it's obvious that I'm on the right track and it has kept me motivated.

My dream goal when I started PE was adding two inches in length. I had no idea if it was even possible back then, but now that I'm just four or five months away from reaching that goal I'll need to seriously think about how much longer I really want to do PE. If I stopped today I could be happy, I know that, but part of me wants to see if I can get to a 9 inch BPEL before 2021,

I'm really enjoying my newfound Big Dick Energy and it keeps getting better every month, so I'll probably continue PE for as long as my lifestyle allows it. Assuming I don't hit a physical limit before then.
 

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Routine Change:
-Hanging 13 lbs straight down for 1 to 1.5 hours in the morning
-Post Hang I clamp 2 or 3 sets of about ten minutes each with a minute break in between, wrapped in a heating pad
-Hanging 7 lbs straight out and/or 5 lbs straight down for 4-6 hours in the afternoon/evening


Over the Shoulder hanging seemed to work, but not better than my normal angle which is a lot more convenient and comfortable. So my new routine is now my old one: Hanging from a door hinge at a straight down angle at my max weight, following that up with hanging 7 lbs at the computer or 5 lbs while sleeping to get at least four hours supplemental traction every day. The goal is to get deformation during my high intensity/low time set, then maintain and exploit it with my low intensity/high time set. I'll probably return to Over the Shoulder this year, if only to give my Straight Down angle a break.

The foot cream I've been using on my glands works really well to prevent the ugly, dry flaking skin problem I get while vac hanging. Still have smoothed glans with dead skin, but it's all moisturized and rubs off between the fingers if it builds up too much. Sounds gross, but it looks and feels almost normal most of the time while still being thick enough to prevent vacuum blisters. Best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned. It only takes a small dab after a set to work, and it's really obvious if I skip a few days in a row, so I guess it's just something I do every day now.
 
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I've never enjoyed the 97 kb file size limit here for pictures (it's not 2004 anymore!) and since albums have been having serious problems loading for weeks, I've uploaded a bunch of stuff to imgur. I've looked at the forum rules and this should hopefully be okay since it is not pornography or monetized content. I'll leave myself at the mercy of admin discretion. These links have been added to my top post too.

Offsite Albums:
"PE Gains" - - NSFW picture album of every 1/8" gain - but hosted on imgur for larger sizes that load 100% of the time
"PE Gains (Raw Images)" - - NSFW picture album - Same as above but not aligned and cropped to the same size
"McQuaid's Pulley Hanger" - SFW picture album of my equipment

In the new progress album I've resized everything using the ruler as a guideline since it's the only constant through the years. What I did was change one layer to half opacity and drag/resize/rotate/skew perspective until the rulers matched perfectly. Then I added the yellow date stamp to make it easy to see the passage of time. The most "editing" I've done was changing brightness and colors with sliders to make it a little more consistent between cameras. I'm not some Photoshop wizard trying to fool anyone, and I've uploaded the second album of the same images that weren't altered to show that, along with many redundant shots that I didn't use in my main album.

I'm lucky enough to not only be a big gainer, but to have the technical skills necessary to document my gains this accurately, so I'm pretty proud of this new album and look forward to updating it as I gain more in 2019. I'll still update my album here at the Gym, but they need to fix their database just to get it back to the level of "your small pictures will randomly work or not work depending on the day" (sorry but technology is leaving you behind, guys).
 

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Just a general update for the past week or two. Everything is going well and I haven't changed my routine by a large degree, so there's not much to say about it. I experimented with bundled hanging but it's not something I'm ready to commit to daily yet. I'm going to need a long metal rod or wood dowel to hold the twist better.

I have noticed a huge stretched flaccid length when I wake up from vac hanging at night (almost 8 1/2 BPFSL last time I checked), and I'm feeling a lot "meatier" in my erections even hours after my daily clamping sessions, so I'm feeling very positive about my routines for both length and girth. I still get size dysphoria now and then (like most guys) but I shake it off easily. The other day I even looked in the mirror after a long clamping session and my residual half-erection looked like a bright red baby arm clutching an apple. It was shocking to see it that big and gave me a lot of motivation to keep going. :)

With how I measure BPEL (doing everything I can to take the longest measurement possible) I'm always chasing the length you'll see in a new photo by a small degree. But it looks like I'm caught up so I can reliably reproduce my 7 3/4 inch most of the time without much exertion. I should be hitting 7 13/16 sometime this month, and 7 7/8 in March. The big goal will be a full 8" before the end of May, which I feel very good about.

