Measure Progress and when to change routine

First, I’m not new to PE, but I’m also questioning my approach after a 10 year hiatus. I want to rethink what I’m doing and have more & faster success this time around.

I am going to start tracking my measurements daily, before & after PE to check whether my routines are on track / whether I’m growing. One measure I neglected in the past was BPFSL.. I think it’s important because it doesnt depend on EQ to track whether I’m growing my potential length. Right now, my BPEL maximum is 7", but I don’t reach it consistently (I have had some EQ challenges as I’ve gotten older).

Measurements:
1-What measures are best for daily tracking?
I believe these are best: 1-BPFSL, 2-BPEL, 3-EG (am I missing anything here?)
2-Are there other measurements people think are really important to track progress, that we don’t necessarily need to look at daily?
3-What level of precision are you all trying to use? Do you trust your eyeball to measure 1/16th of an inch, or do you only track at 1/8th increments?

When to change routine:
-How long do you run a routine before you consider changing it?
A few weeks? Less / more?
-How do you know when you’re using too much or too little force?
-Are there times when you’re growing, but you still think its not fast enough (and it’s time to change your routine)?

Note: I am still focused on length gains right now.

1. BPFSL is best for daily tracking. Unless you use a vacuum cap method, as it temporarily expands your glans and it isn’t consistent to measure total length. It’s better to measure bone pressed flaccid stretched to the retroglandular sulcus (the spot where the shaft meets the glans) if this is your method since it excludes the glans.

I save BPEL for a monthly measurement and try to give at least 24 hours from my last session to do so. BPEL is less consistent for obvious reasons. Some guys wear a cool ring to measure so that they are the most expanded. It doesn’t really matter too much if it elevates your numbers a bit as long as you’re consistent. The point is to track progress not to state how big you are to anybody else so if you use the same setup each time you’ll have an idea if things are working.

2. I measure girth at my circumcision scar, mid shaft and at the base. But girth measurements are up to you and most guys track mid shaft.

3. I think it makes sense to measure in mm then convert to inches if you’re more used to them since the mm markings are more precise.

Routine changes are harder to advise on. I’d say give a program 6 weeks to 3 months since sometimes growth comes in spurts and isn’t linear. If you haven’t really made any gains in 6 weeks you might increase time or intensity before changing things up too much.

There is a thought that if you are getting strain between around 2% and 4% each length session then you are on track to making gains over time, so that is one reason to measure BPFSL before and after each session. How long this level of session strain takes to translate into gains is variable, but this technique is a way to see how effective your routine is each session, at least theoretically.

Finally, when I’m growing it’s never fast enough! But at some point after newbie gains there is just a steady, slow rate of growth no matter what you do, so at some point you have to get good with that and settle in for the long haul.

BPFL is an important measurement.

Me personally, I only measure length and girth in .125” increments. (Real progress)

You’ve said you’re not new at this, but read up on heating/warming methods.

*bpfsl

I’ve personally never regarded BPFSL as a vital measurement because I would simply notice if I "suddenly" stretch more than usual beyond my extender.

In my opinion, I would get discouraged whenever I would do a measuring and see nonresults, so I would extend + jelq and do a measurement for length and girth every month or so, however tempting it is.

rinnegan: I agree it’s important to understand ourselves and do things that motivate us.

lookingforgirth: interesting point about only measuring in 1/8th or .125 increments for real progress.

tenatiousD: good point about a vacum type approach throwing off the size of the glans (that could disrupt BPFSL). I like your point about measuring by millimeters because that’s the kind of progress I might be able to measure weekly, but I see the point from others that this is difficult to measure (as you mentioned, consistency is key — if we start measuring differently it could throw off our tracking). The whole point is to measure progress. You’re the only one so far to suggest how long to wait (with no gains / poor gains) before switching up a routine: 6 weeks to 3 months.

tenatiousD: can you explain what you mean by 2% to 4% strain per session? Not sure I understand that concept.

It’s a hassle, but I think it will be useful. If you put the numbers into a spreadsheet you can average them weekly / biweekly / monthly to smooth out the "noise" from variations in EQ and measurement technique.

