Is It Possible That Heat Can Hinder Gains?

So for the past 3 months I’ve been using a heating pad, but this is also the period I’ve seen with the least amount of gains. Prior to this, I would go 3-5 months to see around .25 in length gains with my extender.

My routine is 40 minute sets in my extender totaling to 2 hours in my extender per workout. The first 2 sets I use a heating pad, and the last set I remove the heating pad, as per advice from another forum. Should I remove the heating pad completely from my routine?

How long have you been doing PE before using the heating pad? I haven’t been here long, but my impression from reading has been that it is not uncommon for gains to be easy at first while later gains take more work. Perhaps the heating pad just coincided with diminishing returns catching up with you instead of causing it?

Neminem is probably right on the money.

Early gains come easy and then progress is slow going.

Yeah, to be honest you’re probably right. I had been doing PE for 2 years when I started using the pad. The longest “decon” I’ve had is 1.5 months after hitting 1 inch gained. I’m probably going for another 3 months before either having a longer decon or switching to hanging

Yeah I agree, I think I’m just hesitant to take a long decon because I’m .5 inches away from my length goal. Even though in the long run it would be more efficient to take one.

That must be frustratingly close when gains are slowing down. Still, be grateful you had it easy while you did. Wish I were a fast gainer out of the gate. Kind of jealous of all of you who were.

I’ve been at this since around July doing the newbie program, and I think I already stalled out at around four to six weeks. I stopped for about two weeks while I had COVID-19, but didn’t seem to lose much then; so I don’t think it was what halted progress. Either I’m doing things wrong, or I’m just one of those unlucky guys who has to fight for every millimeter from the beginning. Not sure if manual methods are going to cut it for me.