AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

It’s going on three days, and I still have some sore spots on my glans, which is still a bit beaten-up looking. Looks like I pushed things too fast again. Well, it took longer this time, so there’s some progress there.

The New Improved Plan is to let things heal, then go back to very light weight and work up more slowly. There were no signs of blistering or distress until my time-under-tension stretched out into the five hour range. I was looking more at weight than time; apparently that was the wrong way to do it.

Today is Day 1,303 since I started PE, and Day 373 since the last decon cycle, which was a full 30 days. And incidentally, it is Day 483 of the current keto cycle.

Since almost all my work is with the pump or cap-and-sleeve, and vacuum-based PE is off the table until my glans is back to normal, this looks like a good time for another decon.

Since it just glans, can jelqing still give you trouble?

It’s hard to jelq without at least running part of my hand over my glans. I’m just going to leave it alone for now.

My Tetra aquarium pump bit the dust. It would pull a maximum of 4.5" Hg when new. Last week it would only pull 3.5", and it sagged slowly down until all it did was make the needle on the vacuum gauge quiver.

I took it apart and wiped out some lube that had migrated in, but it didn’t help. The diaphragms appear to be fine, but I couldn’t get the caged check valves apart. I’m going to soak them in hot soapy water for a while and see if that helps.

Comments online said the pumps normally lasted about two years, which is about how old mine is. Normally a pump blows air continuously at very low pressure. With the valves reversed for suction, it’s working much harder, even though I only use it an hour or two a day.

Tetra has repair kits on their web site for $16, but no way to get a price on shipping until you create an account. I thought that kind of assholery had mostly gone away. The same kits are on eBay and Amazon, at anywhere from $20 to $45. Uh-yeah.

Meanwhile, I dug out the Spectra S3 breast pump. The first one would pull about 2.5" Hg. This one pulls way more than that; I moved the bleed valve from the Tetra over. Then I spliced in a check valve. With the check valve, the Spectra will pull 17" Hg. Yowza! Connection tubing volume and free space in the pump tube have a big effect on the pulse range; I twiddled the bleed valve so it peaks at 5" and drops to 3", which averages out to the 4" I was using with the Tetra.

My shaft likes the pulsing; I get erect in the tube, and have a large flaccid later. I suspect it’s just the novelty from the pulsing, though. A few weeks of usage will tell.

I’ve been running the Spectra breast pump with a check valve and bleeder valve, setting the vacuum at 5", a bit over what I was using before the Tetra pump began to fail.

The pulsing of the new Spectra and check valve arrangement is *much* different from the steady pull of the Tetra, or even the old Spectra that wore out. I’ve been using it for a week. I still get wood inside the tube, and a chub for most of the day. No edema or other problems. I wish I’d given it a spin months ago.

The old Spectra had a built-in shutoff at 20 minutes. The new one is 30 minutes, which is what I was using on the Tetra, with a timer box I got from eBay.

Ten days with the new Spectra with the check and bleed valves.

My shaft *really* likes the pulsing compared to the steady pull of the Tetra pump. I get hard shortly after entry, and have a chub all day. Time-to-edema seems to be about the same as the Tetra pump.

I keep expecting that my shaft will get used to it and quit responding like this, but for now I’m very happy.

As a side comment, I will say that my little 700 gph Tetra outdoor pump has been amazingly durable. It’s lasted for ages, through highs and lows of temperatures. The worst is that I have run it dry for 6 to 8 hours straight many times, and it comes back online perfectly fine. Go, Tetra!

Mine was used when I got it, and lasted a long time. It’s a simple AC electromagnet with a couple of permanent magnets on springy arms. (it’s the two-port/double pump model) There are rubber diaphragms attached to the arms, and some check valves. Tetra sells a repair kit for about $16, new diaphragms and check valves. I could buy it off the Tetra web site for less than I could get it through eBay or Amazon, shipped-to-my-door price.

I’ll get around to fixing it, mostly because having to reset the Spectra every half hour when pumping my balls is annoying.

I had a "procedure" done this morning. I described it here:

Cystoscopy

Ouch bro. Just reading this procedure makes me picture some Dr evil maniacally laughs while twisting a grotesque instrument inside of you. Im probably going to sleep with my hands on my dick to make sure it stays attached…wait I do that all the time

For reals, I am sorry you went through this pain.

It didn’t hurt *that* bad. It just pissed me off because there was no need to be so rough about it.

It’s 24 hours in a few minutes, and it’s still sore where he rammed it past my prostate.

Yesterday was Tuesday, and Gym Buddy canceled. I went anyway. Did the usual treadmill and leg press machine, plus the lat pulldown machine. This time I skipped the rowing machine and recumbent bicycle and did some curls with the fixed-weight curl bars, and some dumbbell work. I have better equipment at home, but it was near freezing, and "shivering" isn’t one of my favorite exercises.