I have updated my "McQuaid's Pulley Hanger" album with two guides to show how I wear my vac hanger and how I put on a cable clamp because I've had people ask about both either here or on Reddit. I used a banana to demonstrate with so that album remains dick free.
 

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I experimented Sunday afternoon with some different inserts and taping techniques to try to reduce the strain on my glans, but I ended up developing a small fluid blister in the process, about a pimple size. I think the tape bunched up over that area and wasn't making contact with the skin which was completely my fault. I've had a lot worse than this little guy, so it's not a big deal to me anymore. I drained it right away after it happened and drained it a second time before I went to sleep, and by the next morning it was visually gone. The area was still puffy the last two days, but it hardened over today which is my sign that I can start hanging again tomorrow, as long as I take it easy.

I have my eye on a 13 dollar medium vacuum bell that is the same inner diameter and height as my current one, but is a lot more tapered towards the top. I've been able to reduce the inner diameter at the base of mine very easily with inserts, but I can't get anything into the curved top, so I'm starting to wonder if my inserts are actually hurting more than they're helping. I'll find out soon enough, this old bell has been used daily for the last 20 months so it's ready to retire anyway.

Since I'm not hanging at the moment, I compensated with extra clamping time which hasn't impacted my recovery from what I can tell. In the future, it might be worth it to stop hanging for a few months and focus completely on girth gains. I'm liking the intensity I'm getting right now, but I don't think I can split my time (and penis) between hanging and clamping while giving both the focus they need for gains.
 

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I've stopped hanging for the last two weeks, and in a few days I'll be getting my new vac bell and starting again. I was fiddling with the replacement valve on my old bell and in the process created a small leak somewhere. So instead of wasting time troubling shooting it, I decided to just chuck it into my "old PE equipment" box and not worry about length for the moment. I've maintained a clamping routine though.

While clamping I've observed my ~5.6" girth expand to 5.8" after about fifteen minutes, 6.0" after half an hour, and 6.1" after a full hour (taking periodic 30 second breaks of course). I'm thinking that similar to length exercises, the more time you can spend at full expansion = better gains. (Although at a certain point, it might just be fluid building up outside the tunica and not helpful).

On a whim I did a solid two hour session the other day, and at the end I reached a full 6.25" expansion. This was after doing a "normal" hour session earlier that day too. I didn't feel any negative side effects, and visually there was only slight discoloration (bruising) in my skin pores that were under the wrap, which is pretty normal for clamping. I felt good about the amount of fresh blood I was letting in during rests, and was staying hard through kegels and slight stroking to keep me aroused. Unlike previous sessions I wasn't "edging" just below the point of orgasm while watching softcore porn, but I was just keeping myself in the arousal zone with as little touching as required watching regular TV. I really could've gone longer if I had the free time and dedication to do it, but unlike vac hanging you need to stay focused on what you're doing so I stopped when I started zoning out.

I'd like to get in a few more extreme sessions like this before I get my new bell and go back to targeting length because I feel like I'm making great progress on girth. Getting to 6.0" temporarily without the clamp looks and feels great, so reaching that as a normal erect size would be ideal.
 

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Routine Change:
-Hanging 10 lbs straight down for 1 hours in the morning
-Hanging 7 lbs straight out and/or 5 lbs straight down for 4-6 hours
-Clamping: On hold for the next week or two


New vac cup arrived last week, but I went too hard with it after my long break and developed an edema (an early fluid blister). So I ended up taking another week off to be safe and have been hanging 6 lbs the past three days just to condition my glans again. I seem to be ready now, so I'm returning to a daily hanging schedule after a month of trouble and delays. I'm anxious to get back to hanging and finally chase down that 8" BPEL goal.

