Focus Your PE and Gain! TGC Theory

You might be exercising the wrong way and that could be why your not gaining.

That’s the idea behind Tissue Growth Clues Theory, a theory created by Iguana and I.

Please Note: This theory has been disputed on a number of grounds, most damningly that it does not align with the anatomy of the penis and that the evidence used does not support the claims made.

Like nearly everything else in PE, all the information in this post is no more than a theory. This theory is different than most, though, as you can apply it and test it out right away; and you can use it to help you build a more “focused” routine.

Why so long?
Indeed, this is a long thread. But, if the theory is proven right, it might just be one of the most important threads you ever read. A good knowledge of the penis’ smooth muscle and tunica (Part 1) is important for understanding the theory. That said, if you could care less about understanding the theory and just want to apply it or test it out, skip to Parts 2 and 3. Part 4 goes over the case studies and data we have for the theory.

PART 1: The Smooth Muscle & the Tunica

Let's start with the tunica. The tunica is a strong tendon-like tissue that surrounds all three corpus chambers—and the smooth muscle within the chambers. The tunica governs the size of the erect penis similar to how a bicycle tire limits the expansion of the inner tube inside. As with a bike tire, once the limit of the tunica is reached, further pressure results in greater stiffness rather than expansion.

Research seems to indicate that, oddly enough, not every man has the same amount of layers of tunica. Most men have two layers, but some men only have one layer in their penis. Others have as much as three layers.

The Penis Smooth Muscle

Now, it’s widely believed that the penis has no muscle in it. This is wrong. Your penis isn’t a muscle, but it does have muscle in it. Think of it this way. You can enlarge your arms. Are your arms muscle? No way. Do they have muscle in them? Yes way (biceps, triceps, etc.). It’s the same thing for your penis, only the type of muscle is different.

A healthy penis is made of roughly 50 percent smooth muscle.

What does the smooth muscle do?

The smooth muscle helps determine the size, shape, and hardness of your penis. Just as your biceps and triceps play a critical role in the size and strength of your arms, the smooth muscle in your penis plays a critical role in the strength and size of your erections.

Your erections are largely caused by complete relaxation of the smooth muscle in your penis. Here’s how.

The erection process of a healthy penis, the smooth muscle view

Pre-Erection: Your penis is flaccid. Your smooth muscle, which is largely in the corpus chambers, is contracted. See Figure 1 (attached at the bottom of this post). In the figure, you’ll see a cross section of the penis. Inside the three corpus chambers of the penis, you’ll see several circular sponge-like spaces known as sinusoidal spaces. Inside these spaces is where the smooth muscle is. There are also some smooth muscle cells in your veins and arteries, but they are different from the ones in the corpus chambers.

The normal erection process:

1. Something turns you on.
2. The smooth muscle relaxes and blood flows into the penis.
3. When the smooth muscle is completely relaxed, it presses against the tunica and cuts off the veins that take blood out of your penis, as in figure 2.
4. An erection occurs

AN IMPORTANT POINT: More Smooth Muscle = Harder Erections

Not all penises have the same amount of smooth muscle. Some penises have more than 50 percent smooth muscle; others have less than 30 percent. This difference is a major reason why some men can’t get an erection and other men can have an erection for hours on end. Says urologist Dr. Eric Wespes:

And another study:

Clearly, smooth muscle is important for strong, firm erections. The not-so-crazy part? The amount of smooth muscle in a man’s penis appears to decrease as he ages. In one study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research, Dr. Wespes measured the percent of smooth muscle in men of different ages. In his study, the men under forty had an average of 46 percent smooth muscle in their penis; men between forty-one and sixty had 40 percent; and men older than sixty had 35 percent. (Wespes)

An erection and the role of unhealthy smooth muscle in the penis:

It appears that when you don’t have enough smooth muscle, or possibly when the smooth muscle is too "fatigued" to relax all the way, you aren’t going to get a hard erection. Let’s go over the two main problems that can occur with the smooth muscle during the erection process.

