Originally Posted by Ectospasm
So sparkyx and titleist, at the peak of your gains, how frequently were you pumping and how long each session?
Titleist has a really great thread with lots of great info. For both of us, I think this from his thread may sum that up:
Been a While, My Pics (p. 91)
1) Keep red spots to a minimum. If they aren’t completely cleared by the time you pump again, you will begin to accumulate them, and get in trouble. IF you are getting too much of this, drop vacuum level to where you don’t.
2) Keep edema to a minimum. A little is fine, but if you get too much I believe you are at too high of a vacuum and you reducing the effectiveness of the session.
3) Keep EQ fairly high. Ideally, pumping should be giving you GREAT EQ, at least very good EQ. If your EQ is poor or dropping, probably you need to lower your vacuum levels.
After a conditioning period of a couple weeks, I think in general the more time you can get in daily pumping (I prefer water pumping) and NOT VIOLATE THE ABOVE three rules…the better!
In the beginning you may even want to start at 2-3 in hg and about 5 minutes. If you first work up to 20-30 minutes by going up 5 minutes a week, and starting at 5 minutes. So week 1=5 min. Week 2=10 minutes. Week 3=15 min etc.
Watch your EQ and keep good notes of what you are doing and the results you observe including your EQ (read the thread, people MISTAKENLY believe its just how hard you are). If you get up to 30 minutes and all is good, now start to move up by 1 in hg each week until you begin to violate rules 1-3. Make a note where EQ and all the rest started going bad, and go back to the best results you were getting with vacuum and time. This is your starting point.
I tend to believe daily routines are best, but its not a hard and fast rule…some do great at 3X /week. However, I think daily may have many advantages. I do 5 days a week and weekends off, but that’s just my preference.