Hanging with FIRe

I started lurking around November 2020. Planning in Dev 2020.
Began hanging in Jan 2021.

Where I started:
Longstretchs thread was the thread that I read and re-read several times as I was beginning. Read it.
The Long Game: Learning with Longerstretch, Key Principles to Make Sustained Growth

Now go back and read it again.

1.) Deconditioning Breaks
Simply put, these are more important than you think. I see comments on TP when guys are beginning decons bemoaning the loss of ‘future’ gains during the decon. That is the wrong idea. We are placing stress on tissue and tissue needs a break from time to time. I take a few weeks off after 4-5 weeks of active hanging. A decon is not “doing nothing”. It is an active rest cycle.

2.) BPSFL Focused
Fairly straightforward and easy to measure. No erection required. It’s the pre BPFSL that matters. If you are doing this correctly you should see it increase ~2mm per week. Small changes over 30 days add up. Measure the same way everyday. Both before (Pre) and after (Post) your PE workout.

Track strain using the following equation: (Post - Pre)/Pre. I have made good gains with strain ~1.5% and good gains with strain ~2.5%. A higher strain does not mean faster growth. Tissue responds slowly.

3.) Stress-Strain Curve or how much weight do I use?
The recommendation in the past has been to run a n=1 experiment to get your stress strain curve. Fancy way of finding the correct weight range for you to use. Kyrpa has simplified this to a load calculator that can be downloaded from the link below.

Kyrpa - The characteristics of the tunica albuginea revisited

Entering my flaccid girth (97mm) into the load calculator yields the following results
.1 MPa - 2.9lbs/3.4lbs
.17 MPa - 4.9lbs/5.8lbs

What do these numbers and weights tell us?
A rough guide is to begin applying heat around .1 MPa and continue increasing the weight until we reach approximately .17 MPa.

Cycle 1:
I was hanging with 54oz (3.3lbs). My results were spectacular for that cycle.

Cycle 4:
I begin applying heat around 36oz (2.25lbs)
Adding weight while the temp ramps up to my max heat weight of 84oz (5.25 lbs).

4.) Thermedic FIR Heating Pad
Nearly every post by a veteran to a newbie on Thundersplace is ‘Add heat’. Knowing this, it still took me 3 months before I added heat. I just did not consider active heat compatible with hanging until I saw a mod/veteran post a pic of a narrow orange heating pad wrapped around his unit while extending. Suddenly I understood how hanging with a heating pad would work. I picked at random, mostly because of its size the Thermedic FIR heating pad. Odds are this was the most important contribution to my results. Available on Amazon.

https://www.the … c.com/qi-point/

I’d recommend the large 4x7 pad if your BPFSL is close to 8”. Otherwise stay with the smaller 3x6 pad.

Post #1 in Kyrpa’s thread on therapeutic heat thread provides the best summary of the usefulness of heat in achieving our goals. Read the entire thread.
Using the ultrasound for therapeutic heat in PE

Therapeutic temperatures range between 102 to 110 F (38.9- 43.3 C).

Here is my favorite quote on heat: “Above 104F (40 C) occurs thermal transition of the microstructure of the collagen, significantly enhancing the viscous stress-relaxation of collagenous tissue and allowing greater plastic deformation during stretch. (Mason and Rigby 1964, Rigby et al 1959)”

The Thermedic pads have 3 settings, 42C,45C,48C. I run mine on high. Some only use the medium setting.

Manko007 posted his test results using a Thermedic heating pad. Here: manko007 - Gaining volume with Kyrpa

min Temp (F)
5 92.8
9 96.6
11 98
14 101
17 102
19 104
20 105.4

The important part is that a mean temp of 101+ F is achievable with the heating pad in about 15 minutes. We have a heating pad capable of getting us into the fabled therapeutic heat range.