The problematic erection process:

1. Something turns you on.
2. The smooth muscle relaxes and blood flows into the penis. Possible Problem 1: The smooth muscle can't relax all the way. This might occur from many things, such as poor health. In terms of PE, however, it probably occurs if your penis smooth muscle is too tired from overtraining.
3. When the smooth muscle is completely relaxed, it presses against the tunica and cuts off the veins that take blood out of your penis. Possible Problem 2: The smooth muscle is completely relaxed, but the tunica is stretched beyond the smooth muscles "reach." This essentially creates a "gap" between the smooth muscle and the tunica, making it hard to shut off the veins.
4. If problem 1 or 2 occurs, a rock-hard erection won’t occur. Problem 1 has already been dealt with by sparkyx in his PI thread. This theory tackles the possibility of problem 2.

At first glance, problem 2 may be hard to grasp, but it’s very simple once you think about it. First, let’s consider the smooth muscle and the tunica as two separate things we’re enlarging, with two separate size "limits." For instance, let’s do an example where the tunica "limit" is larger than the smooth muscle "limit." In this instance, let’s say you’re a 50 year old man who has never exercised his penis before with only 40 percent amount of smooth muscle (the average in Dr. Wespes study).

Your erections aren’t as hard as they once were, as the smooth muscle is having a harder time reaching the tunica - in an essence there is a "gap". This has also caused your penis size to be a little smaller than it was when you were younger.

The good news is that the limit of your tunica has most likely stayed the same over the years, so the smooth muscle is what’s holding you back. How is this good news? It appears that PE exercises the smooth muscle. This could possibly play a role in why a lot of men get quick, abundant "newbie" gains along with a quick increase in hardness. There smooth muscle was the limit, and PE enlarged the smooth muscle (or created more smooth muscle). In turn, the smooth muscle volume is sufficent enough to press all the way against the tunica, and the "gap" is eliminated.

A key point here is that you don’t have to be a 50 year old man to have low amount of smooth muscle. We estimate that any man, at any age can have under-developed smooth muscle. For example, a man who doesn’t obtain a lot of erections via sex and masturbation probably has poorly developed smooth muscle. It just so happens that men who are 18 tend to have a lot more erections than men who are 58.

Improper Training/PE Can Cause a "Gap"

It’s been reported by several PEers who aren’t overtraining and are gaining, that for some reason, they can never obtain "rock hard erections." In this case, the problem is probably that they are enlarging the tunica more than the smooth muscle.

How is this possible? We believe that, for the most part, when we PE we are dealing with two major distinct tissue types, connective tissue (the tunica) and smooth muscle. Given their differing structure and composition, the growth process for each tissue type is not the same; meaning a different training strategy is needed. Smooth muscle cells, unlike any other muscle type, retain the ability to increase not only in size but in cell numbers, while connective tissue does not have this ability. (More on how to enlarge each tissue in Part 2.)

The smooth muscle being the limit

On the other end of the spectrum, you can have the smooth muscle "limit" larger than the tunica "limit." In this case:

• The smooth muscle is at or approaching the maximum the tunica can hold.
• So the smooth muscle is bulging into the tunica (think of it as pumping up a 15" inner tube inside a 14" tire).
• This in turn causes the penis to be extremely firm and hard when you have an erection, or a "rock-solid" erection.