I use a plastic ruler. I rounded the sharp edges off the end so it doesn’t dig in when I press down. I bent a piece of scrap aluminum into an "L" and hold it to the ruler with a "binder clip", like you’d use to clip papers together. I slide the L down until it touched my glans. It either touches or it doesn’t; there’s no parallax or wishful thinking involved.

I mostly either pump or vacuum hang. Blisters or petechiae set the limit for me. I’ve been able to increase the intensity very slowly, with a few setbacks from pushing too quickly.

Not just "most expanded" (though that’s gratifying on the ruler) but that it’s *consistently* expanded. My measurements are repeatable within 1/16" with the ring. Swift variations in EQ (ruler shyness?) mean that repeated measurements even within a few minutes will be all over the place.

True, and worth repeating for emphasis.

Yes, I’ve got it all on a spreadsheet, and I am entering real numbers, so I can graph / chart progress to analyze my results over time.

This is brilliant, I need to copy what you’re doing… I may just sand down my wooden ruler. However, I’m having trouble visualizing what you do with the metal piece. Do you mind sharing a picture (or a link to someone that built something similar)?

I ordered a bathmate (it hasn’t arrived yet) & plan to start pumping, although I’m going with a light / moderate routine because I haven’t hit length gain goals yet (but I also have ED signals — no morning wood, softer erections, and I hear pumping can help, so I’m going to try it). In contrast, I’ve done a lot of hanging (about 4 years of it, but there were gaps in there), and I didn’t gain as fast as I’ve seen others gain (which is why I’m re-thinking my approach and how I measure success / adapt my routine). I researched hanging quite a bit, but I neglected other parts of PE… I lost track of fundamentals too (I should have kept my unit warmer from hanging / maybe I should have worn an ADS too in order to cement gains better).

I recently lost a lot of weight, and part of my success was due to measuring daily, at the same time, in the same way. I had to change my diet and exercise approach several times (I’ll hit the 80lbs lost mark soon too). It’s just the scientific method (experiment / if it fails, try something else based on what I learned). With weight loss, I knew within 24 hours if something was wrong. That’s an easy / fast feedback loop.. PE is much tougher; the feedback loop seems slower, but maybe I’ll be able to clearly tell what’s going on weekly (or even within a few days) if I use a ruler setup like yours AndyJ. Granted, I wonder how much time you were observing between small jumps. I’ll need to learn for myself the kinds of pattens I can expect from my own physiology — I expect the graphing / charting to help.

Sure. The ruler has a couple of ridges that are probably intended to hold it off the paper a bit; when properly situated, the metal angle rides between them. Doesn’t really matter, though. In this picture, the bent-out part of the angle is pointing straight at the camera.

Until quite recently my fat pad was so thick there was no chance of slipping between the shaft and pelvic bone. Now it’s possible, though easy to avoid. If I need to I’ll make a slider that sticks out the side so the ruler is perpendicular to my shaft.

Anything you can bend will work for the slider. I used aluminum. You could bend something triangulated out of cardboard and assemble it with tape, or 3-D print something. You just need a flat surface to touch your glans with.

Theoretically I could just slide it down until it touches, but I’ve found it more convenient to adjust, see if it touches, adjust, etc.

The tailor’s tape was $1 from eBay, for measuring girth. The buret and funnel are for measuring ejaculate volume, and the digital caliper was $6 on eBay. I use it for measuring testicle size. It has plastic jaws, which I rounded off so they’re not stabby.

I was doing some experiments with dietary supplements to find out their effects on testicle size and ejaculate volume. So far, I haven’t found anything that made a difference. I guess even negative results are still useful, but it was disappointing.

The millimeter measurement will have some up and down from day to day but if you track enough data points over a period of time the trend will be clear if you’re growing or not. Month to month you should see clear progress, even if it’s a couple of millimeters, especially as you track more than a couple of months. This is why I said it takes 6 weeks to 3 months to see if your program is working or not.

