Originally Posted by Klayton
Complete (and unfounded) speculation…I have no idea what people are basing this nonsense on. Not only is there little to no anecdotal evidence (how often do we hear of chaps who start out with the newbie routine, then increase the time/intensity of their workouts, and THEN claim they can’t gain?). Even if the forum were to be flooded with this fanciful story, how could you possibly know they were ‘toughening’ anything? And what would be the solution to it? Go back to the routine that gave you nothing?
Not that I want to start arguing with you, Klayton; I just want to say that, IMHO, this speculation has some backup:
1) people who start gaining again after decon-breaks;
2) there is universal consensus among expert pumpers that high pressure is counter productive for gains;
3) most people who use extenders report gains; although it is hard to say for sure if the success ratio is higher among extender users than people who use other techniques, the anecdotal evidence seems to point there. (Hope it’s clear that I’m not saying extender users have more gains - it could be possible that people who gain with other techniques have bigger gains than extender users; what I’m saying that it looks like if 50% gain with, say, hanging, 70% gain with extenders - I’m giving arbitrary numbers here); we know that extenders apply very low force compared to manual stretching, so this seems consistent with the above points.
Of course anyone is entitled to his own opionion, just giving some food for thought.