Resources:

• The Penis Smooth Muscle Theory
• Smooth Muscle - Wikipedia
• The Penis is A Muscle!
• Anatomy of the Human Penis: The Relationship of the Architecture Between Skeletal and Smooth Muscles
• Scwartz, E. J., et al. “Sildenafil Preserves Intracorporeal Smooth Muscle After Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy.” Clinical Urology. Volume 171(2), February 2004, pp. 771-774.
• Wespes, E. “Smooth Muscle Pathology and Erectile Dysfunction.” International Journal of Impotence Research. Vol. 14 (2002), pp. 17-21.
• Seidel, C.L., and N. W. Weisbrodt. Hypertrophic Response in Smooth Muscle. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1987.
• Mechanical stretch stimulates growth of vascular smooth muscle cells via epiderm - H Iwasaki, S Eguchi, H Ueno, F Marumo, Y Hirata
• Vascular Smooth Muscle Growth: Autocrine Growth Mechanisms - Bradford C. Berk - Center for Cardiovascular Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Second Department of Internal Med Physiological Reviews, Vol. 81, No. 3, July 2001, pp. 999-1030 Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society
• Weapons of penile smooth muscle destruction: androgen deficiency promotes accumulation of adipocytes in the corpus cavernosum.Traish AM, Kim N. - Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA.

PART 2:The Theory, Explained & Application

The TGC Theory revolves around how you can exercise your “limiting factor,” which is either the tunica or the smooth muscle.

The basis of the theory is that either the tunica or the smooth muscle is what’s holding you back, and thus is the tissue you should focus your PE efforts on. We believe that the smooth muscle and the tunica are enlarged with very different exercises (the tunica is enlarged with mainly length-type exercises and the smooth muscle with girth-type exercises, although a few are interchangable.)

In this part, we will go over how we believe you can find out which tissue is your current limiting factor (we say current, as it can change in the future). In the next part, we’ll go over how you can focus on that particular factor.

PE Isn't As Random As We Think

Any experienced PEer will tell you that you PE is variable and random - “you’ll have to find what’s best for you” is the common mantra.

It’s true, PE can be very variable and random. However, the basis of this theory is that there are “clues” that penis gives off that aren’t random - they mean something. And if they mean something, then we can interpret it’s meaning to help us PE more efficiently and effectively. In a way, sparkyx already started tackling this idea with his PI theory. For this theory, you can use certain clues to find out what your limiting factor is.

Your Penis is Talking to You

Everything your penis does is a hint to how its reacting to the exercises. These “clues” offer insight on how you should PE. When we initially came up with this theory, Iguana, I and few other guys at The PE Gym talked about several different seemingly unexplained phenomenon that might not be so unexplainable, including:

• Why are some men growers and others showers?
• Why do some men get great expansion when clamping and other don’t get any expansion?
• Why do most men report harder erections due to PE but some don’t?
• Why is the BPFSL often so much bigger than the BPEL?
• Why do a few guys have a longer BPEL than BPFSL?
• Why do some guys get flaccid gains but not erect or the reverse?

• Your BPFSL/BPEL ratio: That is, how much greater is your BPFSL than your BPEL?
• Your Erection Quality, or EQ: How hard are your erections on a scale of 1 to 10?

Main Clue 1: On a scale of 1 to 10, your erections are a 9 or a 10. Remember that the tunica surrounds the smooth muscle like a bicycle tire surrounds the inner tube inside. When you’re erections are extremely hard, it essentially means that there isn’t a large “gap” between the smooth muscle and the tunica. When your erections are rock-hard, as if the smooth muscle is trying to buldge out of the tunica - and as if a 15” inner tube was pumped all the way up inside a 14” tire - it means that the tunica is what’s holding you back.

How is the tunica holding you back? We’ll, if you enlarge the smooth muscle any more, the only thing that’s going to happen is your penis is going to get harder and harder. Similar to how if you pump more air into an already-full inner tube, it’s going to result in increased hardness not increased size. But if you increase the size of the outer part of the tire to 15”, the tire will be … 15”.

Main Clue 2: Your BPFSL .5” or less than that of your BPEL. The tunica is most likely the part of the penis that determines how far the penis can be stretched (assuming all the tissues in your penis are relaxed enough for you to measure your maximum BPFSL). If the length of the stretched penis measures close the same as the erect penis, then that would suggest the tunica is at its limit when erect.