I'm suspending my clamping routine for the moment because it will bruise my tender glans after I've stressed them for hours in a vacuum from hanging. In a week or two I should have more tolerance (more calloused glans) and can begin clamping again without a lot of bruising. With almost daily clamping in February (with a few extreme sets too) I've gained somewhere between .05" and .1" of permanent girth which I can definitely feel. But one downside to clamping that I wasn't expecting was the lingering size dismorphia once I stopped and only had my natural EQ. I recognize it and shake the feeling off, but it's a real mind fuck to gain and end up feeling smaller. It really shows how important good measurements are because your eyes and your brain are not reliable tools to track gains.
 

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Routine Change:
-Hanging 6 lbs straight up for 1-2 hours in the morning
-Hanging 7 lbs straight out at my desk for 4 hours in the afternoon
-Limited bed hanging
-Clamping: 30 minutes every other day


I haven't been feeling as much fatigue from straight down hanging as I would like, and I guess it's to be expected after 2+ years of ligs gains. It feels like I'm putting in a lot of effort only to get diminishing returns, so I'm switching back to straight up to focus on tunica gains.

My previous theory was that I could just hang straight down forever and whatever was constricting my length at that moment, ligaments or tunica, would just be stretched. It certainly worked for me in the past, but I'm thinking now that my stronger ligs will always take the majority of the stretch and not see much growth while my tunica gets very little stretch at all. So I brought out my fake Total Gym again to anchor my weights behind my recliner. I've drastically reduced my weight with this angle change because I won't be able to take anything close to my straight down regular tension.

It also hit me yesterday that hanging straight up like this actually puts stress on the entire tunica, including the hidden inches of penis inside of my body. When hanging straight down or out, most of the load is absorbed by the ligs so it never reaches the inner penis. I think that's part of the "weird internal feeling" I experienced a few months ago hanging like this. Since my BPFSL is about 8.25", I'm stretching at least 10" of tunica this way with almost no lig interaction. Seems promising.

Hanging this way is definitely inconvenient compared to my straight down door frame anchor position. My body tenses up and I get muscle cramps in my neck, legs, and ass, and it's just generally impractical to have a piece of gym equipment in the middle of my room. But I'm going to try to stay dedicated to the routine, and if I see some good gains I might just put a screw hook into a ceiling joist and rig the pulley up that way just to clear out some floor space.

Clamping I've started again but I only feel like committing to it every other day for now. Night stretching will be mostly on hold, since it's a straight down configuration and might not be all that useful. I can hang straight up in bed but nothing I could possibly sleep in right now. I have an idea, if I run the pulley cable through a small PVC pipe that would go under my pillow and end under my chest then it might be tolerable enough to sleep in at low tension and I wouldn't have to worry about chipping a tooth from a flying vac chamber if I lose suction, or getting rope burn from tossing and turning.
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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I've measured again this morning and have gained about 1/8" since my January photo. I don't have the same massive head swell this time around (I must have clamped last time before I measured) so my overall length is under a 1/8" gain, but it's pretty clear I jumped in size when you compare the position of the bottom of the glans. I've added the new photo to my "PE Gains" album.

I've found a good spot to hang straight up which has helped me greatly. It's laying in my bed, with the pulley mounted on the steel rod inside of my closet, which is behind and slightly to the side of my bed. It's not a position where I could sleep while hanging, but it's easy enough to hang for two hours watching TV on my phone before I go to sleep. This combined with my recliner spot is letting me get about 4 hours of time in per day.

My glans have toughened back up, I've figured out an even better taping technique to get full coverage, and the newer vac bell has been holding pressure without a problem. The risk of blistering is very low, and my glans (while puffy after a set) are now pretty comfortable doing 6 lbs straight up so I can increase the weight when I need to without creating new problems.

I'm getting a lot of great physiological signs too, mainly a consistently higher EQ and a larger daily flaccid. Seems like I found the routine I was looking for, so I don't expect any major deviations from it for the next few months.
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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So my new taping technique was with 2" wide 3m Micropore tape, to add cuts to it so when applied it would fold over itself to form a cup that covered the entire glans. After testing it for about a month it seems like a failure. When the cup design worked it worked well, but when it didn't work (which was too often) it left some skin exposed and put me at risk. In the end it wasn't worth the extra effort to make it, so I'm back to a simple X with two strips of tape. Already feels more secure.

