How to remove skin soreness while hanging
This is going to be a long post, I’ll make it as detailed I can. A clever guy once said that it is not a hanger that will get you a bigger dick, but knowledge. I use that quote to excuse my ramblings.
OK, while hanging your aim is to put as much tension as possible on the ligs/tunica (assuming that the skin has been stretched enough to facilitate internal growth), and put as little pressure as possible on the head, shaft and skin forward of the hanger when it is on. Unfortunately, you cannot avoid this pressure completely and if you are uncut it makes things even more difficult. Ligs are tough, but skin is weak. It is possible that tension that the ligs can handle easily can cause damage to the skin. If you notice that the area forward of the hanger becomes discoloured after a hanging set or session, then you could be on a bullet train to skin soreness city. Luckily, if you read this post you can get a massive discount on your return trip.
***this soreness can occur even if you have set your wrapping and hanger to allow good circulation and comfort - but it is more likely to happen if you havent***
Check the following things:
(1) Wrapping
A) Amount of wrap - If you use too much wrap, you will experience problems. Same if you use too little. It will take time to work out the optimal amount for you. The more wrap you use, the more you need to tighten the hanger to grip the internal structures, which will cut off circulation, and give your skin a nice dose of soreness. If you use a lot, try trimming a bit off, a little at a time.
B) Type of wrap - The optimal way for most people is to use a cloth underwrap, and theraband on top of that. The underwrap should be nice and soft and not harsh on the skin. If you wrap with any theraband against the skin, roll the front edge back a little.
C) Tightness of wrap - Obviously the wrap needs to allow perfect circulation. If it is too loose though, the skin will be pinched, both at the hinge and where the hanger closes. You will know instantly when you lower the weight if this is the case. A way to tell if the wrap is too tight or not is to check if you can take a piss with it on. You should also be able to keep the wrap on all day without affecting circulation. This also saves time re-wrapping inbetween sets.
(2) Hanger settings
A) Hex nut settings - I’m not going to detail this as its hard to give generalised advice since everyone needs to find their own settings. Its a peson to person thing. Look on the bib hanger site and search the forums for information. Just make sure you do change the settings, as you will notice a difference in comfort. Its a trial and error thing, change it a bit, see if it works, change it a bit more etc.
B) Hanger position - If you already have a discoloured/sore area, putting the wrap and hanger a little further back from this might help you to get a few more sets done, and you might be tempted to do this, but DO NOT. This is what I did, but I only succeded in discolouring more skin! (I know, I know, it sounds obvious).
If you feel that any of these could be a problem, spend one or more days experimenting with wrapping and hanger settings. Dont worry about enlargement for just one day of your life, and work on comfort. Start out with your current settings and hang for 10mins. Was it comfortable? Is the skin sore? Any coldness/numbness/discolouration? If your not satisfied, change one of the above options and try again for 10mins. Better or worse? Keep doing this until you can hang with comfort.
Only after checking all the above steps should you try the next step, as other problems might develop if you dont.
(3) Routine Changes
OK, your wrap and hanger settings are optimal, but you still get skin soreness, so what is wrong? The answer is that the skin cant handle either the weight you use or the time of your session. The skin is your friend, it wants you to gain, unlike those nasty ligs. And to help you gain it will toughen up when you hang, but if you blast it with tonnes of weight for 40min sets its going to get damaged. It will toughen up over time, AND during a session. So start your session with shorter sets, if you normally do 20mins then start with ten. You might need to reduce the weight as well. Build up the time of your sets and the weight of your sets, to let the skin adapt. Now, if your skin soreness is quite severe, as mine was, you will probably need to limit your set time to 10mins for a week or more, and perhaps stay shy of max weight too. This way, you can still get some hanging done while allowing the damage to heal (Any discolouration will remain however, but the soreness will go away). If the sorenes is not too bad, and you can start the day with no soreness, you should use the above formula (build up to max weight and set time). If you get any unusual feeling in the skin, take the hanger off and try again in 10mins, with a little less weight.
(4) Other Ideas
A) Vit E cream - Try putting some vit E lotion (Or any other lotion) on the skin in front of the wrap, before you hang. This can help with soreness quite well. You only need to apply it every 2-3 sets.
B) Girth wrap - I find that a 20min girth wrap in the evening before bed helps a lot. What I do is make it nice and tight at the base, and push the skin and wrap to just below the head, then think of the queen of england until I start to get good wood, then push the wrap back to the base. I do this 2-3 times then leave it like that. I guess that its more of an uli effect because of the pressure, but it really seems to help. It also helps with general head soreness, I dont know why but the next mornings hanging sets are a lot easier. Vets only, this one.
OK thats it, if you have any questions hit reply.
Good Luck
SS4
Note - this is bib’s advice, given to me in PM conversations, i am mostly just elaborating on advice he gave which worked for me, so all thanks and cash donations go to him.