We picked .5” as the “magic number” because that’s the number the data suggested. However, we’re still in the beta stages here, so we may find that the magic number could be more along the lines of .25” or even .75”. Either way, the closer your BPFSL is to your BPEL, the more likely your tunica is your limiting factor.

So, for example, if your BPFSL is 6.25 inches and your BPEL is 6 inches, then it falls within the .5” range and the tunica is your limiting factor. If your BPFSL is 6.6 inches and your BPEL is 6 inches, then it falls out of the .5” range and your smooth muscle is probably your limiting factor.

Clues the Smooth Muscle is the Limiting Factor

Main Clue 1: On a scale of 1 to 10, your erections are a 8 or less. Let’s do a bicycle tire example again. But this time instead of having a 15” inner tube inside a 14” tire, you have a 13” inner tube inside a 14” tire. As a result, the tire isn’t as big nor as hard as it can be.

This is essentially what happens if your smooth muscle is much less than what your tunica can hold. Your smooth muscle can’t reach the tunica, and as a result there is a “gap.” The gap essentially means your smooth muscle is holding you back and results in weaker erections. If you enlarge your smooth muscle, your erections should improve and your penis size should increase.

However, this clue alone isn’t enough to show if the smooth muscle is the limiting factor. The reason being: Weak erections can be caused by numerous variables, such as an unhealthy lifestyle, a testosterone deficiency, and overtraining. You’ll want to make sure that these other variables aren’t the cause before deciding the smooth muscle is your limiting factor. Or, at the least, you’ll want to check Main Clue # 2.

Main Clue 2: Your BPFSL is more than .5” greater than your BPEL. Remember that tunica is most likely the part of the penis that determines how far the penis can be stretched. So when the BPFSL is much greater than the BPEL, it means that the length of the penis can actually extend further than its length when erect. So your tunica length is already ahead of your erect length — and thus not the limiting factor, making the smooth muscle the limit here.

So, in this case, when you get an erection, there isn’t enough smooth muscle to completely fill the the gap between the tunica and the smooth muscle. But if you PE and enlarge the smooth muscle (or create more smooth muscle cells), then:

1. The gap will be filled
2. Your smooth muscle size will catch up the tunica
3. Your penis will get bigger and harder

1) Measure your BPFSL and your BPEL. Find out how much greater your BPFSL is than your BPEL. If it’s around .5” or more, it indicates that the smooth muscle is your limit. If it’s around .25” or less, it indicates that your tunica is probably your limit.

2) Rate your Erection Quality 1 to 10 using this scale.

Be very honest with yourself here. We’ve talked to guys who said their EQ was 8.5. Then we asked them to describe their erections to us and they were a clear 6.5 at best!

An erection quality of 10 is like that of a teenager: Rock-hard erections come consistently and easily (your entire penis fills up with blood and akin to being “made of steel”). Erections with the quality of a 9 also come easily, consistently, and are very hard - just not maximum hardness. If your erections fall in this range, it indicates that the tunica is probably your limit. If your erection quality is around an 7 or maybe an 8 or less, it indicates that the smooth muscle is probably your limit.

PART 3: How to Use the Clues Effectively

Once you know what your limit is, the fun part begins: Using your the clues to help you develop a more effective routine.

Using Your TGCs to Design Your Workout

In short, you can focus on exercising your smooth muscle by doing Ulis, squeezes, clamping, and other girth-type exercises where the pressure forms on the inside; and you can focus on your tunica with stretches, hanging, and other length-type exercises.

Now, you may ask: Why should I focus on just one tissue, why can’t I do both length and girth exercises? The answer is that you can, if your TGCs don’t clearly show that either is your limit. If, however, your TGCs show that either the smooth muscle or the tunica is the limit, you’ll want to exercise the limit. If you don’t, gains will probably be hard to make and possibly won’t happen at all.

Exercising your smooth muscle when your tunica is the limit doesn’t work because it results in hardness instead of size! It’s like putting more air into a tire that has already reached its maximum capacity. This is great from a penis health perspective, bad from a penis enlargement perspective.

