Newbie question. What weight to use in my case?

If I were to switch from compression hanging to vacuum hanging, do I still have to use the same weight to see progress?

I could compression hang up to 11lbs. Now I want to switch to vacuum hanger to be more comfortable. Since my pp has adapted to hanging at 11lbs, do I have to vac hang at least at that weight to see gains? Or can lower weight still see fatigue? I’ve read many posts and vac hanging over 10lbs is not really recommended.

The main issue isn’t that one modality requires more or less weight than the other—the same weight will have a similar effect— the issue is that you will need to condition yourself to vac hanging to avoid blisters and similar vacuum-related injuries so you will have to drop your weight and work your way back up over a few weeks. There’s also a learning curve with vacuum hanging setups, so it helps to start low and incrementally increase your weight to learn your way to optimize things and avoid these injuries.

There is probably an upper limit to vac hanging based on your equipment and conditioning, but I routinely hang over 10 pounds with mine. Some guys say 20 pounds or so. I’ve not gone that high and hope never to need to do so.

I think vac hanging is way better than compression: less painful, easier set up if you use the water trick (as opposed to taping) and no need to take breaks every 20 minutes like with compression. I can hang my whole session of up to 2 hours with no break.

Lots of resources here on how to best do it, but feel free to ask questions if you need to.

Best of luck!

Thanks for replying. Ill learn to tape properly, start with about 2 lbs and build up. But do you think if I’m already conditioned to 11lbs, I can still gain by vac hang 4-5lbs in longer period of time?

You’re in luck.

I’ve been hanging for about a year with a compression hanger - 10 lbs. I just got a vacuum hanger a couple of days ago. I tried the water trick, apparently doesn’t work with my chinese cup. So, I’ve been using tape. I’ve had maybe 2 sessions with it. Hung 5 LBS. A couple blisters.

So IMHO. No I would start lower, say 2 LBS or 3 LBS if you’re transitioning from compression to vacuum.

You might need to take some time off to decondition your tunica to drop so much weight and keep growing. But that might require less session time.

It’s hard to predict how much weight will be effective, but there is probably an interplay between time hanging and weight required to stimulate growth.

So you’ll have to see how it goes. But I’m of the perspective that doing the least amount possible to get gains, so it’s worth trying to drop weight and time and see how your progress goes.