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Week of Aug 21-Aug 27, 2022 Summary
(Starting Aug 23. T-W-Th-F. 4 days on)

Date | Pre | Post | Strain
Aug 23 | 16.4 |16.6(.7?) | 1.22%
Aug 24 | 16.4 | 16.5 | 0.61%
Aug 25 | 16.5 | 16.6 | 0.61%
Aug 26 | 16.3 | 16.4 | 0.61%

There hasn’t been much of a change this week in terms of Pre gains or Post-workout Strains.

What I have gained though, is a better understanding of measuring my BPFSL and how easy it is to skew your results. It was something I noticed on Aug 24th. As I was measuring my Pre, I noticed that if I even angled my penis and ruler slightly lower, I could see an increase in “length” or where the measurement ends. The more I lowered it the more it increased, to an extent of course. I’d say anywhere from 1-5mm depending on how much you lower your penis and ruler. Lowering my penis made my measurements get bigger. And the opposite would happen when I went the other way too. If I lifted my penis up while measuring, the measurements got smaller.

So now I am questioning all my measurements since I started. I’ve taken dozens of measurements beforehand and during this Cycle and thought I had been methodical enough, but clearly not. Maybe whatever I thought were gains might have been due to the bias in my mind looking for a little more.

Maybe what I thought was stretching just a little harder, was actually me just ending up angling just slightly more downwards to get a bigger measurement. I try to stretch as hard as I can for my BPFSL measurements, so I don’t question myself later if I do gain and wonder if I had pulled just as hard previously. But maybe at a certain point my penis wasn’t stretching more and I was just lowering the angle of my penis/ruler to just etch out another mm or 2.

This week has been filled with disappointment, but also newfound knowledge. With it, more confidence going forward. I’ve always been unsure of whether or not I have been consistent with the way I measured my BPFSL, understanding the fickle nature of eyesight angles, and hip angles. Now realizing there is another factor in penis angles, I’m getting more confident in my measurement game!

For a protocol that measures such small increments (mm) in changes to know if you’re going in the right direction, I think this is an important issue to address.

1. Day to day fluctuations
Can be effected by stress, mood, and just randomness. But we look for the bigger picture and the longer term trend here anyways.

2. Glans engorgement
The size of your glans can obviously (sometimes not obviously) affect your BPFSL measurement, especially post-workout using a vacuum cup device. But that is easily solved by squeezing the blood out of your glans for both your Pre and Post measurements.

3. Squeezing of the glans
I’ve noticed when you squeeze your glans, it gets longer, and can skew your measurement. I have small glans. My fingers tend to slip onto my glans the harder and longer I hold my stretch. And the more my fingers grip get to the middle of my glans, the measurement increases approx. 1-2 mm. Not too much, considering you’re consistently putting pressure on your glans from the get go as you’re pulling your penis. There’s no avoiding some squeezing of the glans when pulling, but as long as it’s consistent with the way you’ve been doing it, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I’ve just attempted to reduce the variability in this by using a small paper towel wrapped around my shaft where I usually grip around my penis, it has kind of helped in reducing slippage. Though slightly more painful because now my coronal ridge definitely feels more pressure from the force of the pull and also probably the paper towels texture. Not unbearably so, though. Maybe the silicone toe shields that I used to use for my extender work would be better for reducing slippage.

4. Glans angle
I don’t know how others measure, but I measure using a half OK grip. Meaning, my index finger wrapped around w/ palms up, and my index finger meets my palm on the other side to form the grip, with my thumb out of the way to measure better. What I notice is when I start pulling harder I inherently pull my glans up to get better leverage as I pull so my fingers don’t slip. But that does make my measurement smaller. So when I finally measure I straighten out my glans to where it should be pointing(straight out) and I get a proper measurement again.

5. Eyesight angle
When you measure from a ruler, if you look at the measurement from too far back or too far forward the measurement is skewed, not accurate. Too far back, measurement is smaller than it should be. Too far forward, measurement is bigger than it should be. The goal is to have your eyesight as perpendicular to the end measurement as possible. Measuring from your natural head position won’t work as you are looking at your ruler from an angle. To achieve a more perpendicular eyesight angle I do this by only moving the top half of my upper body forward as needed, so neck and upper back(shoulders) forward. I try not to move my lower body or back, as I may end up bending my hips and skewing the measurements even more.