Exercising your tunica when your smooth muscle is the limit doesn’t work because the more the tunica enlarges without the smooth muscle enlarging, the more your erection quality will suffer!

How to Exercise the Tunica

We believe that length-type exercises, where the pressure generally forms on the outside, focuses on the tunica more. This doesn’t mean stretching and length exercises doesn’t exercise the smooth muscle. In fact, the opposite is probably true: When we are stretching, hanging, or using an ADS, we are stretching both the smooth muscle and the tunica. However, it would appear that the tunica is probably taking the blunt of the stress, as it is the tissues closest to the point of origin. In other words, the tunica is on the outer layers of the penis, the smooth muscle is on the inner layers, and stretching is generated closer towards the outer layers. Meaning, if you are hanging, the hanger is on the outside of the penis, pulling the tunica.

If your main focus is to get more girth, yet your tunica is your limit, it’s probably possible you can focus on the tunica with certain exercises like the Flaccid Bend and HammerHeads (compression squeezes.)

How to Exercise the Smooth Muscle

Girth-type exercises like squeezing, clamping, and Ulis also workout both the smooth muscle and the tunica However, it would appear that when we do girth exercises, the main pressure comes on the inside (from a rapid influx of blood flow). This directly causes your smooth muscle to expand, which indirectly causes the tunica to expand (when the smooth muscle presses against the tunica). Thus, the smooth muscle is probably taking the blunt of the stress as it is the tissue closest to the point of origin.

WHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW: Focus Your Routine

A key point here: You don’t have to completely change up the days you do your routine, how often you do it, etc. - just make sure the exercises you’re doing focus on the tissue that is the limit.

If your smooth muscle is your limit: Adjust your routine so it is mostly girth-based. That said, you don’t want to focus completely on girth. You should do at least 10% to 20% of length exercises as well, and possibly more, as length exercises do most likely stretch the smooth muscle to some degree and help it to expand. If your goal is length and girth, you’ll probably want to make your routine roughly 30% length-based and 70% girth-based. If your goal is only length, you’ll still want to do at least 60% of girth exercises and possibly more. Also focus your jelqs with a high erection level, around 70% to 90%.

If your tunica is your limit: Adjust your routine so it is mostly length-based. Again, you should still do at least 10% to 20% of girth exercises as well, and possibly more. If your goal is length and girth, you’ll probably want to make your routine roughly 30% girth-based and 70% length-based. If your goal is only girth, you’ll still want to do at least 60% of length exercises and possibly more. Also focus your jelqs with a low erection level, around 40% to 60%.

PART 4: Case Studies

No doubt this is not the first PE theory you have encountered in your career and it probably won’t be the last. The problem with PE theories is they most often just remain that - theories. Most are debated endlessly only to die a slow death and very few ever enter any kind of application phase. This is where we hope this one will be different.

We reason that if this theory is correct, real world application will bear that out. If not, then it’s sure to earn a spot in the the acclaimed PE theory graveyard. Even if the theory turns out to be incorrect, we hope that it persuades people to start thinking about the clues the penis might give off, and possibly this thinking will lead to future discoveries.

So to test a portion of the theory, we conducted a survey on this site as well as several others. We asked guys to contribute their BPFSL & BPEL measurements, as well as EQ (erection quality) on a scale of 1 to 10. The assumption was, if the BPFSL measurement (a good indicator of tunica length)was significantly greater (over 1/2”) than the BPEL measurement, erection quality would suffer.

We currently only have around 80 participants. Given the memberships of all the sites surveyed is well over 100,000 we were hoping for a better response. At this time we still have results trickling in and have decided to keep the poll up for a little longer to see if the posting of the theory generates more support. As of this writing, 60 to 90 percent of the results you guys posted support this theory (depending on the which way you look at it). We thank all the guys who took part in the survey. After more data is posted in this thread, we’ll post a detail explanation of the results.

