Buckfever's progress report/bananaman story.

11/21/2017 Update

The new extender arrived and I started the sessions up again and while I noticed I could get back to max tension, the duration of the sessions was cut in half. I think it’s because the springs are fresh and are applying more tension. But also I’ve missed many days in the last few weeks due to conflicts so it’s hard to know for sure.

Nevertheless I’ve backed off on the tension to get the duration of the sessions back up and will slowly rebuild the tension. My experience on this, FWIW is that the sessions need to fall in that 45-60 minute time period to be effective, or more specifically 30 minutes at the max tension of the session.

11/30/2017 Update

Missed 14 out of the last 33 days and yet somehow was able to coax things back to the Max tension with the new extender and get an hour long session in today. So we are poised to add length to the extender, I just need to consolidate this level (if I can be somewhat consistent) for a few weeks. Main takeaway - stick with it- do what you can.

12/6/2017

Eight days in a row, now at Max tension for 65 minutes. Very close now to consolidating and adding length to the extender. This has taken a long time but I’ve been very inconsistent. Discipline!!!

12/8/2017 update

Was able to get 10 days in a row. Added 1/4” bar to the extender. Will take tomorrow off and startup with the new length on Sunday.

To continue with the update as I was interrrupted, this past interval since the last addition of a 1/4” bar was 98 days, which is pretty long however it was my most inconsistent period in which I missed 24 days. So really it took 72 days of effort or about 10 weeks, 3806 total minutes.

By contrast the last interval only took 6 weeks but during that time I only missed 2 days for a total of 2884 minutes. To me what that says more than anything is that once you’ve deciphered the parameters of the sweet spot - not too easy/not too hard - what matters then is consistency.

What I discovered during this last run is that I would make progress but then give it back and I repeated the cycle. It got easier each time to be sure, but what was missing was the consistency to consolidate the progress.

Anecdotally, I am not of the opinion that the effort is additive regardless of how it’s done and I think that’s why IMO the results vary widely. Too little intensity or duration nothing happens - too much intensity/duration you hit a wall.

In my mind the best example that I can relate to is post accident rehab. The effort has to robust enough to stretch through the scar tissue adhesions resulting from injury but you don’t want to overdo it to the point that you reinjure or injure yourself anew and set yourself back. I think that is the best metaphor I have for the “sweet spot” and then as in rehab progress comes down to consistency.

Reading through my log it was my intent to measure after I got to max tension at this length, but right now based on what I’ve experienced my thinking is to carry on a half inch past my initial goal to consolidate. Because based on what I’ve experienced I think that’s what it would take to cement that goal. So 2 more 1/4” additions beyond this and then we’ll measure. I’m not really thinking past that, I remain focused, but I am aware of what the consensus view is on the matter. I will look at it in earnest then.

There was a little interruption in the leaning out process but we’re back on it!!!

One final thought and one that I stumbled on. While the positive feedback has continued, I have however been able to gain some cover by changing the narrative from “it’s so big” to “you’re so tight”.

I’ll have to remain creative.

12/13/2017

It seemed like adding the 1/4” bar was a bit too much so I played around with the various bars and was able to change that to about a 1/8” increase and that right off seems to be working out better. Could be from this point forward with the newbie gains gone the increments will be smaller. Looking forward the holidays will be challenging so I’m just reconciling myself to the reality that this will be a maintenance period.

Just some more thoughts on the inflection point past newbie gains, it’s just a stark reality. It’s certainly helpful to have something down that is working, but also with that is the knowledge of how slow a process this will be henceforth. Got to have the right strategy, the right mindset.

12/15/2017

So the 1/8” increase in extender length is working out great, getting in 55 minute sessions with 50% max tension and will get into the routine of incrementally increasing duration and tension at the new length. I think from this point forward we’ll have to go with the smaller 1/8” length increases so I’ll have to see if what I have will work or if I have to fashion a solution. Maybe a trip to the local PE store - Home Depot. LOL

Went commando yesterday for the first time and was definitely hanging better, especially when I woke up this morning. I suspect the tissues learn to relax so over time you would tend to hang better. That said by the end of the day my unit felt like it took a beating. Couldn’t very well make adjustments in the presence of clients so I’m not sure what I’m going to do. We’ll see.

