Law of Laplace and Loss of EQ with Girth Increases

Here’s the question: Do girth exercises, which are intended to stretch the tunica albuginea, deep fascia, and superficial fascia of the penis, end up diminishing EQ?

Here’s the basis for this question: Law of Laplace

Wall Tension = Pressure x Radius/Wall Thickness

For those who are unfamiliar, the law of Laplace is frequently used to describe the effects of dilated cardiomyopathy, but it generally describes the pressure difference across two interfaces (e.g. Blood and air). The issue here is when you forcefully increase your girth, you are decreasing the wall thickness of the aforementioned sheaths encasing the corpus cavernosum and increasing the radius of the penis. Consequently, the wall tension required to maintain the same pressure must increase (rearrange the equation in terms of Pressure and it will become very evident). How is this going to happen? I don’t know the answer, but my guess is that it won’t. There will be a linear decline in EQ as girth increases beyond it’s natural state.

Don’t try to convince me that I’m wrong, prove it. Take my word for it, this is an argument I want to lose. I’m not going to invest a second into any of these girth exercises until someone brings to my attention something that I’m missing.and neither should you.

1) I dont think increasing your girth decreases the wall thickness of your tunica. Any micro tears or thin spots would heal back to normal eventually, if not heal thicker. If it did decrease the wall thickness then girth gains would start off being very dificult and end up getting easier as the wall of the tunica became thinner and thinner.

2) You wont increase your girth without doing a shitload of kegels because having a tunica that can stretch larger wont do crap unless your PC is strong enough to pump that sucker up and keep it filled. That is where the extra blood / internal pressure comes from.

3) You dont have to invest your time if you dont want to.

You’re assuming that the tunica thins; it may simply grow in response to the applied stresses of PE.

Even if it does thin, why is that a problem? From the equation it looks like increased tension is simply a mathematical consequence of increased radius and decreased wall thickness. It’s a dependent variable. It doesn’t seem mysterious to me. Isn’t it kind of like asking why tension on the surface of balloon increases when it’s inflated? It’s just physics.

Speaking from the position of having gained about a full inch of girth, I can say as a personal matter that I haven’t noticed any particular loss of EQ. Sometimes it’s better than before; sometimes it’s worse. I can still get plenty hard “when the time is right.”

Remember also that the collagen in the tunica gets harder to stretch as strain increases. A stretched tunica is actually tougher than an unstretched one. It’s modulus of elasticity is lower. It can certainly handle the increased tension.

Also, I think its best in PE to just look at what has worked for the most people. Take the empirical approach, don’t theorize about what’s going to happen. Many guys have gained girth, few have gained girth and become impotent. That tells you all you need to know.

My “proof” is I’ve gained .75 inches in girth since I’ve started. I get diamond cutting hard! That’s all of the proof I need to keep going.

You talk about the wall tension in the tunica increasing as if it was some active process, as if the tunica did something to increase the wall tension. The tunica consists of connective tissue containing largely collagen fibers. There are some elastin fibers which passively stretch with erection, but they don’t actively contract like muscle tissue.

The tension in the tunica is a function of and secondary to the pressure within the corpora and the radius of the tunica. The pressure within the corpora is determined by a number of factors including the systemic blood pressure, the quality of and size of the penile arteries and arterioles, the appropriate response of these arteries and arterioles to the vasodilatory stimuli that occur during erection, and the quality of the veno-occlusive process. None of those factors are dependent upon the radius of the distended tunica, as far as I can see.

1. Stretching of the tunica albuginea, deep fascia, and superficial fascia must occur if the radius of the penis is to increase. Wall tension increases not by some active process, as redbear thought I suggested, but simply due to the fact that it is being forced to expand. For example, when you blow a balloon up, the walls of the balloon get thinner and the tension within the walls increases due to the increased radius of the balloon, as predicted by the Laplace’s Law. The issue here is when you stretch the tunica and overlying fascial layers, you need more blood to fill the corpus cavernosum if you are to build up the same pressure as you had prior to stretching. This is obvious to everyone. My question is, can our bodies accommodate this? Will the corpora cavernosa continue to fill with blood until it expands against the tunica, shutting off outflow and producing a rigid erection; or will there be a deterioration in EQ as a result of the new, expanded penile radius?

2. The tunica and overlying fascial layers consist of connective tissue (primarily collagen). Connective tissue is poorly vascular and has a very low turnover rate. So while microtears due to forcible engorgement may eventually be fixed, the rate at which an active clamper is likely to expand/tear this connective tissue sheath far exceeds the rate at which new collagen is laid down.

