You are thinking too linear, PG. It’s not a straight line, those questions are phrased as paragraphs but the answers are much longer and convoluted. No single answer can be a general guide. I’ll elaborate a bit here.
Proper Intensity is based on what you can physically do and what you can take. Sometimes you can’t physically deal with any of a certain kind of pressure. So for me to give you a pressure guideline is remiss…and honestly, jelqing and stretching are my personal weakpoints. I’m a gadget PE guy by description and I never mastered the jelq truly enough to even answer that.
As for the “making ourselves grow” or “encouraging growth”? Depends on the exercise or device. Traction makes you grow. You hold the penis in a state that eventually it remembers to be in. That causes new tissue growth and it grows because otherwise the uncomfortable stretched state wouldn’t cease. In the case of clamping, lets say, it encourages growth. You push the penis to the limits then let it relax. It remembers the trauma and wants to avoid it in the future so your vascular system will change to accommodate more blood to make it easier to reach the state it was forced to reach before. The difference is thin but…”encouraging growth” happens during recovery. “Making you grow” happens during the session itself, more or less. Some things cause both. The lines are blurred and this particular difference is of minimal importance in my opinion.
Scheduling is based on lifestyle, less need. I started on the X4 Extender and my schedule was so erratic it defies explanation to this day. Some guys respond to hard, intense sessions. Some will injure themselves in hard and intense sessions. I like gradual sessions, or I did in my beginning years, but many find that the results are too slow and wander away from PE. Scheduling needs to be convenient and keep you motivated. I can’t answer how that translates for everyone.
Heat…I honestly cannot even answer that question. Why? For 6 of the 7 years I’ve been at this, I have used 0 heat. Nada, zilch, nil, nothing. I am of the belief that heat helps a lot. But I don’t even know that for myself but for the last year I’ve seen some benefit. I honestly have mixed feelings on warming down. I don’t know how to answer that either as only this year did I start warming down. I do have an Infrared LED heat device coming, I’ll learn more about heat myself soon but I have little to add here now.
Exercises alone can do everything you seek. I don’t have the link but there is a guy who was in the 4” or 5” Length range who got to 8” odd with just his hands. That was someone I heard about 4 years ago. I can’t tell you what forum he’s based out of. Fundamentals alone can accomplish everything you seek. Many have gained without spending a dime. This is the best but sometimes the most difficult route. Requires good hands and wrists, believe that.
Devices…now this I can speak on more freely. Generally devices cover something you can’t do, supplement a routine or offer more torque or power.
Meaning, I bought a Jelq Device because my right wrist can’t do the motion as many times as I need. Or a friend on X4 who only had one functional hand so instead of manuals, he opted for the extender.
Many guys will add an All Day Stretcher to supplement their PE days. Or they’ll use a pump to warm up or warmdown with. I mean you can supplement a routine as much or as little as you like with devices. Or replace your routine with devices entirely. This was the route I took. I advise against this, as it is expensive and encourages a consumer mentality on PE instead of sticking with something you start scanning the market for the next miracle device.
More power…I mean that to say…when you get deep into PE, you’ll hit plateaus that sometimes you can’t overcome manually. A lot of guys turn to hanging, as hanging weights offers far more tugging power than you with your arms potentially can do and for an indefinite period (as long as you wish to hang said heavy weights). Same goes for Clamping instead of manual squeezes. Or pumping, period. As high pressure pumping is something hands can’t duplicate in any fashion. There are a lot of high powered devices but generally, in the beginning, these are discouraged because without experience and familiarity they are more hazard than helpful.
Supplements…I’ve taken 3 or 4 different supplements. Honestly, because you never gain at the same rate, every day, even doing the same thing, there’s no way to make a controlled guesstimate on the impact supplement use can have on gains themselves. The question is more academic and abstract. Does supplement use make you more motivated to train? Does it increase libido and increase EQ? Can they increase healing factor and shorten recovery times? Perhaps. Effects of supplements vary from person to person, many people find no effect from supplements that others find great effects from. I personally liked L-Arginine a lot and it seemed to benefit my every day life as well. Human Growth Hormone or HGH seemed to offer additional recovery but I was buying things just to buy them at that time and may have been duped. Other supplements I’m sure were placebo more often than not but…again, this may not be the case for you. Supplement shopping requires research and often a trip to your doctor depending on your age, medicines you’re taking and any medical conditions you have (Yohimbe causes heart palpitations is one example of a popular PE supplement also used in the porn industry). So your age and body vary too widely for me to give you a hard recommendation.
Physiological Indicators…really, only you can read those. It is your body. You know it better than I ever can. We make educated guesses but your age and your physical condition can make weak morning wood into a good thing (if you weren’t getting it before) or a good thing if you survived an orgy the night before that you normally would be turtled the next morning from. I can say…often there is no warning of gains on the horizon. Just this week I posted a slight erect loss in length but gain in girth. And the fluctuations from day to day seem random. So you really just have to keep the faith and stay safe. Listen to your body. Don’t use your penis as a crystal ball, just use it as a gauge of sexual health and gains will come when they come.
Expectations…right here, just stop. I’ll greet you with some math. I gained 1.3” in length and .75” in girth my first 18 months. That left me around 7.5x5” and for the next 5 and a half years…I gained 1.25” in length and girth. Averaging that out…that’s less than .25” a year in any stat. Of course my gains weren’t steady, they came in spurts and then would stall for months at a time. But…nothing I did changed that I was determined. Effort got me gains. Expectations got me disappointment. Always be pleasantly surprised when you gain, be amiable when you have no changes and always keep the attitude that gains are coming, as you’re healthy and you know you’re doing the right things.
I’ve heard of too many miracle gainers and I’ve stalled for over 6 months at a time more than once to say there is any reasonable expectation for speed or slowness of gains in a range. You listen to your penis and you read up, research new exercises and equipment.
The biggest problem with a stalled gains pattern is a static routine more often than not. Try to always have a new exercise to go to. Go on a deconditioning break and come back to some other exercise or device you’ve already purchased. When you’re at your wits end, consider a new device but only then. Don’t buy one because you’ve got money to burn, because when its gathering dust you’ll wish you had that money back. Do not be afraid to try a new exercise or a new way to use a device you’ve bought. Heck, don’t be afraid to try something new that no one else has. PE is a game of controlled trauma to the penis to stimulate growth. We basically are making a calculated risk on how to force tissue growth during a recovery stage. So…a static routine simply means our bodies have adjusted and no longer can be dealt any additional trauma to recover from that will give you gains. This is the key to remember.
There are no straight lines in PE. I recommend keeping a journal, another thing I wish I had done. This way you know what you do, on what days, how much and how hard. That way when you do hit the plateau you know what you tried, how long it worked and have an idea where to go from there. Think outside of the box. Stay diligent. That is how we grow our penises.