Routine not working, under or over-training What would you do

Hi All, this is my first post on Thunder’s Place, I just joined after a few months reading around it. I’m new to the game and have been amazed by the sheer amount of intellect and creativity brought to bear on the subject of PE by many of those on this forum! I’m hoping that some folks might be able to give me a bit of advice about my own situation.

I started PEing around mid Nov 10, loosely following the newbie routine; hot wrap, about 5-10 mins manual stretching in all directions, about 200-300 strokes jelqing, then normally a hot bath after as a warm down. Plus kegels here and there. I soon built it up to about 15 mins stretching including a few V or A stretches plus 300-400 jelqs.

Here’s the thing - I feel like I’m getting a reasonable workout. I stretch quite hard but not to the point of feeling pain - just occasionally a slight ache in the ligs but nothing that lasts once I release the stretch; I jelq quite firmly and get good expansion but never experience any pain and I’ve only ever had one small red spot. Other than that, no discoloration, no lig pops. This makes me think I’m unlikely to have been over-training. But my EQ is suffering a bit.

It’s not that I haven’t noticed any positive effects at all - my flaccid hang is generally better than before, it was pathetic previously (I was very much a grower) but now it’s a bit more respectable and I’m happy about that. I think my unit looks slightly more vascular than before; and I’m open to the possibility that I might have gained a very tiny bit of BPEL since starting, max about 0.2inch - but it’s early days and I’m not convinced about it yet! It may just be due to bad measuring. I don’t feel that my dick is actually any longer or thicker than before when erect, and when coupled with my slightly lower EQ I don’t think it’s giving me a more useful organ at this stage!

Now I know it’s only been about 2.5 months, and I’m not getting impatient over my lack of gains, but the EQ issue got me concerned enough to post this thread. I never had any problems in that department before, but since starting PE I’ve noticed that some days my erections are weaker or less likely to happen than before. It seems to take a bit of effort to get me started, and once or twice lately I’ve gone off the boil during long sex sessions; that’s not something I remember ever happening to me. Drink may play a part, but hey, I’ve always drunk more than I ought to without losing wood! Other days my EQ is fine, but only ever about what it was before. So I’m feeling that I’m not on the right track here.

The one ‘revelatory’ moment I had was a few days ago, when instead of normal stretching I did some sets of JAI stretches after jelqing. I felt I was onto something, and sure enough about 4am I was rudely woken up with outrageous night wood, like I’ve never felt before. I was on cloud 9 the next day thinking I’d finally cracked it, that I’d found a routine that was actually giving me the right indicators; but I can’t repeat it! I’ve done the same routine a few more times, but no night wood, and back to rather poor EQ. Why the change?

So if you’re still reading (I know it’s a bit long!), do you think I’m doing too much or too little? Or just have to be patient? I’m confused by the inconsistency of my results despite being quite dedicated to my PE.

By the way, in case you might think I’m a doubter - I really believe PE works for a lot of guys, and I’m just paranoid I may be in the small minority who don’t gain or find it very hard.

A few figures: BPEL approx 6.3 on a good day, NBPEL varies from 5 - 5.5. LOT about 7 - 7:30; Dunno why such a difference between BP and NPB - I’m quite skinny! What fat I do have is unfortunately there!

Cheers guys.

I’m just a newb here, so my opinion is just a non-educated theory… since you have had great night wood at one point during your routine, could it be a psychological issue? If your EQ is falling off and you’re still PE’ing very regulary, maybe a few days to a week of totally letting your penis rest will do you some good… I’m sure all of our bodies will have different ways of recovering, so you may have to try several different remedies before finding what works for you.

