A Primer to Clamping & the OLF/OLR Method
Gentlemen,
Motivated by a post made by sparkyx on my log, I decided to write this primer to clamping and the work I have been doing on a method to optimally gain from it. My studies are not conclusive and I really only have intuitive feelings towards what is better for many of the variables involved, but the point of this post is to provide a basic introduction for beginners, and a platform for discussion and research for the experienced. Big Girtha has written an introductory clamping thread before, but due to his views changing over time (during the thread), the thread has become somewhat difficult for beginners to read through.
This thread will be broken down into clamping technique and a method I formulated for using clamping optimally. I use the word "constriction" interchangeably with "clamping."
Causes for Growth
I would first like to note that there are two leading explanations for growth due to clamping:
1) Expansion: the penis grows, somehow, due to the expansion enduced while the penis is constricted. This expansion should be beyond that of a normal erection, hence the casual hypothesis.
2) Deoxygenation: There is a fancy medical word for this, but let’s ignore that. Here we make a causal assumption that the penis grows in order to maintain more blood in it and survive the period where it encounters no new oxygen for time.
Big Girtha and Red Zulu, among others, assume that it is the expansion hypothesis that causes the growth. I am not entirely sure.
Clamping Technique
The basic method is to use some constriction device to constrict a fully engorged and erect penis at its base, such that less blood is able to enter or exit the penis, for a period of time, and then release the constriction device. This is one set. There are a number of variables involved here.
Constriction force (CF): Some devices, like the popular cable clamp, will constrict blood flow particularly on the sides of the shaft, applying force from the right and left side, with less applying to the bottom (CS) and top. Other devices will provide equi-distributed force. This is a critical issue.
Constriction level (CL): If you are using a constriction device that constricts blood flow equally around the shaft, you can choose how much blood flow to prevent. People like Red Zulu and Drilla, who both use cable clamps which further complicates matter as the CS (underside) portion of the shaft is barely constricted in the first place, both allow some inflow and outflow. I, on the other hand, allow almost no inflow or outflow. With more constriction, you are limited as to the time that you can remain constricted, but you also achieve larger expansion.
Time under constriction (TUC): A critical choice is how long you will remain clamped. Big Girtha popularized the 10 minute set, while Drilla (who used less constriction) used 15 minute sets, kaan used 17 minute sets, and I use 18 minute sets. The issue here is that: if the cause of growth is deoxygenation, longer sets will likely provide additional growth. If the cause is expansion, 10 minute sets may provide just as much growth as 20 minute sets, given that you end up with identical total times in a day. A good heuristic (rule of thumb) to use is to avoid approaching 21 minutes, because we assume that tissue death may occur at that point (Bib started this rumor actually, we don’t seem to have much research - but it is a bad idea to approach it from experience also).
Constriction point (CP): Big Girtha popularized the attachment of the constrictor as close as possible to the base of the penis, because he did not see any growth in the unconstricted (unengorged) portion of the penis. This is also reasonable, as we expect the engorged part of the shaft to grow the most. In my experience, the unengorged portion of the shaft (below the constrictor device) has actually grown more in the CS and less in the CC, so there may be reason to move the constriction device upwards over time. This is something to consider.
Currently, you have three major options to consider. You can either constrict using a cable clamp (with wrap underneath for comfort), which will provide unequal distribution of force (CF) and a lower constriction level (CL), an air clamp, which will provide an equal distribution of force (CF) and a questionable constriction level (CL - I say this because I have not tried it), or you can use my method. My method provides equal distribution of force and a spectrum of constriction levels that can be adjusted with to your liking.
My method: Buy cable clamps and theraband wrap. Cut the wrap to an inch in width and, depending upon your size, about 2 ft. in length. Fold the wrap’s width so that it is a thick half inch. Wrap the now folded (in width) Theraband wrap at the base of your shaft (as far down as you can) tightly. The wrap sticks to itself and is a very powerful and efficient constrictor. When you are done wrapping, hold the clamp at its largest, closed point (only one tooth in) and put your penis through it, with the latch mechanism facing your naval and the axle facing south. When the clamp is over your wrapped base (over the wrap) tighten it to the maximum, comfortable position. The clamp is now really just holding the wrap in place and tightening the folds onto themselves. The constriction is caused by the wrap, which provides EQUAL force across all areas of the constricted penis. When your pre-determined TUC is over, unclamp, and unwrap.
