Originally Posted by Average_Joe1988
So am I getting this right? Going through cycles of stress on your penis will eventually cause the resisting fibres to fail, leaving you with breakage and resulting in length gain? When it says cycle, does it mean how many rounds or times you pull and hold in a particular direction?
With the stress load, I am trying to figure out which is better, high stress or low stress load, or sequent starting at low then high the more cycles you go?
Essentially yes.
And yes that is what cycle means. 1 repetition essentially. Like at the gym, one rep. One stretch of 30seconds. Then release and rest for half the time. Repeat. 30 cycles would be 30 reps etc.
To determine your optimal stress load you want to start a log and record your BPFSL numbers. You need 3-4 BPFSL numbers depending how many sets you do. Some just take 2 BPFSL measurements, beginning and ending.
I use 4 because I do 1 precondition set. So before anything I take BPFSL 0. This is before starting. Say it is 21cm. Then I do preconditioning 30min at 3kg. I take BPFSL1. Let’s say it’s 21.3cm. This BPFSL 1 will be your elastic limit. Essentially this means you have taken the elasticity out. This can also be called the “toe region” part of the stress strain curve.
Then you do your 1st set. For me I do 20min hang. I used to do “static” hang for my macro cycles 1-3, which means continuous weight. I increased the weight as you can see in my spreasheet. However, now I will incorporate the cyclic stretching/hanging because of theory 2. So I do US and IR for 10min. Then I cyclic hang with weight up to 8kg so far this cycle 4 for 10min. After this set is done I take another BPFSL 2 measurement. Let’s say it is 21.5cm. This is already in the transition region of the stress strain curve. AKA the “elastic region” maybe even in “plastic region” a little. Who knows.
Then I do one last set I heat for 10min IR and US and then manual stretches 30 secs on 15 seconds off, which is about 12-13 “cycles” at max grip power. I use my other arms wrist to fulcrum the shaft as well. Then I take the last BPFSL 3 (or T3, t is for time) and lets say it is 21.8cm. This I believe is in the “plastic region”.
You can see the attached graph for reference.
The point between the toe region and the elastic region I believe is called the “knee”. So you can find out what your Knee point stress is, what your yield point stress is (point between elastic and plastic region) and use those stresses accordingly.
But you need to log your numbers so you know where you are operating in the curve. Otherwise you can’t find out your ideal stress.
To answer your last question, use both. Low stress to precondition, which means attain the elastic limit or knee point. Then up the stress to attain yield point. Then you can increase further to obtain the plastic deformation. I do 3kg, then 6kg, then manual stretch or 8kg.
Increasing the weight over the cycle based on studies of hysteresis has shown to move the curve to the right each cycle as well. But so has using the same stress. So I would just use the same stress because you can record it easily.
When you load up to your stress do so at a slow rate of 1% to 5%/s of max load to minimize stiffness when loading. This means if your max load is 10kg, do so in 1-5% increments. Let’s choose 5% because it is more practical. You would increase 0.5kg/s until you reach 10kg. This means it will take you 20 seconds to load to 10kg to minimize stiffness. I respect this principle particularly during my precondition and 1st set. Then I feel the stiffness is not important and for cyclic stretching the loading rate is quick, or as comfortable as I want.
Attached you can also see a graph of hysteresis, which is the effect that happens when you cycle load something.