What I’ve learnt from my very short time in PE is that you need to go easy with this stuff. Starting out with 200-300 jelqs sounds like way too much.
When I began, I did 10 minutes of ‘light’ bundled stretching and 10 minutes of jelqing - which amounted to less than 100 strokes. Then I gradually increased the jelqing to 15minutes, which I’m currently doing (I’ve been PE’ing for little over a month). A few times, I’ve attempted to increase the jelqing time to 20min and I immediately lose my night/morning wood.
To my knowledge, all the exercises you’re doing should contribute to a better EQ so it does sound a lot like you’re overtraining. Thinking that it can’t be the case simply because you haven’t injured yourself is ridiculous - EQ and spontaneous wood are your best indicators.

(Though you should wait for advice from someone more experienced, of course - I’m just sharing relevant experiences.)

Take a look at these two articles if you haven’t already. They might help in figuring out what is going on (overtraining/undertraining):

Physiologic Indicators (PIs) to help growth!
Warning! If you haven’t gotten improved erections:

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For what it is worth not all guys do well with the regular newbie. It was too much for me. I did better on a less stressful routine. For example, I think I am pretty "stretch sensitive" - if I were to do a lot of stretching it would take my unit 3 or 4 days to recover. What worked for me as a newbie was 3 sets of 5 way stretches, about 20 seconds per stretch. A helicopter stretch after each of the 5 ways.

Maybe you are one of those "Less is More" guys.

Take a look at this thread if you get the chance:

Is starting out lesser necessarily better

What I did was sort of similar to this, but not quite:

NEW newbie + advanced routine

It varies because maybe you drank a lot of water one day, or maybe you ate a salty snack the other day.

Thanks so much for the prompt replies guys! Very helpful.

BigDanny, I don’t think the loss of wood is a psychological issue because it took me by surprise, it wasn’t related to any conscious anxiety. But I can’t completely rule it out of course. What bothers me more is that I just feel less ‘reactive’, I don’t get wood quickly or spontaneously during the day at the moment, though I can still generally get it together when I have too. It’s just I feel a bit disconnected from my dick. It may well be a fatigue thing, which does point to over training I suppose.

Serenity73 - thinking I’m under training just because I haven’t injured myself is ridiculous - that’s a very fair point, quite obvious when you put it that way! I guess as a newbie I wasn’t sure how much stress to expect or what is desirable. I’ve read a lot of posts about this stuff, but they are generally very subjective; one guy’s hard tug might be quite light for another guy depending on their strength, experience, pain threshold etc. Some people say they get red or purple spots a lot, but still make good progress; or regular lig pops. I was worried that I might not be doing enough because I don’t experience these things. But it sounds like it might be best to pull back a bit and try a lighter routine for a while.

Thanks for all your advice, any further insights would be much appreciated. I will re-read the threads highlighted by Sta-Kool, I came across them before but it might be time to refresh my memory!

Sta-kool, if you’re there, do you think perhaps I should focus on light JAI stretches rather than static stretches? Because the only time I got a strong positive PI was after a routine involving those.

Cheers, J-Ho

I am mostly concerned about you flagging wood. Take some time off and check out those articles when you get a chance.

You do not need to get “spots” to gain, nor lig pops.

I worry maybe you are in too much of a hurry and you are pushing yourself beyond where you should be. The tried but true phase is “PE is a marathon, not a sprint.”

I’m definitely going to heed that advice, take it easy for a few weeks and see if my situation improves! I will post my findings. I suspect that I’ve been over-fatiguing my dick, and also the fact that I’ve naturally ended up jerking off more than I normally would because of all this activity may have had an impact on the wood. I try to avoid it, at least soon after PE, but when you start devoting more time to your dick you need more self-control than before. I’m going to re-study those articles too.

If I have indeed been pushing too hard, would it mean that I have wasted my time thus far, or might I still get gains from the work I’ve done if I give myself a break for a few days then pick it up at a more relaxed pace?

I just posted another thread about fat pad depth and (lack of) skin, in which I mentioned that my BPEL is actually a little better than I thought, and it seems I have made some small but noticeable gains by that measurement but not in NBPEL.