5.) Cooldown
Step #4 above heats your penis to allow some viscous uncoupling of the collagen molecules. The cooldown allows the molecules to reset in their new stretched location. The basic rule is to increase your weight by 20%-25% for the cool down. In practice this means add your final weight and then turn-off/remove the heating pad. The idea is to cool down in the stretched position.

My plan
I am an engineer.
I skipped the newbie routine. I did not see a way to quantify the stress applied to my unit.
That is correct. I do not perform manual stretches, jelqs or any tugging that cannot be measured or logged.

I read the studies on extenders. They showed verifiable success with tension over time. I already had a standing desk and a decent amount of privacy so I decided to apply the lite weight (less than 4kg) approach of extending to hanging. My basic plan was to add an additional 6oz to my weight set every 2 weeks and to stay below 4kg during one year of hanging.

Commitment
1 year. This was a hard, no flinching commitment on my part. I committed to one year no matter the results. I miss a day here and there, but there is no quitting. Results in life follow consistency. I was confident that I could gain the oft mentioned 1” in a year and I was going to do the work required.

Schedule is 5/2. Hang Monday-Friday with weekends off.

I started hanging with 12oz on 4 Jan 2012.

Weeks 1-8: The Mistakes
Let’s talk about getting a few things wrong in the first 60 days.
I started with a homemade noose hanger and transitioned to a homemade Captains Wench. The loss of blood flow during compression hanging was alarming. I settled into a routine of 6 10 minutes sets with my Captains Wench. Took 10 mins between sets to rest/restore blood flow. So it took 2 hours of clock time for me to get in 1 hour of active hang time. Compression hanging did not meet my expectations for ease of use. I began looking for alternatives. I added weight every 2 weeks like a good little hanger and gained ¼” BPEL in 6 weeks. Took my first BPFSL measurement of 5.8”. I started to look for a better option and found it in vacuum hanging.

At this point I had spent $20 for supplies and velcro and $35 for some weights.
Total on PE: $55.
Time under tension: 59.5 hours

Weeks 9-12: Vacuum hanging
I ordered the vacuum hanging set from Total Man ($80+shipping. Total $100) based solely on price in late January. Ended up being delayed and back ordered. Waited forever. Not really their fault. Covid messed everything up in our on-demand shipping world.

I ended up using the medium cup with a cotton ball in the end to keep my glans from going too deep into the cup. I tried everything to avoid taping. I did not want to tape. After a few water blisters I tape every day. I will mention that adding heat for my sets resulted in the tape being easier to remove on most days. Taping is mandatory to avoid blisters.

Transitioning to vacuum hanging. My plan was to increase time or weight every week (never both). I do not change more than one thing at a time. By week 12 I was hanging 2 60 minute sets with 48oz. An argument could be made that my 4 week transition should have taken 6 weeks. Somewhere during this block of time I saw the pic mentioned above. A mod/member with a narrow orange heating pad wrapped around his unit while in a vacuum extender. My shaft was now mostly exposed since I was vacuum hanging. I knew what to do. I ordered the Thermedic FIR pad.

At the end of week 12 my BPFSL had increased to 6.49” and BPEL added nearly another ¼” for 5.94”. So far my max weight was 48oz/3lbs. I was over the moon with my nearly ½” gain in 3 months.

At this point I’d spent
Previous: $55
Total Man Hanger: $100
Thermedic pad: $35
Total: $190
Time under tension: 107 hours

Cycle 1 Weeks 13-18
Vacuum hanging. Back to back 1 hour sets. Heat in the middle 30 mins during each set. Remove weight, go downstairs for coffee refill, reattach weight and do another hour.

Details in this post: 5.5Squared - 5.5Squared Log

Cycle 1 results
Pre BPFSL increased from 17cm to 18cm.
Cycle Growth: 7.65%
BPEL increased from 5.94” to 6.5” (week 20 decon)
Total: $190
Time under tension: 237 hours

Week 19-21: Decon
Edging 30 mins per day with a cockring.

