Importance of rest days

I’m going to try a PE routine this summer where I take 3 days off in between each set. It’s a routine that involves a warm up and kegel for 5-7 minutes, stretching for about 15 minutes (high intensity, my fingers, wrists, hurt) and about 50 minutes of girth work (very high intensity, it’s difficult to get erect in my 3rd clamp set) and then followed by a cool down in the stretched state for 5-7 minutes.

I wrote down accurate measurements in length, and somewhat accurate measurements in girth (I’m looking for smooth muscle increase, EQ will act at making girth larger). I will tell all how I do on this routine before the end of the summer, where I will take a break after any plateaus.

I have read the TGC theory and I am doing an effective routine for my penis, and I have read very much about the science of PE. I definitely respect pudendum’s articles, and I am using all my knowledge that other smart members have gathered to create this routine for myself. If I do gain well, we may be able to understand the significance of rest days.

Why not doing 1 day stretching, 1 day clamping, 1 day off, Springer? (Just asking).
Or maybe : 1 day stretch, 1 day clamping, 1 day stretch, 1 day off. 50 minutes of clamping seem a bit too much to me, by you know yourself, I have to presume.

You’re right respecting pudendum, he has posted excellent things here, giving us a lot of reference and always reasoning with all members in a civil manner. I’m displeased he’s not posting so much, in the last weeks.

I applaude to your attitude to read a lot on this site, there is so much good stuff, here, that I’ m discovering new interesting things everyday.

Make us know any news about your experiment: I think a new thread in the Progress Report Forum is well worth.

Good luck :) .

I may as well jump in here, although the post of mine that was posted pretty much gives my perspective.

Obviously many things can work, and have.

My thoughts on this subject is really that you have to divide it into two major categories, with a third one being a blend of the first two.

1) Primarily connective tissue stretching.
2) Stress to the smooth muscle.
3) Combination of 1 and 2

The whole PI approach is primarily related to smooth muscle stress and its reaction. Smooth muscle, when overly stressed contracts, this leads to a smaller flaccid and can cause decreased EQ.

At a certain “magic” level of stress it actually relaxes more than normal in a flaccid condition and this will cause a fuller and heavier flaccid due to this effect. Very similar to the flaccid you can get with Cialis.

INFLATED PE like jelquing, pumping, clamping etc…tends to put greater strain on the smooth muscle than UN-INFLATED PE like hanging, and tends to more easily cause contraction and decreased EQ because of it.

If you are trying to increase girth through an INFLATED methodology, it seems counter productive to get contraction that lasts more than a little while, I would guess that it can’t be good to allow any healing of connective tissue in a contracted state. That just seems to encourage shrinkage.

Also, its seems damn near impossible to get inflation in a penis that is experiencing smooth muscle contraction due to too much stress. Cock rings, bands etc just won’t keep it inflated.

So, for PE where you need to keep the girth fairly plump during healing you either have to really fine tune your PE to not see contraction, or you will have to take a day or so off. But it is possible to do daily or more, if the stress is low enough to not cause smooth muscle contraction. This actually may be ideal (just a guess).

Pure length or hanging doesn’t fall into the same category. First, because you are just stretching an uninflated penis, it seems far less stressful to smooth muscle, therefore far less susceptible to over training.

Second, it you do over do it, you can greatly help prevent contraction with a fairly low wt ADS. Plus, connective tissue doesn’t contract unless you have really beat it up pretty bad.

So, as in my re-posted post, I think that hanging can be almost put in a category all by itself, in which the normal PI rules don’t apply in the same way. That said, however, many have found if they are really getting contraction anyway, it is a good indicator to back off and down a bit, or they don’t get any gains.

When you are doing a combination of 1 and 2, or category 3, then if you over train you will definitely get contraction and ADS will only be able to help with length and you will get contraction and probably healing of tissue in a contracted state, at least girth wise.

So in summery, pure hanging seems to be far less susceptible to over training, and if you do, ADS can really prevent most of the negatives of it. THEREFORE it makes sense that many hangers found that constant hanging stress can be far more productive than using days off. Makes sense to me.

Overall, I have always felt that constant small stress is far closer to natural growth stimulus than infrequent heavy stress…buts that’s my opinion.

Methods that stress smooth muscle, like girth expanding PE, tends to put much greater stress into the smooth muscle with can then react and contract in response. This almost forces time off because the contraction effect seems to far outweigh any good that would come from continuing to stress the penis…and either a decrease of stress or time off becomes the only way to make further progress.

So, really in a way, everyone is right here. Each has plenty of successes to back up their approach. You just have to realize that the complexity of the penis means that different tissues respond to different stresses, in different ways.

There really many not be any one “pure” approach that will address them all sufficiently.

I am lazy, it is best for me to do everything at once and rest my sore wrists and fingers. Also, I am not clamping for 50 minutes, I am doing high intensity girth exercises for 50 minutes. I only clamp for 30 minutes (Clamp, other exercises, clamp, exercises, clamp).

I was very sore after my first session, but I am less sore the second time, even though I was more intense. Expect me to report my results sometime in August.

Hello Sparkyx, we were waiting for you :) .