The leg press machine - I’ve been calling it a squat machine, but I found it’s properly called a leg press - is a bit awkward to use. It has fixed footboards that force your legs wide and toed-out at angles that are uncomfortable. I can’t press as much weight with it as I can with a proper free-standing squat under a barbell. On the other hand, it doesn’t involve freezing my cojones off to use it.

I tried a couple of new things. I successfully used the jump rope a dozen times, tangling my feet less than half the time. Before you laugh, a year ago I was getting about very slowly with a cane, except on bad days when I was on crutches. My knees complained a bit about the jump rope, but I think most of it was from simple clumsiness. It’s amazing how difficult it can be for an adult to pick up new motions. I’ll start using the rope every time, now that I know it won’t wreck my knees.

There was a contraption that I finally figured out. No moving parts. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a frame that you climb up on, then rest your weight on elbows and forearms, with your legs hanging free. You can hunch up and down with your lats or draw your legs up. Not very exciting, but that was two things couldn’t have done earlier this year. I’m not sure it’s a particularly useful device, but I was happy that I could make use of it.

I restarted the Starting Strength novice program this afternoon.

My week off turned into six weeks, as such things are wont to do. The temperature hit 60F today, so I hit the iron instead of doing auto maintenance.

I was surprised I had lost very little on the bench and dead lift. However, I wasn’t able to do any low-bar squats. My right shoulder protested too much even with a spread-eagle grip and high bar. I’ll be working with the plastic pipe several times a day for a while, trying to get the mobility back.

Unable to shoulder the bar, I did a dozen body-weight squats, then three sets with the bar held in front. I still couldn’t rack it properly - shoulder mobility again - but I could hold it steady enough at throat level. No surprise; that was my problem with power cleans before I took a break. The right shoulder gave me hell with the bench press, too. I’m going to go back to the "lots of light reps" routine with the cable machine and dumbbells; that worked before. I guess I have found out that I can get my shoulder working, but without maintenance it will seize up again.

My knees complained about the squats and deadlifts, but just to be annoying; less pain than before the break. I’ve been hitting the treadmill and leg press at the gym three days a week after putting the barbell aside, and it has helped. I think the walking backwards thing on the treadmill has been the most effective part, even if it looks ridiculous. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing a quarter-mile at a time at 1.5mph while listening to A.E. van Vogt’s "Voyage of the Space Beagle" on the mp3 player. Going backwards puts noticeable stress on my hips and lower abdomen as well as my knees, but it seems to be helping.

I was doing a ton of "accessory" exercises before the break, which was probably the major reason I hit the overtraining wall. I’m going to try to avoid that this time. But I really like lateral pulldowns for some reason. I had done 110 pounds - 7 plates - on my little cable machine’s lateral pulldown mode. The first set of 5 was so easy I moved the selector to 8 plates - 122 pounds. That was nice, but I moved the selector to 9 plates - 134 pounds. Heavy, but not a problem. That’s all the little machine will do, though. It only has 9 plates.

The gym has a lateral machine that goes up to 200, but it uses arms that swing down with handgrips instead of a cable and yoke, and due to the path of the arms, you wind up leaning mostly horizontal at the bottom of the stroke. And since the arms are set at a toed-out angle, your arms wind up spread out pretty far. I find it awkward and uncomfortable to use.

The flexible NIR wrap showed up yesterday.

My first NIR lamp is basically a 56-watt floodlight bulb with an array of fingertip-sized LEDs. It screws into a light fixture and runs on 110v. I have an articulated desk lamp attached to a shelf near my bed.

The second NIR lamp is an LED panel, maybe 6x18 inches. It came with a hefty transformer and plugs into 110v. It has what look like the same LEDs, except more of them.

I use the floodlight when pumping; one area per session: left, right, top, bottom. I mostly use the panel on my abdomen and left leg, but sometimes on the shaft/balls.

I wound the flexible wrap around my pump tube and took it for a spin last night. The wrap has an array of small, square LEDs and runs off a USB cable. I plugged it in to a spare phone charger adapter; 1.5 amp at 5 volts.

I wasn’t expecting much, considering the low power draw. The wrap has five power settings; of course, I started on the highest one. I’ve forgotten to turn off the panel a few times and gotten a slight "sunburned" sensation afterward. I got this with the wrap, more noticeable on my balls, which also got a session. The same thing happens with the panel.

So far, I’m impressed. It seems to have more cowbell than I expected. Now to see if this helps gains… the big factor here is that I probably don’t use the lamp or panel more than a few times per week, whereas I can use the wrap every day.

Sounds awesome! Which one did you buy? Fully assured you have done your research properly to get the right wavelengths and power.