Cycle 2 Weeks 22-26 - Is two hours really necessary?
Things are going great so let’s change something. Incrementing the weight in steps makes sense. Lets see if we can get away with just a single 1 hour set.
I started with a 1 hour session for week 22 and ended with a 1.5 session on week 26.

Details in this post: 5.5Squared - 5.5Squared Log

Cycle 2 results
Pre BPFSL increased from 18cm to 19cm.
Cycle Growth: 7.22%
BPEL increased from 6.5” to 7.1” (week 29 decon)
I’m 7 months into PE, only 3 months into my plan and my 7.0001” length goal is hit.
Bought more decoy weights.
Total: $190 + $35 = $225
Time under tension: 263.75 hours

Week 27-30: Decon
Summer vacation, sold house, moved. Some edging, but not consistent.

Cycle 3 Weeks 31-36
Things are working well. Just repeat. Reduce the beginning weight to keep us from hanging too much at year end.

Details in this post: 5.5Squared - 5.5Squared Log

Cycle 3 results
Pre BPFSL increased from 19.1cm to 20.2cm.
Cycle Growth: 7.33%
BPEL increased from 7.1” to 7.4” (week 37 decon)
Time under tension: 299.8 hours
New Thermedic pad - $35
Total $260

Week 37-39: Decon
No edging.

Cycle 4 Weeks 40 - 45
Continuing to define the incremental weight adds. Krypa and Tutt mention that my 30 min cool down is too long. So I shifted 15 minutes from my cool down and increased the time under heat by 15 minutes for a total of 60 minutes.

Weeks 40-45 now look like
8 mins @ 24oz cold
8 mins @ 36oz cold
15 mins @ 36oz heat
15 mins @ 54oz heat
30 mins @ 84oz heat
15 mins @ 96oz cool down (pad removed)

Cycle #4 results: 5.5Squared - 5.5Squared Log

So you want to get started:
Get a vacuum hanger of your choice. Maybe an extra silicon sleeve since you may need to protect your entire shaft from the radiant heat from the pad.
Get a FIR infrared pad. I use the Thermedic brand. I like that the control is on the cord, not the pad itself.

The protocol I’d recommend is from cycle 2. Start with 12-18 oz and go from there. Add weight every 2-3 weeks. This isn’t about hanging 40lbs from your penis. It’s about hanging just enough weight to take advantage of the viscous uncoupling under heat.

Here’s the link to Kyrpa’s simplified load calculator again.
Kyrpa - The characteristics of the tunica albuginea revisited

Follow the instructions, measure your girth and determine your weight range for .1 MPa and .17MPa. That is the target range that you eventually want to be in for heat. Work your way up to that weight range slowly. Increase your time under tension as desired.

15 mins @ 18oz cold
30 mins @ 36oz heat
15 mins @ 48oz cool down (pad removed)

Kyrpa will be in here with additions and corrections. Pay attention to his posts.

This is a kick ass write @5.5Squared.

Great work brother!

Well done 5.5, awesome thread. It’s concise and a great road map. Many will build off of this.

You’ve earned your gains and I’m sure there will be more to come. Makes me look forward to the day that I begin to take a more disciplined and methodical approach, should I ever get my shit together!

Like you said, looking forward to seeing how the community builds on your thread.

Thanks LE. Pretty sure I dropped this in the wrong place. Feel free to move it if you think it belongs in another topic.

Thank you for all of this well thought out information. As a fellow engineer, I very much relate to not wanting to do manual exercises that are unquantifiable and unrepeatable. You, kyrpta and a few others have really inspired me with your approaches and I want to thank you for such good documentation in your progress log.

I recently started effectively an identical approach that I intend to continue over the next year. If I achieve anything close to your results I will be extremely happy.

It would be very interesting if a number of others also followed the exact same routine to build a body of evidence that has something close to scientific rigour!

Thanks for that great summary! Your work and your gains are very impressive!

Awesome thread

Great work 5.5