Buckfever's progress report/bananaman story.

You’re lifting for fat pad reduction? Is that the crux of what’s showing the progress? I wish my fat pad would melt away…

Oh definitely. The biggest key to leaning up is to maintain the muscle as you lose the weight. Unfortunately I think you have to do all three, some cardio to burn more calories, strength training to maintain the muscle and following a meal plan so you can get good nutrition and to support the muscles while cutting.
There’s others here that seem to be into it way more than me.

I never thought about the fat pad issue until I got involved here and started thinking about goals. It was just a definite thing that what would matter to me is NBP length. So then when I looked at my situation, I was like, that’s got to go. For that reason and also, having looked at it, I think it’s just unattractive.

If you consider what we’re doing here, the discipline required, the effort, getting rid of the fat pad, is comparatively easy work.

8/20/2017

Yesterday I was able to extend to the maximum tension in the extender at 32.5 minutes however I was only able to stay in it till 35 minutes before slippage so only 2.5 minutes of time under tension. Also when I tried for a second session that day slippage occurred rapidly and I had to end the session.

So for today I wasn’t sure what to do, whether to back off to one level of tension lower or simply try to slowly increase the time at the higher tension. This is where the records were useful and I found that the most successful increments in increasing tension occurred when spending a week and a half to 2 weeks with a given tension level, while gradually increasing the time under tension. I’d only spent 5 days there this time, so I figured that wasn’t enough so I backed the tension off a level. (For me a level is 5 half turns)

Today I was able to stay in the extender for 60 minutes(Max time at that length and tension), having gotten to the tension level at 30 minutes, so 30 minutes of time under tension. I’m going to keep it at that tension level for another week and then increase to the max tension and see how it goes.

So slowly I’m honing down my protocol. The other area that I would like to get clarity is how many session in a day or in succession is too much. In looking at the records I seem to have benefited from occasional days of 3 sessions but I have also noticed that multiple 3 session days in succession leads to a fall off in progress and requires that I back off so that things recover.

Anecdotally I seem to not need full days off for recovery. But there’s so many iterations that it’s really hard to hone down what is optimal. All I know so far is that when it’s overworked the tissues are not robust enough to support progress and I’m starting to get a sense of where that limit is. What I’m seeing is that a less is more approach is where I’m landing. Looking at the records some combination of 1-3 sessions per day, 45-60 minutes for the first session, that’s about all I can figure so far.

As long as we’re making progress. Slow and steady wins the race.

8/25/2017

Today I was able to get to the max tension on the extender at the new length at 32.5 minutes and stay in the extender for 53 minutes. This was after 11 days at one level lower. 5 days ago when I tried this tension there was slippage at 35 minutes so things weren’t ready. Plan is to stay at this tension for 10-14 days and at that point add 1/4” bar to the extender. I added a 1/4” bar 34 days ago, so that’s looking like about 7 weeks.

There’s a lot of factors here but there seems to be waves to this. There was very fast progress initially and then it seemed to come to almost a screeching halt and then it seems to have picked up a little to slow but rather steady progress.

I guess we’ll see what the next plateau looks like when we get there. Definitely interesting.

8/27/2017

Third day in a row, got to the max tension at this extender length in 32.5 minutes and was able to stay in the extender for 62.5 minutes or a full half hour at the max tension. No numbness developed in the glans, which is my indicator- time permitting for the length of a session. This is just about as long as I go on a session.

More recently I’ve gotten away from 3 sessions in a day. Reviewing the log after 3 session days I would seem to lose ground in terms of time under tension the next day so it seems that things were overworked. But I’m not sure, I’ll continue to monitor it.

So progress continues. I’ll consolidate this stretch for another week and then add another 1/4” bar to the extender. If the rate of progress continues I’m looking at a couple months out to work that extender length to Max tension. And that will be the point at which I take the next measurement. The short term goal remains of 22.25cm of max stretched length in the extender, which would mean a 5cm increase in max stretched length.

I’ve been reading about statistics here and there are some good numbers provided. It’s hard for me to believe that I’m already at this for over 5 and a half months, but what I’ve seen from the statistics is that a 2” length gain and 2 years are the points of diminishing marginal returns. Very curious how this plays out for me. I have some thoughts about this I’ll share down the road.

8/30/2017 Progress

Yesterday I was able to get to max tension in 32.5 minutes (60 half turns) and stay in the extender for 63.5 minutes for the first session. The problem with that is 2 fold. For one I am pressed for time to keep adding time to the session and second I am finding the idea of adding additional time per session to be mentally challenging. I need to add length soon to the extender but want to spend more time here to consolidate.

So today what I did was increase the rate at which I increased the tension so that I got to max tension(60 half turns) at 27.5 minutes. So instead of backing out the screw 5 half turns every 2.5 minutes starting at 5 minutes, I backed it out 6 half turns. A tremendous increase in intensity.

