OTS giving me numbness

After only two sets, 5 lbs OTS is making my shaft numb, like numbness where its enough to stop for the day because it seems like it might be long lasting or chronic. This has happened a couple times before, and when it does I stop or take a break for a few days. I get the usual chilling and cold glans as well, but usually goes away afterwards.

I can’t expect much tech support, but if anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

Thanks

BBS-

For some reason OTS is the most common angle at which numbness seems to occur. Nothing I can offer in the way of numbers or stats - but it is a common factor I have noted.
My one moment of hanging numbness occurred using a Bib Starter OTS. It happened suddenly and was a total shut down of glans sensation for about 30 minutes and lingered for a few days. Scared the crap out of me. I have done very little OTS since.

My only and best suggestion: Start hanging at lower angles - maybe with an effort at upping the weight slightly. I know you are a very low LOT guy but there is no saying you can’t achieve tunica gains hanging at low angles. In fact, I am convinced that a good part of my gains are tunica based and not solely lig gains - and I have hung 90% of my time BTC. In the end, there is little way to tell, but I have gained and just as important - I have stayed injury free.

IMO, hanging at lower angles in your case far outweighs the potential long-term injury you face and beats the hell out of not hanging at all.

-Cap

Yeah, OTS and fulcrum hanging did that to me too. I think it’s from a nerve being overly stressed and not from the attachment itself.

Numbness occurred earlier on each set. I’d get 20 min. or close to it on the first with no loss of sensation. Numbness began about 18 min. or so into the second, roughly 15 min. on the third, and if I did another after that, at 13-15 min. Near-normal sensation returned within a few minutes after ending a set.

I tried all kinds of things to prevent going numb:

• Loosened my wrap and experimented with different materials and combinations
• Played with hanger adjustments, tightness and position
• Reduced the weight
• Got a good warmup in a hot bath before hanging
• Tried my homemade Bib in place of the Starter.

Warning: Ideally, no one should flirt with numbness, even if temporary, on a regular basis. This goes double for newbie hangers. The safe route is to either figure out how to resolve this or don't hang in a position that causes it.

I decided to continue. I monitored sensation frequently, especially near the times when numbness was expected. I also split my hanging into 2 sessions per day to avoid stressing things too much during a single sitting. Occasionally I got preoccupied with other tasks, ran a little too long, and went 100% numb. Bad. And dangerous.

Spending too much time with your dick numb will definitely get you into trouble. And during a set it can go from fine to completely numb a lot quicker than you might think. It is crucial to monitor sensation often and end the set when it reduces too much.

This is certainly not an ideal way to hang, but a couple months of it didn’t give me any long-lasting problems. Over time a small degree of adaptation may have occurred. I could hang slightly longer for the first couple sets before sensation reduced. This could also indicate the tunica itself became tougher and took longer to stretch to the point that the nerve took too much stress.

BBS,

I remember reading here that Bigger did not use much OTS hanging positions as he did compared to BTC and SO.

I also read in one his posts that he angled his unit somewhat on a diagonal in the hanger when he did infact hang at the upper angles.

I think he could not give a definite reason why but I think he was hinting towards in being beneficial to reduce slippage or flow through of the penis in the hanger and hence reduced the incidence of a nose effect while hanging at the upper angels.

I may have interpreted what he was saying to by wrong but definitely somewhere in here is Bigger talking about penis to hanger placement when hitting upper angels.

Hope that helps. Infact I will try and find the post for you while you are rooting your box off over the weekend, you stud.

GMJ

A guy goes to the doctor and says, hey doc when I do this, it hurts.

Doc says, don’t do that.

BBS

I also have been the same problem with OTS hanging in fact I think I’m stopping my dick is beat up and discolored. Also If I hang for any length of time I have weak hard ons for the rest of the day. I will be going back to hanging down and I’m also going to start jelqing more again. I might even take a break from hanging for a while. I never had any numbness problems or hard on problems while hanging down.

I was hoping you would chime in. I remember you posted briefly in another thread about this.

I have even gotten the “scary numbness” and of course the cold glans with this angle of hang.

I have thought about this and I have reached the conclusion to abandon the OTS postion in exchange for another one. The negative effects far out weight the potential positives. What good is it if I gain, only to have a inoperable unit?

I believe due to the extreme vertical angle, OTS hanging reaks havoc on bloodflow. The blood has to flow up and is flowing at a lesser than normal pace. Coupled with the fact that there is naturally some restriction with hanging it doesn’t set up a pretty picture.

I will move to the SO postion and take it from there.

BBS

Yeah I’m taking a break from hanging and I’m just going to jelq and squeeze for the next couple of weeks and than I will get back to hanging down and maybe SO. I have been just jelqing for the last couple of days and I do enjoy it my dick seems to hang better and I’m hoping the discoloration will lighten up. I needed a break from hanging anyway hanging is great but it sure keeps you from doing other things.