I've had a lingering bruise at the base of my shaft, on the underside, definitely caused from clamping. It hasn't improved much in the last month even though I've abstained from all clamping. It's not painful but very ugly to look at and it's made me a bit self conscious lately. Firegoat Rolls aren't effective on this area, but I found some advice while lurking that seems promising. I bought a topical bruise remover cream, the kind that old ladies use on their hands because their skin is paper thin and they bruise from opening a jar of pickles. It contains Arnica, Aloe, Shea Butter & Vitamin E. Found it online and it'll be here tomorrow afternoon, so I'll use it daily over the next week. It's something I might try on my glans as well because for whatever reason I haven't been able to built up a callous. I'm getting that raw, rugburn feeling (ouch) that's stopping from from hanging as often and as heavy as I'd like to. Maybe because my taping method hasn't been working, who knows.

Yesterday I started clamping again with a simple 3x10, and I did an other set this morning. I've kept it looser and I'm still getting the expansion I want, which is good, but it aggravates the existing bruised area which is why I looked into solutions. I think last time around I went too tight with the cable clamp, pushing for an extra notch when I already had more than enough constriction, which caused the damage to begin with. I'm talking about using both hands to push the ends together. Just like adding weight, more isn't always better and I'm going to remember that this time around.

But things are going pretty well otherwise and I'm getting 3-4 hours hang time in every day. I'm ready to up the intensity of my routine once my glans hold up better. Feels like I'm still making progress but it's slow going.
 

Cavalier

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Keep us updated on how that cream works on your bruise.
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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Routine Change:
-Hanging 10 lbs straight up for 1.5-2 hours in the morning
-Hanging 7 lbs at my desk Straight Out, or 6 lbs in bed at night Straight Down for 4+ hours
-Clamping: Suspended for now


The bruise cream hasn't done a lot for the residual clamping ring. Seems like it's a shade or two lighter, but that's it. It's an old, deep bruise so I guess I couldn't expect it to work miracles. If I had applied it at the time it formed, who knows. Now it just needs time to heal, and I'm breaking from clamping while it does. Probably a month or two I would guess. I've been using the cream on my glans after intense vac hanging and I think it does a better job there clearing up fresh bruises close to the surface and the Vitamin E is helping the skin heal quickly.

The past month and a half I actually lost 1/8" or more in length. I was hanging exclusively Straight Up, and it felt like I was getting slow yet steady results from it but the ruler doesn't lie. So as an experiment, I spent the last two days hanging Straight Down, and when I measured today I'm back where I started at the beginning of April. I'm thinking since I left my ligaments alone for so long they must have healed completely and tightened up to a degree. I'm hoping I gained solid tunica length and it was just offset by this lig retraction. If so, hanging Straight Down for a couple months may result in seemingly fast gains as I work them loose again so that's my plan. I was able to do 10 lbs from my door frame position like it was nothing, so I'll have to increase the weight going forward (or do some bundled hanging).

I am a bit concerned about causing some kind of ED from a lack of suspensory ligament anchoring. To be honest it's probably an unfounded fear but this is unexplored territory for the most part. I think once I get past 8" BPEL I'll probably go back to tunica work just to be safe but I'm sure when I get greedy again I'll focus on the ligs again. lol
 

MulejuiceMcQuaid

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Routine Change:
-All PE routines suspended

I finally had to throw in the towel around mid-June. Gains haven't just slowed down but have stopped entirely and the only thing I haven't tried yet is stopping for a month to heal and reset so that's what I've been doing. I'm going to give it another week or two before I consider restarting. I've been going hard every day for like nine months straight so I'm probably long overdue for a break.

My diet has been terrible ever since spring which I'm sure is also a factor. Gained back about ten pounds in total this year with sporadic carb binges and cookouts, and my EQ has noticeably dropped from it's peak in winter when I was doing [no carb] and intermittent fasting and just generally feeling great. I'm sure if my diet gets back on track for the rest of the year so will my PE progress, so that's my main goal for this month.