Case Studies
In addition to the data collection, we looked at a few cases, in addition to our own, for real world application. Would this theory work when put to the test? Better yet, were others unknowingly applying this strategy and getting good result? In other words, how many vets had gained from training this way and were totally unaware of the significance?

Timesbechangin - Tunica Case
Times had very hard, consistent erections (an EQ of 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10). His BPFSL was roughly .15” longer than his BPEL at it’s absolute maximum point. He had been at a plateau for several months. His routines we’re mostly girth-focused, which using TGC theory suggested to that the reason he wasn’t gaining was that he was focusing on the wrong tissue. He was advised to switch it up and focus on his tunica with length exercises. After roughly two months of focusing on the tunica, he’s gained nearly .5” in length and .15” in girth. His EQ has decreased to roughly 8.5 and his BPFSL is now over .25” greater than his BPEL.

Iguana - SM Case
Iguana was suffering from poor EQ (around 7) for several months and gains had slowed to almost nothing. He elected to take a 3 month decon break thinking his EQ would improve. After 3 months he lost 1/4” EL and his EQ had not improved. He had a BPFSL/BPEL difference of 1/2”. After realizing his routine was very tunica oriented (lots of stretching/extender use) he switched his routine. The results? After two and a half months of a smooth muscle based routine his BPFSL/BPEL difference had dropped to 1/4”, he regained the 1/4” loss and added another 1/8” El and his EQ was at 10.

remek - Tunica Case
Prior to TGC theory, remek’s erections were a solid 10. He would consistently maintain an erection after he came. His BPFSL was exactly the same as his BPEL (and in some cases shorter if he didn’t warm up prior to measuring his BPFSL). His latest routine was girth-focused, which improved his EQ even more but not his gains. When he realized that his tunica was his limit, he switched to length-focused exercises and gained .2” in length and a little bit of girth in roughly two weeks. His BPFSL increased slightly further than his BPEL and his EQ dropped to a 9/9.5.

anatomy05.gif

Hope this theory helps!
- remek & Iguana

>AN IMPORTANT POINT: More Smooth Muscle = Harder Erections<

Do you have some proof of this? The hardness of an erection would seem to be more obviously controlled by the pressure of blood in the CCs and therefore the vessel restriction mechanism and the pressure at which blood can be pushed into the penis.

Here is one reference:

http://www.scie lo.br/pdf/spmj/ … n4/a05v1234.pdf

Awesome, awesome work remek and Iguana.

I’ve just given it one read through, but it seems rather sensible. I’ll chew on it a bit and see if I can’t come up with an intelligent question or two. In the meantime, kudos to you both.

Okay, question number 1:

Do you have a theory as to whether “exercising” the smooth muscle leads to expansion/stretching of existing smooth muscle cells or proliferation of new cells in the chambers?

Absolutely! This is one of the key components in the theory:

Enlarging the Erectile Chambers:The evidence here points to tissue regeneration (mitosis): (Growth comes from added smooth muscle tissue and cell regeneration) and hypertrophic responses (the cells themselves englarge.)

It is well documented that several factors can elicit a growth response in smooth muscle cells, including, but not limited to, stretching, injury and increased blood pressure. The following are excellent articles which support this.
http://ajpregu. physiology.org/ … ract/262/5/R895

http://physrev. physiology.org/ … t/full/81/3/999

Quote:
II. PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES THAT REQUIRE VASCULAR SMOOTH MUSCLE CELL GROWTH