Dino

An idea as to why this happens with OTS - beyond the upward flowing circulation idea:
Depending on a guys set up I think the possibility of unwanted weight variation exists more with OTS than any other angle.
If genuinely hanging Over The Shoulder the weight and the intensity applied to your unit can and almost always will vary because you move your body; your posture changes over the course of the set.
It is pretty easy, by simply straightening your spine, to suddenly and greatly increase the amount of tension effecting your unit.

Even in those cases where guys use the back of the chair or an overhead non-pulley hook up it is very easy to shift your hips, slide forward, backward, etc. - In that case a simple one inch move in one direction or the other could greatly alter the amount of tension being applied.

Physical movement like this would also wreck havoc on soft tissue - possibly explaining the beaten up look so many complain of.

I think when we remove gravity from the hanging formula we cheat ourselves of a valuable hanging component as well as increase our chances of injury. Uncontrollable weight variation during hanging sets completely flies in the face of hangings greatest asset: Controlled static tension.

This is what exactly I was thinking in the shower. Great minds think alike. I was going to post about this later. But I’ll do it now. 1.) Like you said I believe gravity only works to your advantage while hanging for a few reasons. One the dick naturally wants to hang down. Also, in the SO and higher positons the hanger has a tendency to ride forward on the gland to much. This leads me to believe that stress is taken of the shaft and placed on the head. So, even though theoretically this is supposed to be the effective angle for you, how effective would it be if the stress is removed from the shaft and applied to the head?

No disrespect to BIB, but I believe even low LOTers could gain from BTC stretching because it is one of the only true positions because due to gravity, the hanger is pulled down, but the dick is pulled down as well so it cancels that effect out. So the stress is reverted back to the shaft and the shaft will take the stretch instead of the skin rolling on the head. Remember, BIB said his shaft grew tremendously, probably 2-3 inches and he did majority BTC, SO secondary.

I hope that was not too much random spewing and it makes somewhat sense.

BBS-

I don’t think these ideas contradict anything Bib ever said on the matter. As I understand it Bib agreed that gains could be made BTC regardless of one’s LOT. The whole purpose of his theory was to help guys work more efficiently and any strict demand that one must hang at a particular angle is absent from the theory.
Bib made clear that his main reason for promoting upper angles for low LOT guys was because he believed inner shaft could more easily be expressed this way.

Just because your ligs are spent doesn’t mean you can’t gain length from hanging BTC - I think we agree on that. I personally find the low angles (BTC and SD) are easier on my anatomy - it is more comfortable, less complicated, and as we know gravity is easier to put to work.

I think you can take advantage of gravity at higher angles, but it requires a pretty slick pulley system. The effect will always be less direct than SD or BTC but it’s possible to get it to work.

That however does not take into account what you are saying about stress reverting back to the shaft at low angles - which I don’t think can be discounted.

Through simple touch I have tested the amount of tension in my shaft both at high angles and low angles and there really is no comparing the two. At high angles the amount of weight that would be necessary to match the tension I get at low angles would be impossible to handle without going over a comfortable max weight.

Consider this: If it can be agreed that those with tapped out ligs can still realize gains using BTC doesn’t it make sense that guys with super strong ligs - the unbreakable kind - are getting the same effect as those with no lig potential when they hang BTC? Something has to give - and if the ligs refuse the next closest (and vulnerable) thing will. That would be shaft.
I’ll go even further and say that with SD/BTC I believe outer shaft/tunica gains are being made regardless of whether lig gains are (or are not) being realized at the same time.

I agree. But only the shaft in front of the ligs, not behind them. And even then I think the part of the shaft between the hanger and ligs gets stretched more than where the hanger grasps.

I gained very well hanging fulcrum and OTS, both of which work the shaft behind the ligs. OTS stresses points that I cannot hit in any other direction. After some softer tissue (bc muscles?) lengthened a bit I felt the stretch most in the CC’s deep within the pelvis. Hanging over each shoulder stressed different sides.

This boils down to the divide and conquer approach. There have been many posts about it. Sure, you can hang SD or BTC all the time throughout your hanging career, and at some point the ligs will stretch enough for the tunica to share the load. Great, then to make progress you have to use enough weight to work both at the same time. If you think the tunica is tough when isolated, try adding in some lig resistance too. :eek:

Hobby-
I am in no way discounting the benefits of using multiple angles to gain. I just find myself more and more convinced that BTC offers greater potential all around than any other angle - and in a case like BBS it stands out as a pretty solid option to get beyond his dilemma.

Part of my reasoning is that just because ligs have been maxed out does not mean they no longer serve their purpose: They still support and keep the shaft “attached” to the body. Paradoxically and to the benefit of hangers, the fundiform ligaments might begin to act as a built in fulcrum on the shaft when hanging BTC - a pretty severe one too. Envision hanging BTC without the fundiform ligaments and what you have is a shaft supported only by the suspensory ligs, which isn’t much. Since the fundiform ligs are ever present, in the case of maxed out ligs as well as super-tough ligs their purpose can take on a dual role when hanging BTC: Support the shaft and act as a fulcrum.