Note: I have made no mention of manual PE done while clamped in this thread. The reason that I have not is because I have not personally done it, and have little knowledge of it. I have asked Red Zulu the question at the MOS forums, and his reply is the following:
You asked me to post here RZ:1. Why do you thing manual exercises (bends, uli’s, etc.) done while clamped help growth? We have an idea that de-oxygenation of the tissues is what causes growth during constriction, so this is hard to make sense of with that theory.
2. Which exercises have provided the most gains over your constriction career? For example, do bends help more over all than uli’s? How would you order the effectiveness of the exercises?
1] Clamping [Constrictors is the term I gave them as not everyone uses a clamp] is just one step to the method with the other exercises done while in the enlarged state adding additional stress to the penis. For example doing clamped horse squeezes VS normal horse squeezes. The former is much more powerful because you are working with more blood which is getting more larger engorgement to the penis than it would normally which than in time equals a better growth because you have been working to the best intensity you can.Let me explain with another example. This time a length exercise such as a simple stretch underneath the glans of the penis and pulling towards the belly button. I call this when done clamped a TCS/CTS. When done un clamped you will feel a nice stretch in the external tunicae but when you do it clamped WOW you really feel this in the penis and this is again because you are working with MORE penis, more blood inside the penis that you are effectively molding like clay into a larger unit with time … you are stretching a penis in its maximum enforged state externally via its tunicae which places allot of stress onto it, more so than it not being clamped and its this extra stress which I found and seen in members doing this that speeds up the growth process.
To put it simply … clamping is an excellerant for PE and can be used in MOST methods with common sense apart from hanging really but I have tried it years ago. The clamping is like very flammable liquid being poured all over its target and than the flame [The exercises being added such as CTS/TCS] comes along and ignites … you see a massive fire start [The exercise] which would be more powerful than without excellerant. Ofcourse you can also see more negative things with clamping if overdone, so I always suggest that users dont go mad with it but train intense albeit with more rest days.
2] I have always touted Clamped Horse Squeezes for really helping me with girth, they started allot of the early larger gains I got when I used shoe lace. Clamped ATS rollors which is the rolling pin pushing down on the penis while on a flat surface for width, also helped allot get me to a more wider unit. I have since created Frendo’s which are even more powerful for width, Frendo’s being Crushers in Latin incase you wonder.
Lastly Standard constrictors or simply put clamped edgeing has also been very effective. Just jerking for a X amount of time and not shooting a load while keeping at a very high erection voulume done regularly works wonders for the size.
Feel free to post this at Thunders as you suggested and I would like to also have a look around the thread myself if you can send me the link. I have a membership & Thunders and will visit sometime soon if thats ok.
The Use of PI's
There are two PI’s that are important to consider while clamped, and two others that are important to consider in general, during camping season. Be extremely careful with these indicators. Clamping is probably the most dangerous widespread PE - do not mess around with it. Read this guide accurately. If you are increasing TUC, note my advice. If you are carrying fatigue, note my advice for the length of time. Do not do stupid shit. You will probably not injure yourself, IF you watch these PI’s and adapt SLOWLY.
Danger indicators:
1) Coldness: If you feel your glans become unusually cold while you are constricted, it is time to end the set. You can push for 30-60 seconds extra, but this is very dangerous.
2) Numbing: If you feel your glans become numb while constricted, end the set. Again, you can try to push, but this is even more dangerous than coldness. I would not push for more than 10 seconds if you are feeling numbness.
Fatigue indicators:
1) Flaccid size: If your flaccid is turtling (retracting and becoming unusually small), you are carrying fatigue from your clamping. This means that you are not fully recovered.
2) Erectile quality: If your natural erections become less frequent or if your erections are smaller than usual, you are carrying fatigue and are not fully recovered from your sessions. If you cannot get erect, stop clamping until you can again.
These PI’s are critical for separate reasons. The first set, the danger indicators, are important to avoid serious danger during clamping sets. If you are attempting to increase your TUC over time, because you want to test out whether it will provide better gains, you should lessen your clamping sets during the day to allow full recovery (1 or 2 sets per day) for a period of time, while you slowly increase the TUC (for example, 1 minute per week). This will allow your penis to truly adapt to the higher TUC. Trust me here, it NEEDS to adapt slowly. You will visibly see changes in your penis, the first being discoloration, and the second being visible growth in vascularity. Always be wary of coldness and numbing - do not push past them.
The fatigue indicators are useful for a different reason. First, note that you cannot carry fatigue for too longer. If you are holding fatigue - as in, your penis is not fully recovered, for over 2 weeks (depending on the level of fatigue of course), you will likely injure yourself. Watch this. Second, pay attention to these indicators to know when you are recovering (carrying lower fatigue for your normal rate of recovery) and when you are carrying fatigue (carrying a higher fatigue than your normal rate of recovery can digest).