3. Northmiamitop, I agree that the empirical approach is the way to go, but I still have issues with it because personal accounts are unreliable. Too many things are not controlled for in the scientific sense. Nevertheless, it is all we have and I think it would be helpful to all those considering clamping and other girth exercises if more experienced members shared their personal accounts. So anyone who’s tried clamping (etc) and gained girth, it would be great to hear more about how such activities have affected your EQ (I.e. Ability to produce and maintain an erection naturally, that is, without the aid of any drugs/devices). Titleist has given his account, it would be nice to hear from others too.

Thanks for the responses.

Yes I agree if it was 3 people saying it it may be unreliable but when you have 500 saying it it starts to become more reliable.

Can’t the converse be true. Not sure if there’s any evidence but what about TGC theory:

“the smooth muscle is completely relaxed, but the tunica is stretched beyond the smooth muscles reach. This essentially creates a gap between the smooth muscle and the tunica, making it hard to shut off the veins.”

So what if somebody has a somewhat lower EQ (< 9) due to this. Isn’t possible that in such cases PE will simply stretch the tunica to the same level of someone who begins with a much higher initial rigidity (say 9 or 10).

This is interesting..

So aside from ejaculation control a great benefit of kegals is the ability to pump blood into the shaft.. Allowing the extra girth/length to take effect?

My EQ is often not what I’d like, especially when on my back.

I think that the CCs will continue to fill, at least within reasonable limits, and those limits are not likely to be exceeded by natural PE.

The tunica is not simply an envelope; it’s actually integral with the CCs. It cannot expand without the insides of the CCs expanding, too. Anyone experiencing girth gains needs not only to have expanded their tunicas, but also the softer tissues within it.

Still, I’ve had concerns about this very issue before, and that’s why my girth workouts always included a lot of jelqing. I personally prefer jelqing over clamping because it does a better job of moving blood within the penis. I’ve read various accounts that blood flow promotes blood vessel growth. Since the sinusoids of the CCs are made of essentially the same stuff as blood vessels, I figured jelqing might help them to grow.

In contrast, clamping merely increases blood pressure—not blood flow, so I’m not sure it’s as effective as jelqing.

Again, my maximum girth gains were 1.1” (from 5.1 to 6.2” MSEG), and I experienced no noticeable drop in EQ. If anything, it improved—at least during the time I was actively doing PE.

I’m not sure about that. A lot of people who hang report increasing base girth and a more “sinewy” look to their penises near the base, which seems to be an example of new tissue being laid down to protect the penis from the stresses of hanging. There have been a lot of discussions about whether guys gain strength quicker than length. I don’t think this would be such an actively discussed topic if the repair rate was much slower than the tissue breakdown rate.

My EQ is always great when I’m actively engaged in a PE routine and generally taking good care of myself. When I’m off PE (as I am now), it tends to go up and down depending on many lifestyle factors—work being the biggest. I’m approaching 50 now, so some loss of EQ is to be expected, and I have lost some since my early 40’s. But I know it will always come back when I take care of myself and especially when I do some mild to moderate PE. Jelqing and stretching have always done wonders for my EQ.

I can really only comment on my own experiences with clamping and girth gains here but I do not find any of what you theorize to be true. More the opposite actually.

My tunica if anything seems to be much tougher and thicker, not stretched out and thinned. The body’s reaction to a stimulus (ie being streched) is to adapt to handling that stimulus more readily in the future. It does stretch and get bigger, but it does this due to hypertrophy, the growth of new cells to accommodate that new circumference and also greater thickness to accommodate the increased internal pressure being put upon it.

The other affect of clamping I have noticed is my vein development. The ones that were there are allot bigger and there seem to be allot more I never noticed before. I have read theory that suggests that extended periods of oxygen deprivation (clamping) stimulate the development of improved pathways for it’s (oxygen via bloodflow) input. I find this to be true for myself.

This leads to both a stronger and tougher tunica and a better fed and harder erection. I also jelq and edge with clamping though, I feel these all work synergistically towards the same goals. More girth and better EQ.

It is all well and good to hypothesize why something could be bad or dangerous, but it is far more functional to hypothesize how the proven results of something actually occur.

It may be that stretching and remodeling of the tunica with PE results in it thinning, but nobody really knows. I think it is also possible that remodeling of the tunica could possibly result in an impairment of the veno-occlusive process. There seems to have been a lot of concern over the possibility of PE inducing venous leak. If that happened, it would obviously result in diminished EQ. But that would have nothing to do with the Law of Laplace.

Thought the same. Actually, EQ = Wall Tension, if I’m not missing something. What would be the problem? That tunica is thinning too much and injuries will become more likely to happen?

This also. Although we don’t know for sure if tunica becomes stronger and thicker, and beside that we don’t know the exact mechanism how it would happens (hypertrophy, hyperplasia etc.), it makes sense and personal and anecdotical experience seems to accord. Actually, the foremost reason of stalling gains could be the rate of tunica albuginea strengthening.