C. Remodeling
Vascular remodeling is a physiological response to alterations in flow, pressure, and atherosclerosis. Remodeling involves changes in VSMC growth and migration as well as alterations in vessel matrix (214). Remodeling may be classified as proposed by Mulvany based on the nature of changes in vessel diameter (inward or outward) and by changes in mass (increased = hypertrophic, decreased = atrophic, no change = eutrophic) (214). As an example "eutrophic outward" remodeling would be an increase in lumen diameter without change in amount or characteristics of the vessel such as may occur with increased flow and atherosclerosis. In contrast, "hypertrophic inward" remodeling would be defined as a decrease in lumen diameter with increased wall thickness such as may occur with increased pressure. It has been best studied in resistance vessels during hypertension. During chronic hypertension, there is an increase in vessel wall thickness hypothesized to normalize wall stress. Physical forces (wall stress and cell stretch), autocrine growth mechanisms, and paracrine growth mechanisms (EC actions on VSMC) stimulated by the hypertensive environment appear causative.

Fig. 1. Vascular remodeling. - (Sorry, can’t embed graphic)

In response to changes in blood flow, remodeling appears to be fundamentally dependent on the presence of an intact endothelium as shown by Langille and co-workers (173, 174) and by Kohler et al. (155). Because flow-induced remodeling would be expected teleologically to be mediated by changes in vessel tone and hence diameter, candidate mediators are vasoactive molecules. Among these, nitric oxide [produced by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)] appears to play a predominant role. Recent studies show that ~70% of flow-dependent outward remodeling is due to EC nitric oxide production as determined by inhibiting production of nitric oxide with eNOS inhibitors (317). During inward remodeling in response to decreased flow, there is a coordination of increased VSMC apoptosis and decreased VSMC proliferation to effect the decrease in vessel wall mass that occurs (47). An important role for monocytes has been elucidated in remodeling, especially in response to ischemia such as occurs after occlusion of a supply artery (277). In response to increases in flow, EC express monocyte chemotactic peptide-1 (MCP-1) and monocyte adhesion molecules such as intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). The monocytes are recruited to the vessel and infiltrate and digest the media. The EC are activated by monocytes and express basic FGF (bFGF), PDGF-BB, and TGF-. These growth factors then lead to VSMC growth and vessel enlargement. In response to increased pressure, remodeling appears to be due to activation of autocrine mechanisms that stimulate VSMC growth and changes in vessel wall matrix (123, 213, 215). As discussed in greater detail in section IV, many VSMC growth factors have been implicated in the growth and remodeling of hypertensive vessels including PDGF (227, 274), TGF-, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and the IGF-I binding proteins (7), and hepatocyte growth factor (221). Paracrine mechanisms that are important in hypertension include increased production of ET-1 and angiotensin II by the endothelium.
[/quote]

http://physrev. physiology.org/ … t/full/81/3/999

Notice how increased pressure and flow stimulates an increase in mass and vessel diameter. Isn’t this exactly what we are doing with jelqing, clamping and pumping, altering the blood flow and pressure? Notice how shear stress (stress parallel to the vessel) can increase vessel diameter.

Thanks iguana,

It took me three of four reads to digest that article even partially. I knew I should have taken biology rather than physics in college. :)
Luckily I think I managed to grasp it.

One sentence that leapt out at me was:

That seems intriguing. Any thoughts on this and it’s applicability to our efforts here?

Iguana,

Thanks for that first one. There are clearly problems with the scale (30 people, 10 per group) of that study but the biggest problem seems to be that it doesn’t support the hypothesis. If you bypass the potential for misleading statistics from a small sample and trust the data as being representative it might be reasonable to assume that smooth muscle is reduced in patients with long term ED but that’s about it. Why this might happen is not really covered, it could simply be a matter of normal muscle atrophy through lack of use. Specifically the study mentions that erection requires relaxation rather than tension of the smooth muscle, so the only way it could be a limiting factor for an erection is if it fails to relax enough to allow the CCs to fill to capacity.

Do you have any other studies?

Great work guys. Your hard work is very much appreciated.

I too would like to see something like a PubMed article to back this up.

However, I do see how pressure alone would not be enough to make an erection rigid if the connective tissue in the tunica has more volume than the CC (in some cases). Clearly, this could not explain every case, but I am interested in hearing more about the concept.