Manual stretching duration and cell death.

It is likely that someone has posted about this before, but I figured it would not hurt to share my experience with this issue. I have been practicing PE for about two months. These are two solid months, as I took two weeks off at some point in August due to work and school. I have noticed that many posts on manual stretching seem to recommend short durations for each manual stretch, followed by a rest period to restore circulation. I don’t know what the exact average is, but the recommended time seems to be about 30 seconds to 3 minutes. This makes sense to me, as I have heard on this forum and in other reading that cell death due to oxygen depletion begins after roughly 4 minutes. This is a very relative estimation, I realize, as cells in the penis actually die on a regular basis and get replaced by new healthy cells. Similarly, doing a manual stretch of even 15 seconds kills a certain amount of otherwise healthy cells simply due to the stress of stretching. So I suppose what we are referring to here is an amount of cellular trauma that destroys cells of the penis to a point that it is beyond the body’s ability to repair. Deeper analysis aside, this makes enough sense to me so I began a stretching routine with a basic approach that involved manual stretches not to exceed 4 minutes.

This issue became confusing when I began reading about hanging. I understand that hanging and stretching are two very different activities, built upon different approaches and theories of PE. However, I cannot help but notice the much longer durations that are practiced in hanging as opposed to stretching. I do expect typical responses to this suggesting that manual stretching is much more “intense” than hanging, thus it is done in shorter periods. Lets be realistic here in realizing that many advanced hanging routines involve enough weight that the intensity is just as high, if not higher, as a manual stretching routine. I have noticed hanging routines that involve hanging the weight anywhere from 5 to 20 or more minutes. It seems that if people can withstand this amount of hanging without experiencing serious injury, that manual stretching routines should be able to do the same. It makes sense to err on the side of safety, but it seems that the times for stretching-induced cell death due to oxygen depletion are not in sync with hanging times. I also realize that hangers are “advanced,” and their methods should not be compared to newbie routines, but their penises should still be subject to the same biological laws that apply to others (hopefully!). So I guess I’m just wondering what the final verdict is on safe stretching times.

Why stretching should cause oxygen deprivation? :confused:

Stretching theoretically restricts circulation in the penis, which results in oxygen depletion of penile cells. I am sorry if I didn’t specify that. But my post is questioning the accuracy of the estimated time in which this happens.

I don’t think so. There could be a reduced blood flow where you grip, but stretching per se doesn’t cut off circulation.

Stretching will not cut off blood circulation, cause oxygen starvation, or cause cell death. Hangers often do get ‘blue glans’ due to oxygen starvation if they wrap very tight and hang for long periods, but unless they are stupid about it, they will not cause much cell death - a quick massage to get fresh blood/oxygen/nutrients into the tissues and they can re=wrap and carry on hanging.

Yes, they use very tight rubber bands to dock lambs tails, but they really are incredibly tight and totally stop any bloodflow - you could not achieve that manual stretching, and even if you could, you would have to go well over 20 mins to cause any appreciable harm.

From the thread More proof that long periods of hanging may be beneficial?

>The threshold of cellular damage was found to be at 0% strain in the rat MCL. That is, statistically, cellular damage begins with the application of tissue strain. It should be noted that physically one would not expect an increase in cellular damage at infinitesimal strains as our statistical analysis implies. However, necrotic cells are present in the control tissues (e = 0) and are present after very small strains. This behavior did not allow the authors. to identify any threshold other than zero. While 0% strain may not be the exact physical threshold of
cellular damage, our analysis shows it is significantly different than structural damage.<

Cellular damage begins with any strain. An actual increase in the length of tissues requires more stress

Where are you reading that?

Ok doesn’t matter, I found the original study posted here
cellular damage

Anyway there they are speaking of phisiologic cellular damage. Actually stretching with moderate force activates cellular proliferation, so the mumber of damaged cells is lower than the number of new cells; see here for example:
cellular proliferation
cellulare proliferation, cyclic loading nad creep

What the OP is speaking about is significative cellular damage, so high to result in potential injury, that’s my understanding. The cellular damadge associated with stretches is not linked with oxygen deprivation either, it is just a mechanical effect.

Page 1 of the thread, bibs summary of one of the linked studies.

I know the levels they’re talking about are minute, just thought it showed how damage and stimulation are so closely linked.

I thank you all for your responses to this post. Although it seems a bit controversial, I think it is safe to say that I am not taking a significant risk by extending my manual stretch times beyond five or ten minutes. I have also learned through reading on this forum that there are often warning signs that should clearly indicate that it is time to back off and reduce stretching intensity or duration (coldness, tingling, etc.). I have heard some conflicting information on this issue in the past, and this forum seemed like a good place to clear things up a bit. In this way, the discussion was productive and educational for me.