Straining shouldn't be the goal. Relaxing and attempting to induce maximum quality tissue stretch (which is not the same as using maximal force) is the goal.
during the newbie phase it feels like everything works, but post newbie phase gains always slow. and there's a lot of guys that hit their goals purely based on "feel" before the more recent era where tissue strain has been popularized.
there's mutlilple schools of thought here... some from the extender world claim gains come from cellular multiplication, while others adhere more to a strain theory.... there's probably other theories as well. personally, i think both schools of thought may have some truth (cellular multiplication or deformation through strain). ultimately, my penis definitely has more tissue than when it started, but in both cases gains stalled after 1 year.
but on strain not being the goal -- I didn't realize that you might not align with that school of thought
@Big Al