Gains Actually Discouraging?

Maybe my brain works in funny ways.

As I have posted elsewhere, I am back at PE after a multi year break. I’ve been doing the exercising again for exactly one month three weeks. The difference is noticeable. It looks and feels both thicker and longer.

I decided to compare to a random object this morning since it seemed especially large. It was a can of Lotrimim Jock Itch spray.

In thickness the can beat me obviously, but I was pleasantly surprised how close my girth seemed to come.

In length, it was just short. Measured the can. About seven inches. Even with the length gains I believe I’ve made so far, I’m not even seven inches.

I know it hasn’t been long, but this got me wondering if my goals are even attainable, and it’s a little gloomy to think about.

This is why I’m only semi serious about this. I’m serious in that I am exercising consistently, but I’m not getting caught up in all of the minutiae. Measuring, only to be short of where I think and hope I’m at is a quick way to discourage me. Learned my lesson. I’ll actually take some measurements at my one year mark.

Try to think positive. Why would you worry about reaching your goals if PE is working for you? It will just take time.

Focusing on the end goal instead of the steps along the way is a motivation killer. That’s why I started using the cm/mm scale on my pump instead of the inch side. Hitting that next little hashmark is motivating. “Its working. On to the next mm.” And then, before you realise it, you’ve gotten to a big hashmark.

You can also spot the trends much easier. If you were hitting a mm every two weeks, changed something in your routine, and now you’re only getting a mm every three weeks, change it back. If you’re getting a mm every week and a half, keep the change.

If it’s taking you, say, about six weeks to gain 2mm, then you might want to measure on six-week intervals. If you measure every day, you’re at the mercy of tiny daily variations, parallax errors, whether you’re almost touching the mark, touching the edge of the mark, solidly to the far side of the mark… all that gets brushed aside for a simple “2mm Y/N?”

Whatever you can *repeatably* measure should be your minimum step. If you’re seeing 150, 149, 152, 150, 151, 149, then you’re not reliably measuring. Just ordinary variations in hardness can account for that, not just measuring technique. If it takes 2mm or 3mm, then use that, and measure at whatever interval you’re likely to see that much change.

My understanding is that every man has a built in limit on what he can gain, or at least what he can gain easily. Not sure if I can get there. I’ll gain as much as I can though.

For the most part, there are no easy gains.

My understanding is that the limiting factors are mostly subjective. For example: time, effort, experimentation, log keeping, PI monitoring etc…