A New Track

I keep thinking about the guy I knew who gained 2” EL in less than a year doing only jelqing, SO stretching, & hot wraps. He mentioned nothing about Fulcrum Stretches, A-Stretches, Horse440’s, Pan Rolls, V-Stretches, BTL Stretches, fowfers, clamps, erect jelqing, erect twists, etc., etc. Yet, he gained nearly double the length I’ve gained, and in far less time. Indeed, he actually quit PE at his wife’s insistence – not because his gains had dried up (I don’t think I could’ve done that, to be honest).

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the former Soviets trained their world-class athletes (who’ve obviously enjoyed unprecedented dominance at the Olympic games and world championships for decades). While they often used rotating batteries of exercises – breaking down each movement into smaller & smaller components, then targeting those individual components with those rotating batteries – they were also very big on load manipulation (i.e., Conditioning – Superconditioning – Deconditioning).

I’m wondering if this approach doesn’t hold promise for PE. And I keep thinking of Dino’s recent and astute comments:

Dino9x7,
>> “I feel like going back to when I just jelqed at 70% I wonder if my gains slowed because my workout got so advanced. Sometimes I think jelqing was so popular for so long because it works better than anything….”

>> “Sometimes I think we are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the wheel is already perfect. Lets face the two things that have been around for the longest time are jelqs and hanging and maybe the reason is that they work the best.”

And I tend to agree that we have made PE way too complicated (not that advanced exercises don’t have a place for advanced trainees – but have we overdone it?). And what is our immediate reaction when gains slow down? We start reaching for the crazy advanced shit (just like I did). I believe that these movements tend to toughen the tunica too much – maybe even the tendons as well – making further gains that much tougher.

I’m really starting to believe that load manipulation holds a lot of promise. Adapting the Soviet approach for PE might look something like this:

Weeks #1-4: Moderately intense PE – pulling & jelqing with reasonable, not maximal, intensity.
Weeks #5-8: Very intense PE – pulling & jelqing vigorously, even maximally.
Week #9: Complete Layoff [Phase I of Deconditioning] – no PE at all
Weeks #10-12,13: Very light PE, low intensity & low volume (maybe only a couple minutes of jelqing & the same for stretching)…with no discomfort whatsoever, just a mild pump & that’s it [Phase II of Deconditioning)

This would be a 13-week cycle, totaling 4 per year. It would include 4 weeks of moderate PE, 4 weeks of maximally-intense PE, then a 5-week deconditioning phase (the 1ST week of which is a complete layoff).

There’s a lot of reasons justifying such an approach, and I’m going to begin it very soon – following about a 2-3 week layoff (because I’ve been abusing my unit for so long). I’ll meticulously track my workouts & my measurements.

If anyone else wants to try the experiment, and needs any clarification regarding specifics, give me a holler.

wad….soon to be released feature:
Wad II: The Return of Mighty Dong!

edit: One more point - it's not just intensity that's manipulated, but also workload (intensity*volume). These are also crucial factors, not just the strength of the jeqling & pulling. It's something I'm going to figure out during my 2-3 weeks of complete rest.

Wad,

Excellent post. You may be on to something. I am going to have to re-think my approach.

7

I think I am in! Do not have soemthing to lose. So why should I not give it a try. Could you please specify the routine a bit. How often do you think to take a day off and what about the time you want to spent on warm up/down?

I’ll soon be posting a sample workout, sometime tonight.

Wad,

I really like your thoughts here. I am so tied up with experimenting and hanging now that I will have to just watch, but watch I will. I really think you might be on to something here. Crossing my fingers for you Wad. This is really good stuff.

Good luck comrade!

Don’t forget to eat plenty of borscht.

Lets call it Wad’s Soviet penis program, it sounds good I’m still in a pretty much all hang mode with some jelqing for health but it sounds like a good program for guys that have no time to hang.