Was able to stay in the extender for 60 minutes and so the time under max tension actually went up to 32.5 minutes but quite frankly the stretch felt much more pronounced throughout the session.

Still on track to add length to the extender after the Saturday session.

And after 5 and a half months, still learning how to very slowly and incrementally apply increasing levels of tension and/or time to the process.

8/31/2017

Managing fatigue.

After yesterdays more intense session I felt fatigue throughout the day and decided not to do an additional session. Not really sure if this is the right decision, however I applied the same protocol today and while still intense not nearly as much as yesterday, but toward the end of the session. I did manage to add a minute to the session.

This makes me think that this was the right decision as there was some accommodation by the tissues, but I’m just speculating. Not sure about the correct way to manage fatigue and how it translates as far as effectiveness.

I’ll evaluate the fatigue today an see about a second session. Intuitively my inclination is striving for the smallest incremental accommodation in the tissues is the best way to avoid hitting a wall. Work in progress. We’ll see.

9/1/2017

So yesterday the post session fatigue was not as bad so I decided to try a second session in the afternoon and I was able to get to 80% max tension and stay in the extender for 26 minutes before the glans started to slip.

For today I got into the extender and almost immediately it fell to the down position on it’s own. Ordinarily I have to push it down at 2.5 minutes so this indicates an additional accommodation of the tissues. I got the max tension of 60 half turns at 27.5 minutes but at 30 minutes it felt it could accommodate more so I went to 66 half turns, which is really pushing it as the threads are just about out of the ring. I was able to stay in the extender for 60 minutes so 30 minutes at the highest tension level yet.

So at this point we have tackled the addition of the 1/4” bar are ready to add another 1/4” bar to he extender. This only took 41 days, which I view as tremendous. I would have to say that it is a combination of improved technique as a result of understanding the process better, but also that this is a wave of progress after a period of consolidation after the newbie gains.

It seems to me pretty clear that there are going to be periods in which progress stalls as the tissues consolidate/remodel before additional progress can be made and this requires patience. You just have to wait until the tissues are ready. Gains need to be “cemented” before additional gains are forthcoming. But I’m not going to try to make correlations or hard conclusions because I really don’t know what is going on. I’m just paying attention to the process and staying open.

I’m not sure about how deconditioning fits into this. During this time I only did 3 sessions in a day for 8 of the 41 days, 7 days saw one session and there was one day off. Mostly it was 2 sessions a day.

I still have more questions than answers.

9/2/2017

Added 1/4” bar to the extender and a new noose. Increased tension to 27.5 minutes and was able to stay in the extender for 44 minutes when I noticed a little slippage so I ended the session. Very good start to the new extender length.

It’s turned cold here. I think I understand why heat is recommended.

We’re going to take a few days off here. I got company. ;-)

9/7/2017

A double!!!

Lots of intimacy over the holiday. With a new PI, of causing a double vaginal orgasm. Not that I was going for it, it just happened but I can’t help but to view giving her a multiple orgasm as a positive indicator, as that is new.

The size difference is being noticed but it is being attributed to the fact that I am a lot leaner and look to be in better shape. It’s good cover. But it does bring out a good point. The intimacy was driven entirely by the abs being on display, so keep that in mind.

Started back up for a short session yesterday but literally there was too much fatigue from all the intimacy. Back on track today, with making progress, but based on what I’m seeing this next 1/4” is going to take longer based on where things are sitting in the extender.

That’s ok. Slow and steady.

Working hard, keep it up!

I also noticed that as hours progress, it gets harder to keep adding lenght or tension and it may completely stop sometime.

I started at extending lenght of 18,5cm and it was pretty fast to get to 21cm, but after that it got very slow, will resume my routine soon as new noose arrives.

Amazing, how much have you gained now?

I’m only measuring stretched length in the extender and conservatively have gone from ~ 17.25cm to 21cm. I last measured 7 weeks ago.

I found something similar. I started around 17.25cm and quickly went to 20cm and then it seemed to stall for a few months and then it seemed to pick up again but at a slower pace. I found replacing the noose regularly helpful.

9/17/2017 Update

Too many people staying in my home for me to make a strong effort for this cycle. 4 out of the last 14 I have missed days and most of the days I’ve only been able to get in a singe session. Only a total of 7 sessions of 44-55 minutes. So basically I have been on maintenance for the last 2 weeks.

The difference now is that as I have more time with the process, I’m not getting frustrated about it, it’s just life which takes precedence and I’ll work the PE in more robustly when the opportunities present.

But the benefit of this period is that I’m getting a measure of how little is too little and that will be useful going forward and for down the road when we need to cement the progress.