I think one thing that I forgot to mention earlier is also very pertinent to this discussion. It’s pretty hard to overdo manual stretching. No matter how hard you pull or how often you’re still only working connective tissue that is generally pretty tough and takes a lot of abuse. Serious girth work, in the form of various trapping exercises and possibly clamping, is VERY easy to overdo and the injuries that can occur are much more serious than those that manual stretching can cause. I’ve busted more than a few capillaries in my day from pumping and very intense trapping and let me tell you, it’s not a good thing. It takes a long time to heal, during which time pretty much all PE is out the window, and seems to predispose you to injuries later on.
Bottom line, unless you’re really in tune with what PE does for you and how much you can take then focusing on girth from the start makes you more susceptible to injury (it’s sooooo easy to try for that extra little bit of expansion).
2010-01-09: BPEL: 19,7cm [7.75"] EG: 15,0 cm [5.9"]
2010-04-24: BPEL: 20,4cm [8.0"] EG: [???]