This is how I use tracking my daily workout RG-BPFSL and strain (though I’m not an expert as I’m still relatively new to it): In October my retroglandular (RG) BPFSL mm’s before training was in the mid 160’s, ranging from 165-171. December it is in the mid 170s, ranging from 170-175. Post training has the same relative increase. So from day to day my starting length varies a bit, as does the post-training, but the overall trend is increasing.

Notably, the increase in RG-BPFSL between November and December was smaller than the month before. So it might be time for me to consider a decon break to let the tissues soften up again, even though my per session strain numbers remain on target every session (which suggests the tissues are still pliable from the work I’m doing). Or maybe there is a small quantum increase about to reveal itself (I’ve noticed increases tend in little jumps rather than linear increases) and I’ll make another little jump in the next few weeks. So my plan is to give it another month and see where I am before I program in a decon break to let things soften up again.

So that is how I use the data to see where I’m at and what is next.

Strain per session is a measure of how much elongation you got from your session. You measure before and after your length session. Take the difference in the measurements and divide by the pre-session length x 100 to get percentage strain.

For example: before the session your measurement is 170mm. After it is 176mm. 176-170 = 6mm 6mm/ 170mm x 100 = 3.5% strain.

Check out Kyrpa’s threads and Hanging with FIRe thread for more on the basis and results of the theory from the authors. Again, I’m relatively new with this style but in the three months I’ve been using it I’ve been pleased with results. Plus I like the approach of less is more, and letting the tissues soften up to keep things growing, rather than the old hanging perspective of continuously increasing time, sessions per week and weight to get results as they start to slow down.

Hanging with FIRe

@tenaciousD The hanging with fire thread is excellent, I’ve read that a few times. I’m using a similar approach to yours — this time around I’m approaching PE much differently (I’m taking a more scientific approach)

The core ideas are:
1-Decon breaks (when gains slow or stop)
2-BPFSL daily tracking (in centimeters before & after routine, this allows us to measure % elongation, which the author calls straing)
elongation / strain from PE routine = [BPFSL end - BPFSL start] / [BPFSL start]
3-stress strain curve (the author made good gains with only 1.5% to 2.5% strain sometimes, and 4% is max
4-heat: collagen relaxes and is far more malleable with heat
-thus heat is key to speeding up gains, in fact, lack of heat could prevent gains.
-Therapeutic temperatures range between 102 to 110 F (38.9- 43.3 C).
-Thermedic FIR Heating Pad (I got one of these, the lowest setting is 42 C, middle 45 C, high 50c)

So in simple terms, I now measure % strain daily and I correlate that with how I feel, and how my BPFSL is doing before & after the routine. During the routine I’m using rice socks and a very small heater to make sure my unit stay warm and a very comfortable temperature (I’m usually sweating a bit during the routine because of it, but I think that’s good — I want all the internals to stay warm).

As advised in this thread, I’ve switched all my daily base measurements to centimeters for more exact measures (and in my personal log spreadsheet I convert these to inches).

I built my own simple / cheap slider, and setup a plastic ruler… I sanded off the hard edges and cut slits into the slider (which is a plastic ID badge card holder) which is barely wide enough for the ruler, so it slides easily enough while I’m measuring, but it’s also stable enough to help me record my exact BPFSL & other measures without slipping.

I also included a picture of the far infrared heating device I purchased. The benefit of far infrared is it can penetrate tissues & heat deep, including ligaments etc. One downside is it can in theory create a deep infrared burn under the tissues (not good). I’m experimenting with the device now to see if it heats as advertised (just beause it heats to 42 C on the lowest settings doesn’t mean that my tissues will be at that heat… It’s possible I’ll need the higher 45 C (medium) or 50 C (high) setting to get my tissues to the right temperature. One advantage of this over simple heating (like rice socks) is I have a better idea of the level of heat being applied (with a rice sock, it’s just a guess).

I plan to keep following these principles and I’m excited to see how my first year back in PE will end (right now, I’m only on day 8 of my 2nd time through the newbie routine.. it’s been over 10 years since I last did it).