OK, so I believe I have reached a conclusion regarding the question I initially asked in this thread. What I wanted to know, essentially, was if using an extender in addition to hanging would create some type of synergy with the hanger to speed up gains beyond what simply adding more hanging would accomplish. My hypothesis was that, because hanging utilized higher forces, hanging would produce greater deformation. Now, after this great dialectic discussion, I still believe adding more hanging to be my best course of action, but for a completely different reason.
In terms of the way connective tissue is known to deform (all soft tissue, in fact), it stands to reason that if one hangs and continually increases the weight being hung incrementally to preserve consistent gains at maximum efficiency - even slowly over a long time - their connective tissue will also become stronger in an equally progressive, incremental fashion to accommodate the added resistance and not be ruptured. Now, most extenders that use a spring to apply stress - a creep-based system like hanging - apply a very low force, around 2.5 lbs in most models. As the tissues toughen due to hanging ever increasing weights, an added extender will quickly lose the ability to exert enough force to overcome the increased toughness, not stretching the penis far enough with its low force output to overcome the threshold for plastic deformation and cause permanent elongation.
Tangent begins here.
Please note, using an extender without hanging is fine and should work. The constant, low force output will cause some toughening - though comparably much less than hanging - and this slow toughening will cause gains to slow or stop over time unless somehow the pulling force is increased or the tissues are allowed an extended rest to revert to close to their original toughness (deconditioning). I believe, with the small forces utilized in concert with maximum time under stretch, most people should see gains from an extender for a very long time before they stall out - most hopefully being able to achieve their goals in that time.
The main thing I see that sets hanging apart is that intensity can be dialed up as needed to keep gains coming at the maximum rate - you just can’t go very far progressing with only heavier replacement extender springs and eventually, as stated above, toughening, though minimal, will slow down gains.
Extending does have several benefits that hanging does not have or has in less abundance. Extenders are safer to an extent even if hanging is done by the book. Extenders cause a much slower toughening of tissue when compared to traditional, bib-style hanging, allowing supplementary length exercises like manual stretches to have greater effectiveness. Extenders take less work and are SLIGHTLY stealthier. And extenders are the ONLY PE method that has had any kind of research done testing it - unfortunately these studies were all financed by the companies that produced the extenders being looked at in each, but their methods appeared mostly sound, assuming they were followed as written, and results were very statistically significant.
Tangent ends here.
My theory above has one notable exception: the stress relaxation-based extender/traction device. A device that uses a fixed lengthening system rather than a loading system should still be very effective when used in conjunction with hanging. In fact, I could see there being possible synergy between the two - a greater-than-the-sum-of-their-parts thing - as each system would cause deformation through a different viscoelastic pathway, hanging through creep and the traction device through stress relaxation. I have ZERO idea if the statement I just made is accurate by the way, it certainly isn’t based on any empirical evidence I have seen, just intuition. Also, the low force production of an extender with springs would no longer be an issue because you would basically need penile tissues made of steel to be able to restrict the lengthening applied by a screw-based system. Last, most historical examples of humans expanding tissues (and ALL soft tissue is viscoelastic to some extent and ALL soft tissue undergoes plastic deformation if stretched past a point) have been through stress relaxation-based systems - neck lengthening rings, lip wedges, and gauged ears, as well as modern systems such as the static progressive splints we talked about earlier in this thread. So that makes it somewhat tried and true, I suppose.
So I’m gonna get myself a stress relaxation-based extender or build a screw-based traction device and try it myself!
