Curious J's Progress Thread

The main one for practical purposes is 5.5squared’s "Hanging with FIRe" thread, where you can read about how he structures his routine: Hanging with FIRe

He also links to the longerstretch and kyrpa for the more detailed, "theoretical" basis.

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Quick progress update for me: this week started out great, but then my BPFSL measurements started to go in the wrong direction, and strain values were very small. I peaked at 226mm post hanging on Monday, but by end of week wasn’t breaking around 216-218mm for either pre or post. Seems like it’s time to decon for a few weeks. I just hope I didn’t take it too far and cause too much tissue toughening.

I should mention that I added in 20-25 min of clamping to my routine some weeks ago (at the beginning week 3 of 5). This didn’t look like it was interfering with length gains in weeks 3 or 4, so it seemed fine to continue with it. But I’m now asking myself whether that was simply too much to put on the poor little guy and might have contributed to this week’s poor results.

Could be. If your EQ has also gone down, it’s probably due to overwork.

For any newer folks who happen across my progress thread.

Longerstretch:
The Long Game: Learning with Longerstretch, Key Principles to Make Sustained Growth

5.5squared
Hanging with FIRe

Kyrpa’s load calculator:
Kyrpa - The characteristics of the tunica albuginea revisited

Scienceguy:
let’s see what happens

This was for sure correct. Took two weeks off. I also stopped taking pygeum. I was interested in it for prostate health and load size, but it absolutely *nuked* my libido and tanked my EQ, too. Apparently it’s a DHT blocker. I certainly don’t need any of those.

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Now on cycle 2. Have been getting back into the 224-6mm range post-session, with modest strain rates of 1-1.5%.

Routine (M-F):

Phase 1: 15 min building up to 56 oz
1b Heating: 10min heating up to ~40C
Phase 2: 30 min heated, building up to 117.5 oz
Phase 3: 15 min cooldown, 132 oz

I’m also clamping MWF for 30 min.

Weekends off.

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Some personal realizations that might help others going through similar things:

I’m realizing that my main obstacle is myself and my own psychology. Especially my habit of reacting to disappointment in measurements by wanting to push just a *little* bit farther, to nudge them up. "Maybe if I stretch just a few more minutes, or add just a few more oz — or pull just a little harder — that will get me some real gains."

The disappointments can be either acute or chronic, but the chronic one influences me more: it’s that my NBP measurements have basically not changed since I started PE. (Always been at 6.7 inches.) This made it actually puzzling to me when this year I started to get comments in the bedroom about how big I was. In my head I thought: "but I’m *not* big, no bigger than I ever was." The answer came when I looked at some pictures yesterday that I took when I started last August, which helped me realize something:

I got fat.

I have been assuming that BP to NBP was always a difference of 1 inch for me. Last August, it was actually a difference of *half* an inch. Taking the difference of those, I have gained 1/2 an inch of length since August. I know others have gained faster, but in my book that’s nothing to be too disappointed about. Of course, this means I have also gained a half inch layer of fat! Yeesh.

I know this sort of thing is exactly why we measure BP. But, psychologically, it’s hard not to be influenced by the NBP measurements, because ultimately that’s the length you’re working with and what *looks* like the length of your penis. My recommendation to others: Take Pictures!

P.S. I’m kinda joking, I didn’t just "get fat". I’ve been intentionally bulking to build muscle, which has been pretty successful. Time to finally cut a bit of this extra mass off though, I think.

Finished at 231mm BPFSL today. (Strain of 2.67%.)

Really couldn’t believe my eyes. First time past 9 inches (= about 9.1 inches)! Felt like a milestone, hence the update.

When I started PE last August, I was optimistic, but part of me always thought, "sure sure, but come on, dude. This PE thing is probably too good to be true." Manual methods gave me pretty mixed results and were kind of high effort. Now this thing is gettin scary big right before my eyes. I started vac hanging at 208mm just two months ago! This is nuts.

Some routine updates: I started having to use rubber bands around the silicone tube to help maintain the vacuum as the weights have increased. It’s a little annoying, but not a big deal. The only other change to my routine is in the cooldown. Following the authorities linked above, I aimed at adding 20% weight for the cooldown period. I started to think that much weight was not necessary. It didn’t make much difference when you’re only hanging 48 oz to begin with. But as the base weight increases (for me it’s now at 125 oz), adding another 20% starts to sound scary. So I now only add about 6-8 oz for the cooldown, and so far it is working great.

Congrats on your gains… and reaching 9" BPFSL! 💪

Good tip about putting rubber bands over the tube when vac hanging… I think I’ll try it. Can I ask what weight you are hanging - and for how long? I’ve just started hanging myself, so am interested in other’s routines.

Congrats to the great gains!

Also really interested in your routine in terms of time, number of sessions, when you apply heat etc. I have read all the threads from Kyrpa, et al, but it’s always good to learn more.

Just started vac hanging this week (Total Man) after around eight months of manual stretching to get better control of the force and strain %.

Thanks, gents! Sounds like we’re all in the same boat, so I’m happy to share more about my routines. Good luck to you!

I do 5 sessions per week, one on each week day, and then take a break over the weekend. At the beginning, it was just hanging. A few weeks in, I started to follow hanging with clamping (30 mins) and kegels (anywhere from 50-300) every day. Then I realized that was too much abuse for my poor little pecker, and dialed it back to clamping and kegels just on MWF.

PHASE 1: I start with a "warm-up" phase that lasts 15 minutes. Right now, that starts at about 45 oz, and builds up to 65 oz. (When I was beginning, this was more like 18-25 oz.)

HEATING PHASE: At the end of phase 1, I start heating with my NIR heating pad on the highest setting (L5). Bought it on temu for about 30 bucks. I leave the weight at 65 oz. For 10 minutes as the temperature increases. Previously, I have measured surface temps to reach 40 degrees C by 7-10 minutes. I know there are folks analyzing what internal temperatures look like, as compared to surface ones. Early on, I was worried I might be duping myself. But at this point, the results are so clear that I am confident it is reaching a decent internal temperature. If you have a really fancy, effective heating implement, you could probably get away without a heating phase that’s this long.

PHASE 2: This is the loading phase. I turn the NIR pad down one notch to L4 so as not to cook my sausage. Then I slowly build the weight up, aiming to reach 125 oz. At about 20-25 minutes into the phase, before riding that out. (When I was just beginning, this was ~45 oz.)

PHASE 3: The cooldown phase. I remove the heat and add a bit of weight, then leave it be for 15 minutes. Other users have suggested adding 20-25% of your heated max weight for this part. The thing is, that would now mean adding almost a whole extra kilogram, and I prefer not to add unnecessary strain which might trigger tissue toughening. So lately, I have been experimenting with just adding around 7oz. Results have been good so far.

Total time: 15 min. + 10 min. + 30 min. + 15 min = 1 hour 10 min.

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It took me many weeks to settle into my routine. I’ve had to adjust lots of things: weights, the timing of heat, my taping method, positioning of the heating pad, length of the silicone tube, amount of theraband wrapping, extra supports to maintain the vacuum as weights increase.

I even had to start sitting on a stack of books as a "booster seat" — haha.

Now, my sessions generally go pretty smoothly. Just be patient and observant as you figure it out for yourself. Also: build in decon time!

Anyway, hope this is of some use — cheers!