I agree about the “multilatheral approach” you seem suggesting.

It seem, on the other hand, the we have some bit different viewing about the healing phase. Can I ask you: when the growth happens? Just right having done hanging? Or after which amount of time? Hours, days?

Also, the gains of many stretchers that are doing a days-rest routine, without using ADS/extender, how could be explained if their tissues were re-growing in a contracted state? This also applies to clampers - not all clampers are using a cock-ring or such to make their penis heal bigger.

Be carefully Springer, - I don’t want to see you in the Injuries Forum :) .

I can only give you my best guess.
I think it depends on the level of stress.

I think like with static stretching, where the stress is very low, after a period of time it seems to activate cellular growth that may well be continuous. However, it may take 8 hours to activate it, and if you don’t hit that critical time period daily, you may not see growth, or if the stress is too high, it may slow or prevent it.

Then there are higher levels of stress like jelquing. It highly unlikely growth occurs during jelquing, so it has to be a reaction to the stress which REQUIRES rest time to work.

Then there is hanging, which may very well be a stress, inflammation then connective tissue stimulation.

I have always liked the concept of low constant stress, because it seems that would stimulate more natural growth mechanisms devoid of the toughening reactions that can accompany high force methodologies that appear to lead to a perhaps premature end to growth potential.

Look, you guys are all pretty smart, and your guesses are as good as mine. It just seems logical that different force levels can have unique reactions past certain thresholds. AND that different tissues in the penis can have unique reactions to these forces past certain thresholds.

I think its important when examining “successes” to follow the story long enough to also see the “end game”.

For example, if you read Xeno…he had pretty damn good results until he hit a “wall” where, if he is to be believed even hanging 100 lbs or more resulted in no further gains.

I think we have to differentiate between frank connective tissue stretching and that “holy grail” of actual cellular growth.

Its obvious that tissue can be stretched, I think that most gains are due to it, the real question is ” can cellular growth be stimulated”. It seems to be able to be done with almost all human tissues, I don’t see why it can’t be done with the penis.

Its possible that the stimulus to the connective tissue stimulates some growth, and when the smooth muscle relaxes, it becomes apparent.

Overall, I think it is reasonable to asume the higher the stress, the greater the time needed to recover and respond. Starting with minute stress where the rest time is negligiable, to very heavy stress that might take days or even weeks to recover and grow from. I also think it is reasonable to assume the greater forces used, the greater the likelyhood of adaptation responses designed to protect rather than pure growth.

I remember Monty had really great results with hanging modest wts of 10-15 lbs for a couple hours, every few days. However, he maintained small ADS wts on almost constantly when not hanging. Perfect example of modest stress given plenty of time to recover, but using a small stress constantly that served to keep the “elongation” while not inducing any significant further stress that prevented “recovery”.

Really there is so much of the actual mechanisms that we can only guess at, short of several millions dollars for actual tissues biopsies and study.

I only speculate about growth mechanisms when necessary, and try to put most of my time into observation of stress induced by PE to try and unlock more effective mechanisms of growth.

Of course, if we truly understood it, it would make it far easier to develop effective strategies…but we do the best with what we have.

I’m not really sure what the problem is, either you’re purposely misrepresenting my posts or there’s a language barrier. Anyways, to set the record straight, although I begun PE around ten years ago I haven’t actively engaged in it every day. I revisited it from time to time, trying different things to no avail. You know the usual hanging, milking, manuals and ADS.

A little over a year ago I started up again. This time following DLD’s approach (no rest days) I put on a half inch in three months. I then switched to the static stretcher and got nothing. Then I began hanging (no rest days) and put on another half inch in three months. At this point I’d put on an inch in length and a half inch in mid shaft girth. I switched to foreskin restoration techniques in order to grow skin. I began hanging again in later March through April and gained another eighth inch. I had to stop hanging due to a job change, so now I’m focusing on skin again. All in all, my gains were the result of three months of manuals and about four to five months of hanging for a total of about eight months of actual work on gains, the rest of the time was spent on manual skin stretching.

I’m really curious as to why you’re so insistent that everyone take rest days. The light routine/rest days approach didn’t work for me. What I’m now doing does work and I’m exited because it works great. Why are you so offended about that and feel that what I’m doing is wrong? I’m not offended by your routine, if a light approach works for you then great!

No, there is no problem at all. I just wanted to make you see how “unfair” is supporting one theory or the other basing on personal (often unproved) gains/lack of gains of only one or few men - something that is on the border-line of personal attacks, also.

I think that you’re intelligent, and that you can do better that having a polemic, sterile attitude. We like reasoning on anything is PE-related in a collaborative way; sure one can be the advocate of one kind of approach or another, but using intentionally bad arguments only to have the glory of winning an argument at the eyes of non-experts, it’s not good to me.

If you have the same purpose we have, reaching a little better knowledge of how PE work, and want avoid personal attacks, you’re the welcome - no needs to say that. But you have to be aware that in this place anyone’ beliefs are subjected to critics: civil and reasoned critics, but critics.

You don’t have to react in an un-fair way if you are critized, saying : “You are unable to understand”, “I don’t have the patience to answer your”, “You only have to read” (AKA - you ignorant) and such kind of things.