Wad, I agree. I think occasional longer breaks are beneficial too. Connective tissue strengthens relatively slowly, and the same probably holds true for deconditioning. You could run a few cycles back to back, then take a month or two off for a fuller recovery.

hobby,

For that 1-2 month layoff for fuller recovery - which sounds smart, by the way - are you thinking of a complete cessation of PE, or just doing very light PE a few days per week? If you are speaking of “cold turkey,” do you think there would be any appreciable loss of size during that period?

hobby,
Well, I see you’ve also posted a version of a progressive workout, complete with deconditioning phases. Hmmmm, seems like we might be onto something here.

I wholeheartedly agree that you can’t just keep driving your workout numbers into the stratosphere. Not only does the time factor creep in, but the risks of overtraining/injury/nerve damage climb exponentially. That’s why the worst weight training injuries occur amongst the strongest lifters. Rarely does a weak beginner detach a biceps tendon or rip a pec or completely blow out a rotator cuff - those catastrophic injuries tend to occur amongst the elite/world class lifters.

I also tend to think that the eagerness & drive of the most dedicated PE’ers is a double-edged sword. We tend to think that we just need to keep arbitrarily driving up the numbers, the intensity, etc. Yet, that guy I knew who PE’d, I could characterize as a “lazy” fellow. He did increase his numbers, but not at a frantic pace. He began low, but upped his daily jelq totals by 50 every 2 weeks - so he would perform the exact same workout - and a very basic one - for 2 weeks at a stretch. Even at the end of his PE endeavors, he was at about 500-600 jelqs per day (& had already gained 2” EL).

I think that in our impatience, we rush ourselves along too quickly. Ideally, our gains should outdistance the toughening of our units; more often, it’s probably the other way around. We probably make our cocks tougher than they need to be, with relatively little length gains to show for all the work.

I believe that “slow & steady” - more specifically, periodization - is the greatest weapon in our arsenal. We obviously need to do some tweaking, as individuals, to discover our optimum workout.

I like your new plan and wish you the best of luck with it! Just remember, you can always use the extra time that you would have been doing PE to do some weightlifting or cardiovascular work. That way you waste the same or more energy and don’t overtrain. :)

It sounds good, but maybe this one guy was just an easy gainer.

But I do worry that the more PE I do, and the more intensity I muster, the stronger the tissues of my cock become, and the harder I’m making it for myself to gain.

Wad,

I agree wholeheartedly with your theory…so much so Im already trying it!.

After I got some easy early gains (at least I know now thats what they were!), Ive got zero gains of late. Rather than increase the intensity and due to the holidays and other time wasting factors, I ended up having about a week and a half layoff. Im now back into it at any slightly higher intensity than perviously and intend to measure at the end of the month. Ill keep you posted if you like.

I’ve considered the possibility that he was an easy gainer, but that doesn’t cancel out the concern you’ve mentioned - which is a valid one. I believe that by constantly ramping up the intensity, we’re just make our units more resistant to further growth. And that’s precisely why I’ve been toying with possible ways to implement periodization - especially the deconditioning aspect which is an integral part of that training theory. And the key really is “controlled deconditioning” - preventing too much disuse and potential size loss while giving the unit a much-needed rest, preparing it for a new phase of growth.

Complete rest is best for deconditioning. An arm in a cast weakens quicker and more than one that is only used lightly during the same period.

But, it is damn hard to stop. I intended to take at least a month of recently, but after only a couple weeks I started sneaking in a little jelqing here and there, then some more, and so on. It was light exercise, but counterproductive. Give me a month or two of hanging and I’ll see if the pseudo-break worked as well as complete rest. I took a month off about a year ago with absolutely no PE and had good progress afterward.

Some guys report losing a little size during a longish (say 3+ weeks) break, while others don’t lose any. For most who lose some, the size returns quickly when exercise is resumed, plus a better gain than usual. Fully cemented gains seem to stay during a break. This raises the question of how long it takes to cement, which is a consideration when designing a cyclical program. One step forward, one step back doesn’t take you very far. :)