Greetings everyone, happy new year and such
I’ve also been hanging for two months, using a vachanger 3, and have noted many of the same concerns capernicus brought up. I’m still very much noobing it out so I’m no authority but I’ve nonetheless clocked in 121 hours under traction since november, my BPFSL has stabilized after 5 weeks and I’m now beginning to see millimetre scale progression so things are going well. Here are a few on-topic observations if I may.
It has also been my experience that up to around 6 pounds of weight pretty much anyting, done correctly, more or less works. I’ve created many blisters when I tried to reach the 8-10 pound range and that was no fun. I’ve since dropped back to 7 pounds and for the moment I can get a good stretch there when hanging BTC. One thing I’ve noted is I’ve contracted most, if not all my blisters while hanging SD standing up. Among the many factors at play I believe in my specific case moving around is partly to blame. When hanging BTC laying on the chair with my feet up on the desk I’m not tempted to move about. Just putting that out there.
I tried using water in the hanger. Too much of a hassle for me and I don’t like the feeling.
What has worked best for me so far is fully wrapping the head with microfoam tape, nothing else I’ve tried comes close. Downside is I go through a lot of consumable: I now invariably stop the session after 1 hour and unwrap. I’ve noticed moisture builds up around the meatus and compromises the adhesive of the tape and 100% of the blistering occurred in the affected zone. Causality ? Dunno, but correlation yes. So I do 1 hour sessions, unwrap and dry and start over if I have the time. I can hang 10 lbs comfortably with that setup using only the vacuum cone, but I’m not doing that again for a while because blisters. Looking for a way to prevent moisture buildup under the wrap but I’m not putting too much hope into that.
I’ve tried the silicone cap+corn starch method too. It always takes me a few tries before I can slip on the cap without having an air bubble at the tip but it is doable. To apply the powder I simply put it in a small snap-lid container and dip the head in. No mess and fingers to clean up. Silicone cap is not as good as microfoam tape for me. I feel more of a pull/pinch at the tip like capernicus describes when I use the cap and if I go for more than 2 days using it I end up with bruising around the meatus and on the top of the tip. It makes a visible circular discoloration so I’m not a fan of the cap. I do use the cap but in very specific circumstances. When I’ve pushed too far and made a blister I’ve found that within the next 24 hours I can still hang normally if I use the silicon sleeves with the hanger. After 24h at some point the blister will pop on me: I run regularly and a good 1h run will generally break the blisters if the are more that a day old. Once popped, cleaned and treated with antiseptic a blister will weep if submitted to vacuum so wrapping with tape is not only impractical but would slow down recovery as well. Instead of stopping completely I use the cap and powder instead of the tape, reduce the weight to 5 lbs, reduce the vacuum a bit and use the long silicon sleeve with the hanger to give the head a break. With that setup I can usually do 30 minute sets without exacerbating the blister too much and the powder soaks up the fluid. Then it is a matter of waiting 20 minutes for the head to recuperate, wash and dry everything, then go for another 30 min set. I call it ‘limping mode’ and it has allowed me to nurse the blisters without stopping completely so I’m keeping the caps handy for that. Of course YMMV, use common sense while managing injuries and if in doubt play it safe!
One thing that I have found has an effect on the stressed tip issue is the type of vacuum ring I use with the hanger. This is vachanger 3 specific but MB offers ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ silicon rings. The soft kind has a lot more malleability and when I apply the weights if visibly creeps inwards in the hanger in response to the increased vacuum. The hard kind does not. Result is with the hard kind the extra vacuum created is distributed along whatever is in the hanger, typically the whole head. With the soft kind the vacuum increases, the silicone pushes in and covers part of the head, the volume is reduced and vacuum therefore goes back down, BUT the pull is taken by less glans surface (I.e. The fragile tip). I prefer the soft kind for comfort and have had less blistering with it but I suffer less tip stress with the hard kind. I’m thinking of implementing a rotation scheme.
I’ve been seeing the ‘do what works for you’ mantra in PE talk pretty much everywhere I looked so I’ll be watching this thread with interest for things to try. Keep ‘em coming guys and thanks for reading.
Edit: paragraphed for readability.