That’s false, actually. I never said :”Dick Builder, you have to take days-off”. I don’t know, in details, what are you doing, and you could be such a fast-recovering man that what is true for most of guys doesn’t apply to you. But this thread is born with somebody asking :”Is it good to take rest days?”.

This guy, we can suppose, is not a veteran of PE, you agree? Since there are no real proofs that rest-days can slowing the gains for most of people, and since you have agreed that having no rest days is more dangerous than having them, you can also agree that is fair advising the “rest days” tactic.

This only apply, I want to repeat, to high-tension work.

If you have many years of PE experience, and the “hard work, no rest days” approach is working for you, than do that, and I wish you best gains. I have nothing against you, I am here to try helping members, you are not excluded :) .

Sparkyx, as often happens, I agree with all you said in your last post.

Being short on money for experiments, we have to use our reason, imagination, personal experience trying to understand something more about the penile adaptive reponse to different kind of stress.

The fact that the penis is made of different kind of tissues, and that there are so much personal difference, form man to man, makes this penis-growth subject even harder.

I suggest we focus only on the connective tissue of penis, for the moment. Do you agree?

Now, I think a model of penis, a picture let’s say, would be useful to figure what happens when we do PE.
Many figure deflated penis like a deflated balloon, or a inner bicycle tube.

Given that TA is made of many many fibers, I figure it like an hemp rope (“fune” pic)

here is a stylized picture of the same idea: penisFibers.jpg.

Now, what happens when high tension stretch is applied?

“…..elongation of shortened connective tissue, through short periods of forceful stretching, relies upon attempt to mechanically break or tear the connecting points. Typically, with short periods of high force stretching, the result is a higher proportion of elastic response, less remodeling, and greater trauma and weakening of the tissue.” (cited reference)

This paint is good to figure out what’s happening, I think - look at the peniFibersuredMicro.jpg

the red-hole are micro-tears.

Apllying the same stress again and again will usure that hemp-rope (TA model) -look at the penisFibersUsuredFibers.jpg. The “funespellata.jpg” is the photo of something near what I’m figuring here.

Now, tell me: what you are doing when applying other stress on the usured rope? Are you making the teared fibers in a longer state? No, you are tearing other fibers, with a load geometrically augmenting, exactly because the tissue is weakened.

The body has not the time of make the fibers heal longer, and just can react producing more collagen, to protect the already teared area.

Now, answer me: never heard of hangers that were having no lenght gains but only base-girth gains? Make that sense, now?

When hanging, the load is hitting mostly the base of penis; fibers get teared in base-area; time is not allowed for make them grow (as opposite to what Bib theory suppose), and at the base of penis is forming a strate of collagen and/or thickened fibers.

If the hanging process is repeated with no breaks, what we are figuring will lead to the detachment of penis: of course, anybody will stop hanging before this could happen.

But the penis, when healed, will be not well-healed, if you get what I mean: the high-stress without rest had has results an overproduction of collagen and thicker areas. Also, deformed areas will be noted in the penis. I think hanging this way (or applying high-stress for prolonged time with no rest) can only lead to stalling gains for many many weeks after you stop.

Any thougth on that?

Like I said in a previous post about proof and theories:

I’ve spend more time correcting your misrepresentation of my statements than any thing else. And, yes I grow tired of such nonsense. I never said that you were ignorant.

I’ve never read one study that proves that rest days either slow or accelerate gains – have you? I also never said that PE every day was more dangerous than taking rest days. What I will point out is that of the three forums I frequent, Thunders, MOS and Bibs, only members of Thunders advocate (among other things) mandatory rest days.

If there are thousands of members following routines that include no rest days on these other sites, and are making gains, injury free, then why is it so taboo here? In all honesty, warning others not to PE every day reminds me of my mother telling me that if I crossed my eyes they would stay that way. There are so many men outside of Thunders stretching every day without injury that mandating rest days or your dick won’t grow and your going to injure yourself seems just a tad bit superstitious to me.

The original poster asked this question:

Why has this thread turned into some pseudoscientific, techno-babble over light verses high tension, ADS verses hanging and rest? The reason I ask is because I believe the poster was looking for personal experience, not theories. In other words, he wasn’t asking a hypothetical question whether or not rest days are good.

Marinara, have rest days been an integral part of your growth?

Dick Builder :

this thread go where the posters like it to be going;

we care very little what on other forums members are doing or saying - if you don’t like this site, go elsewhere;

re-read the whole thread.

Have you something interesting to say?

I’d say, understand what you are reading here.

I can’t remember anyone here ever saying that rest days were mandatory. But I have read a whole lot of posts _suggesting_ them as possible ways to speed growth, I among those.

You are not going to find any threads or posts here (or in those other places you belong to) that are scientific, to your or my satisfaction at least. But here one can find a great number of useful, tried and true, anecdotal methods that work for some; remembering, always that each of us brings his unique physiognomy and tissue chemistry to this pursuit.

I always believed in rest day while doing girth routines but I don’t take hardly any when hanging and on a length routine. I believe with hanging and any ADS use the more time hanging or using an ADS the better.