The OLF/OLR Method
The OLF/OLR method is a general paradigm for viewing your PE. Instead of considering rest days and work days, I hope that we can consider fatigue and recovery. We can consider the fatigue as a variable that we can easily manipulate - it is the destruction we incur to our tissues through PE. Recovery is another variable that we can manipulate, although to a lesser degree - recovery is the body’s process of rebuilding the destroyed tissue. Since most of how have a poor knowledge of biology, let’s consider the process of recovery somewhat of a black box. Now, there are no more rest days, no more 5 days a week, etc. We consider our use of PE, and constriction in particular, in terms of how much fatigue we encounter, for how long, and for how much recovery we encounter, and for how long.
Of course, recovery and fatigue are incurred simultaneously. Your body is currently recovering, and is always recovering. Therefore, we consider the Overloading of Fatigue (OLF) time to be when the fatigue incurred, over a period of hours or days, is larger than the recovery rate of your body is able to handle. So, if you have an OLF phase of a week, in which you are incurring more fatigue than your body can recover from during that week, you will likely have some turtling and some weakness of erections, depending on how much fatigue you have for that week. The OLF phase is of course just terminology, it can be a 24 hour period: if I do 8 sets of clamping today, it will be above my recovery rate for the day, and I will wake up tomorrow with an only partially recovered penis. Tomorrow, I will likely be able to do less sets, because my penis is no longer freshly recovered.
The Overloading of Recovery (OLR) period is, of course, the period in which the fatigue you incur is below your recovery rate - such that every day or hour during that period, your penis gets healthier and healthier. If I just got off of an OLF phase and have a week of OLR, and decide to do only 1 set per day, my body is capable of recovering from that set every day and a little more - so, everyday my penis gets healthier and the damage is rebuilt more and more. A break of a week then, has a total recovery rate with a null fatigue rate. The more fatigue you have here, the longer the OLR period will need to be to reach total recovery.
The OLF/OLR idea was created in a thread of mine with the assistance of the friendly Italian moderator marinera. At the time, I had been trying to set my fatigue rate to my recovery rate for each day, such that I would never need to overload on recovery and would enter each day perfectly healed. I had noticed that overloading fatigue for short periods of time did not benefit me (doing 10 sets in one day suddenly), so I just assumed that I should try not to use fatigue past the point that my body could recover from in one day. Then, marinera pointed out that most of our growth in PE comes in discrete amounts - we suddenly encounter growth, not continuously, over time. This got me thinking, I remembered a couple of threads here (Kaan’s and another man’s), and realized that there may be something to overloading the fatigue for a period of time.
It seemed ideal to hold fatigue for approximately 2 weeks, and then overload on recovery at a very low rate of fatigue (1 or no sets per day) for as long as necessary to reach total recovery. The reason I came up with the 2 week figure is that I noted that kaan made most of his miraculous gains within a 2 week period where he clearly overloaded fatigue. I also noted another individual (his name and thread are noted in my older thread in the links below) who carried fatigue for approximately a month, and despite getting great growth, got injured. I simply decided to begin with a 2 week period. I have now done 3 sessions of 2 week OLF periods and 1-2 week OLR periods (with no fatigue at all in them to minimize the time needed to get to the next OLF phase, since that is when growth occurs), and I have noted growth after each phase - like clockwork. This has DRASTICALLY changed the way I view PE. I am no longer hoping for gains, I am expecting them.
EquineRooster, among others, have been using a version of the OLF/OLR method. In fact, everyone has. The only different here is that we have created a paradigm for thinking of it, and we have noted that overloading fatigue for a period of time is ideal, after which we should overload recovery. I have come to the conclusion that trying to match fatigue and recovery rates is unproductive and futile.
Some Thoughts
I believe that clamping is far more productive than pumping. I believe the reason that pumping is used more is because it is funner and less stressful. The fatigue caused by pumping is similar to that from clamping, so do not expect to do your normal pre-determined sets during the OLF phase and then haphazardly add in pumping sets - they will increase your fatigue in a similar way to adding clamping sets. Pumping may be useful in getting past dead ends in growth, as it stimulates the penis differently. I have noted that pumping seems much more beneficial after clamping sessions, and not vice versa. If pumping is used, it should ideally be coupled with clamping - the reasoning is intuitive.