This might in part account for why tension in the outer shaft seems to be so much greater at the same weight BTC than at upper angles. There is a better than 90 degree angle fulcrum that can be accomplished at the exit point point when hanging BTC - a far greater angle than is offered by the internal fulcrum the pubic bone applies to the shaft at an OTS angle.
In fact, due to the forward pitch of the pubic bone I put very little stock into the upper angle internal fulcrum idea I have heard put forth.

I completely agree that it is shaft beyond the ligs all the way to the hanger that benefit- maybe some of what is within the hanger.

Also, I think part of the solution to your last two sentences might exist somewhere in utilizing deconditioning - that is, if someone is very reluctant to hang anything other than SD/BTC.

I used purple type to make the fulcrum point.

IMO, most newbie hangers, with the exception of the few beginning with extremely low LOTs, are best off hanging BTC as soon as possible. Many will have to spend some time stretching skin to work into it, but that’s a small price to pay to get into a position that often produces some nice rewards for relatively little effort.

I understand what you’re getting at, but I disagree.

First, the ligs are attached to the shaft. They aren’t merely a free-floating cradle serving as a fulcrum point similar to your arm or a stick when doing an A-stretch. If you stretch down or out below your LOT the ligs will take the load via their attachment to the shaft. The inner shaft behind them will not be stressed when stretching below your LOT.

Second, even if the fundiform ligs were actually an unattached free-floating cradle without much friction, tension applied at the BTC angle shown would be a terribly inefficient way of pulling the inner shaft outward. 5 lbs. in that direction would produce far less than 5 lbs. of outward tension. I sincerely hope we don’t have to revisit this thread. ;)

Forget the “cradle” appearance of the fundiform ligs. Consider them to be attached to the shaft because they are. BTC pulls against the fundiform and suspensory ligs and doesn’t affect the shaft behind them much until the ligs stretch well beyond a length necessary to not interfere with expressing maximum penis length. It seems to me that if you intend to work the inner shaft by hanging BTC, you must first waste time making your ligs much longer than they need be. You’d have to build in extra, useless slack to be able to work the tunica. And even then you still wouldn’t be hitting the bottom part of it as OTS does.

OTS does provide a fulcrum effect. An actual pivot point exists in front of where the penis is attached.

I wish I could draw decently. See if my pathetic marks on the attached pic make any sense.

LoL, Hobby. I don’t think we will come anywhere near the tension of that thread. I had never seen that and hope never to again. If DW enters this thread my name is nedd…I mean mudd :)

Yes. I agree with everything you say here. What I am trying to get at is the use of BTC by guys with very low to no LOT.

Everything I have suggested so far has been said with the outer shaft/tunica in mind, but I’ll try this on you:
First, if the ligs are not maxed out, getting them to that point cannot be looked upon as a bad thing (unless it severely/negatively impacts erection angle, or the time spent getting to that point is not worth it, or some other unforeseen negative possibility exists - I wouldn’t know). Second, I stick with my contention that the tunica/outer shaft benefits while hanging BTC - most especially in the case of maxed out or impossibly strong ligs. Third, the fact that the shaft and fundiform ligs are attached should in no way be seen as an impediment to a fulcrum effect because (god help me for this) they are not fused in a “metal to metal” type of manner. Taking any example from the thread you supplied, if you “fused” (weaved would be a better word) a rope/elastic cord at its underside to an object of a like material the fulcrum effect would not be much less than if the underside were merely placed against the fulcrum object. The fact that both objects we are concerned with here - the shaft and the ligs - are pliable organic tissue makes this fusion even less of a liability.

Keep in mind that I am not, and have not suggested that inner shaft does not better benefit from higher angles. However, if it can be agreed that in the case of maxed out ligs: a fulcrum effect is at work using BTC, the outer shaft/tunica benefits from BTC, gravity is more easily put to use with BTC, tension is more consistent using BTC, and most relevant to this thread and its issue - injury/numbness is less frequent using BTC, then the use of BTC even by guys with extremely low/no LOT should be less readily discounted than it is.

Granted, what you say about hitting the bottom part of the tunica is an issue - but this part of the shaft is receiving stretch at the BTC angle. It may not be ideal, or what one would get at OTS, but it is not a total loss.
(and turkey neck becomes a distant concern :) )

I cannot and would not argue the benefits of the “divide and conquer” approach. I use it myself. I’m saying all of this in the context of the issue at hand.

I see what you are saying. I just think that the internal fulcrum angle gotten from OTS is, at its best, not much. But no doubt, OTC will help work inner shaft.

A question for you Hobby - and anyone else who cares to answer:
Do you, like me, also find that the tension present in your outer shaft when hanging SD/BTC is greater than the tension in your outer shaft using the same or even slightly more weight SO/OTS?

.