Gopher9,
>I thought I was doing the right thing by going to the heaviest I could manage, but now I’ve read some other stuff that makes me wonder if I’ve encouraged the ligaments to respond only to the heaviest weight (perhaps thickening them?)<
No, I do not believe this is pertinent. Just from my experience, the only way I really gained was to stress enough to become sore. The ligaments, as well as other structures, do become stronger. This seems to be a natural, and universal phenomenon. The factor which causes this is the standardization of the various fibers, as well as stressed fibers healing back stronger than the original fiber. So, if you stress enough to get gains, you will become stronger, which requires more stress to make more gains. My opinion.
>so that the only way I’ll get more gains is to go into a scary amount of weight that I feel is dangerous to skin/outer tissue in terms of bruising (but perhaps my fears are groundless… <
You should always have a healthy amount of this fear. I hung a tremendous amount of weight by the time I was finished getting the length I wanted. But I always had great respect for the weight, and watched the color and temperature closely. If something was not right, I stopped, adjusted and started over. I went through a lot of soreness and discoloration etc.
This whole thing is what I call the risk/reward relationship. Several times in my PE career, I took what I perceived to be risks. There were times when I did too much. Paid the price. Learned from my mistakes. I never had a severe problem or injury, probably because I paid attention, and tried to learn my limits.
Either one of two things generally happen. You get to your goals and stop before you push the envelope. Or, you decide that you just do not want anymore gains for the amount of time, or stress that you have to put into PE. It is an individual decision.
Some guys put a lot of stock in taking extended rests to allow the tissues to become weaker as they heal completely. There could be something to this. Then, when you start back, the stress required to get further gains is less than when you stopped.
>I was so surprised at my comfort that I very QUICKLY moved to 15lbs. hanging (thereafter it would always surprise me when I would read other posts where guys were still hanging half that after a few months). But 15lbs. really was my max, and still is.<
How did you determine that 15 lbs is your max? Do you have to go down in weight during a set? How about during the session? If all three sets are at 15 lbs, you are probably not at your max.
>I now do three 20-min. sessions at 15lbs, which is all I can handle. Though I did have good, quick results in the first two months, I’ve had no growth in the last two and a half months, as far as I can tell. <
From what I can tell, 4-5 months at a single max weight is a long time. Usually, it takes much less time to adjust to a max and have to move up some to get the amount of stress required to fatigue the tissues. Although I did spend a good amount of time at max weights between 17.5 and 22.5 lbs, I was also hanging for a lot of time, and having to drop weight throughout the day.
Two months of gains at a single max weight is fairly good. Lil asked the correct question. Do you still get the stretch? Do you have the soreness/fatigue, that worked out feeling? A little, or a lot? If you still have a lot of soreness/fatigue, then you might just be ok. You could have some tough current limiting factors which are holding you up. It might take a while to break through. If you are not stressed, then the 15 lbs are not doing it for you. Even a few minutes at a higher weight may be the key that breaks through this plateau.
Lill is absolutely correct about the various angles also. Many angles require less weight to create a new stress and hence fatigue. If you are hanging BTC at fifteen, and do not wish to move up in weight, you might try some other angles.
Bigger