I am quite sure about the futility of trying to set fatigue rates to recovery rates. Overloading fatigue and recovery is the way to go: the question now becomes, how long should the OLF period be? Is two weeks ideal, or can we get the same growth over a one week period (using more fatigue per day)? Also, is it ideal to use a 0 fatigue rate during the OLR period, as to minimize it, or should we include a small amount of fatigue (for example, 1 set per day)?
Sucess from clamping will come from two issues. First, clamping technique is critical. There is no right answer for the variables involved. We need people to try out different CF’s, CL’s, CP’s, and TUC’s and report their results: which is ideal? Different CF’s will likely cause different kinds of growth (width versus height, CS vs. CC), higher TUC’s will work better if the deoxygenation theory is true, higher CP’s may cause different kinds of growth along the shaft - for example. Second, your ability to optimally deal with fatigue will determine your ability to gain from clamping. Think of the technique as the weapon - your sword: find the best weapon you can. Next, learn how to use the weapon correctly. The sharpest sword will do no damage if you can’t wield it. I think most people go wrong in the fatigue department - most combination of the clamping technique variables can stimulate growth, the problem is that people don’t know how to effectively stimulate it over time. So, while find the optimal combination of the clamping technique variables will get you the best bang for the buck, you will get no bang, or very poor bang, unless you know how to deal with fatigue.
Try to increase your recovery rate. One of your constraints, no matter what you do, is your recovery rate. A higher recovery rate means more fatigue during the OLF period and more growth. Sleep well, eat well, and use EVO with a sock.
Finally, clamping generally does the following things in the following order:
1) Discoloration: the engorged and clamped area will get darker first. Trying to avoid this will cause less than optimal results, to my knowledge, there is no way to lessen this without lessening the growth. The good news is it happens pretty fast and then remains stable (it won’t keep darkening permanently). When you are done with your growth, you can go figure out how to remove it with chemical peeling and so on.
2) Vascularity: as your penis adapts, physically, to existing under periods where it gets less oxygen due to less blood flow, your penis will get much more visible vascularity (veinage). This is one of the best side effects of clamping, and you will probably see this before any growth, particularly if you are trying to adapt to higher TUC’s and thereby not overloading fatigue (which is what causes the most growth, remember).
3) Growth: this will likely occur after the above two. Don’t be surprised that you will get dark and veiny before this happens, the parts of least resistance will go first, and growth is the most resistant response of the penis out of these three.
This is only a primer: an introduction for beginners to clamp correctly, and a platform for experimentation for the advanced clampers. I have not determined my views on the ideal use of the clamping technique variables or on the OLF/OLR time periods yet, and before I quit clamping, I hope to write another thread describing exactly my views on it. If you have any questions or would like to watch my progress or keep up to date on my personal experimentation, you can find a link to my log below.
Threads to get you started:
Clamping 101 - The clamping guide
CLAMPING Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
Useful threads:
The importance of following the clamping guidelines: Please read (One of many warnings about going too far on TUC)
Physiologic Indicators (PIs) to help growth! (sparkyx’s wonderful thread on PI’s)
Shedding the Snake: Peeling to Remove Discoloration (For after you are done growing)
Girth theory: Pumping vs. clamping (Great and completely inconclusive discussion on growth)
Clamping: Advanced Empirical Discussion (My original thread, if you’re bored)
If you’re thinking of Clamping or are a clamper look here (Air Clamp)
5 Month Progress Report DUAL CLAMPING = AWESOME! (A thread using two clamps, which I believe is an inferior method)
Overloading Fatigue Experiment (Marinera and I tried to have an experiment - I thought no one replied to this thread, sorry for not replying guys)
Experimental new type of clamping: journal of development (Sparkyx’s experiment idea for extremely long TUC’s with low CL, didn’t really pan out)
A trial to check the validity of aristo’s routine (Kaan’s original log)
Drilla’s Clamp-o-rama (Drilla’s log - he used a cable with unequal CF distribution, along with a low CL)
My Log:
LV: Aspiring to Perfect Clamping
Red Zulu:
(a method for width, newer than his previous method using kitchen appliances)
Note: Red Zulu is, to the best of my knowledge, the original clamper. His methods are somewhat extreme. There is a clamping forum on MOS where you can browse through his threads, use caution.
We have a lot to consider, gentlemen. We must perfect our clamping techniques and OLF/OLR use through guided trial and error - the more of us there are experimenting, the faster we will get there.
I hope this may help,
LV.
Last edited by LongVehicle : 09-27-2009 at .