Now one of the arms of the new extender stripped so I suppose it was good that I bought the same one as I was able to replace it with parts from the old one. On the other hand I was thinking that maybe I should have bought something of better quality but the cost is pretty low and it’s working fine for me so I may just buy another for parts.

Reviewing my log it seems pretty clear that the period of fastest gains was when I was consistently getting multiple extender sessions per day and averaging close to 10 hours per week. So while I do think that a higher tension approach requires less time, even so there is a definite point of diminishing returns, a threshold of minimal time that is necessary.

I think that is useful information as there are times throughout the year when I will have that opportunity and we’ll have to make hay when the sun shines.

12/29/2017

Really not much to report, the holidays do not lend themselves to consistency. Just doing what I can.

On the leaning up front have really ramped up the cardio to minimize the holiday damage and on 1/2/2018 I’ll take a weight and go on a hard cut to lean up - so far so good.

I took a look at my parts for adding length and discovered that by mixing and matching various rod lengths I can fashion 1/8” increases. My goal remains to add 5/8” to the extender and then take a max extender stretched length for comparison. That’s the goal for 2018. Still not allowing myself to think past that.

Working 4 tens has showed me something about sleep. I’ve been tracking this and have found that workouts post good sleep are much better in terms of the tension that can be handled as well as the duration. My conclusion is that good sleep equals better healing and leads to better sessions and results.

I’ve been wondering about hydration too but haven’t really examined it.

Feedback:

“I don’t think that’s going to fit it’s too big” ” I don’t know why that was so intense”

Stealth mode remains.

That’s all for now happy holidays!

Correction, I misread my log, the goal is to add 3/8” to the extender from this point, consolidate the gain and then take a measurement.

This has been an interesting read Buck.

Thanks for being so diligent in your reporting.

Continued success in the new year,

SVP

Thank you! Yes lets make it a year of success!

1/8/2017

Missed 6 out of the last 9 days due to a lack of privacy but should have better opportunity for the next month till I have to travel. Started back up today and plan to exert better discipline on PE and all aspects of self improvement. This is to include PE, aerobics, strength training and following a meal plan. Let’s get it!!!

1/12/2018 Update

So six days in a row now so back on track, starting with very little tension increasing the duration and then increasing the tension.

One of the things that I picked up from some of the regulars here is the need for meticulous precision. And while I had closed the noose on tension, duration and frequency it was pretty haphazard mostly the outside limits. What is too much, what is too little? It’s the in between that I hadn’t really parsed.

Gradual incremental progress, how do I measure what do I look for?

1. Duration.
Anecdotally for the duration of the session that is easy, when glans starts developing cold/numbness, that’s the limit for the duration.

2. Tension
How much tension to apply? On the front end check if the glans starts to collapse from the tension, on the back end see #1.

But how to measure? So I discovered that the limits on the extender at a set length are 70 half turns. So it becomes very simple to think in terms of percent of max tension. 7 half turns is 10 %, 21 is 30% etc.

So with that I’m thinking in terms of duration and days at a particular percent of max tension and I can develop/follow an incremental gradual protocol.

Today for instance I was at 80% of max tension and managed 51 minutes. I want the sessions to be at least 45 minutes shooting for an hour, so either I stay at 80% and see how it goes or I back off to 70% till I get the duration to 60 minutes. But any way you look at it there’s much greater precision to this framework.

What I really want to do is develop a protocol so that when I add length to the extender, there is a specific schedule that I follow. So if I add length to the extender, maybe I start at 10% of max tension and see how long it takes to get to 60 minutes and then go to 20% and see how many days need to be spent there etc and in this way develop a little more discipline to the process. Because right now it’s extremely haphazard.The log already gives me some insights in to this, I have come to know that I need about 10 days at max tension and duration for it to stick so that I’m ready to increase length. We just got to figure out the rest of it.

Meal plan discipline is real good now and the holiday weight is coming off. We got some real good examples here of guys that are ripped and that’s definitely inspiring to me. The aerobic and strength training workouts are going great and the PE is back on track.

Let’s get it!!!

1/13/2018

60% Max tension, 60 minutes. Next time we up the tension slightly. Glans is slightly out of condition, not used to the longer sessions, doesn’t like the last 5 minutes but that should work out.