6. Pelvis/Hip angle
Have your hips too forward, or too far back, or even slightly either way can affect your measurements by a few mm. The goal here is to have as neutral of a hip angle as possible when measuring and consciously staying neutral as you are reading your measurements. I do this by moving my hips VERY forward, and then retracting back until I hit what I feel is neutral. It gives me an idea and quick reminder of what it feels like to have my hips forward and once I lose that feeling I know I’m around the neutral zone. I also have a big mirror that I have on my side to double check. My posture isn’t the greatest and I’m actually used to having my pelvis/hips slightly in a more forward position hence why I do it this way.

7. Penis/Ruler angle
The newest factor that I’ve just recently realized about. Lowering the penis/ruler increases your measurements. Raising the penis/ruler decreases the measurement. The goal is to measure with your penis as parallel to the floor as possible. For this, I again use my big mirror on my side to help me out.

7a. Ruler Angle (a deeper dive)
As mentioned in #4, the modified OK grip helps me measure more accurately. My ruler is closer to and more in line with my penis for a more accurate measurement, with only my index finger in the way. Doing a normal OK grip I wouldn’t be able to measure because my thumb would also be in the way causing too much of a change in ruler angle, it would be angled too upwards. And we know any kind of angle change can skew measurements. The goal here is have your ruler IN LINE aka as PARALLEL as possible to your stretched penis when you measure. And of course, the closer your ruler is to your penis, the more accurate.

#7 has been a game changer for me, after incorporating my solution to it with the mirror I feel my BPFSL measurements are as accurate as ever.

Sure, I have taken an ego hit, but now I feel I can truly start from scratch and be more confident in my gains when I measure them going forward.

Week of Aug 28-Sep 3, 2022 Summary
(Starting Aug 29. M-W-Th-F. 4 days on)

Max weight: 0.8kg

I kept the weights the same this week because I decided to swap out the Thermedic for the Totalman Heating Pad. What I’ve found was, using an infrared thermometer the Totalman heatpad gets way hotter than the Thermedic. I found the Thermedic I have only gets hot from those two little coils you can see and feel on each side, and I found one side of the Thermedic got hotter than the other.

The Totalman seemed more uniform. And way hotter, on Red reached temperatures between 48 C to 56 C based on my thermometer. On Blue it reached 43 C to 46 C which is still pretty solid too. It’s great also because you don’t feel any wires, but also a drawback because the entire pad doesn’t get heated you can feel a smaller rectangular area within the pad that is what actually outputs heat. So there is about 1/2 inch non heated space on the long sides of the pad, and more than 1 inch of non heated space on the short sides of the pad, where the velcro is basically.

I have one other issue, which is my penis’s stretched length isn’t long enough for the Totalman to only cover the shaft, so some of it covers the bell of the vacuum where my glans are. I’ve been able to scrunch it and tighten it so it’s mainly on my shaft, but I feel it’s also causing stretching pressure on my penis which I don’t want because I’m trying to put a certain amount of force on my penis and the pad is probably adding to it. I wonder if I could possibly cut off the non heated parts and make it smaller.

I had to take Tuesday off due to a busy day.

And I’ve decided to measure only once or twice a week. Definitely end of week measurements on the Friday. I just didn’t like how it affected me mentally measuring everyday. But also I feel I’m causing unnecessary toughening of my penis early on because I measure my BPFSL based on my hardest pull and multiple times a day for the Pre and Post. That’s probably not helping with trying to elicit gains and avoid toughening of the penis.

This week I measured twice:

Beginning of week Monday - Aug 29, 2022
Pre: 16.3cm
Post: 16.4cm
Strain: 0.61%

End of week Friday - Sep 2, 2022
Pre: 16.4cm
Post: 16.5cm
Strain: 0.61%

Week of Sep 4-Sep 10, 2022 Summary
(Starting Sep 5. M-T-W-Th-F. 5 days on)

Upped max weight by 0.2kg.

10 mins @ 0.5kg pre-stretch
40 mins @ 0.8kg heat
15 mins @ 1.0kg cool-down

Sticking with the Totalman Heat Pad as it heats the entire penis better and at higher temperatures.

Snapped my original wooden ruler by accident and had to order a new one. Same brand, but the new ruler I got looks like it might have a little more space (~1mm more) at the end of each side before the notches begin, at least compared to my old ruler. I’ll keep that in mind when measuring.

My new ruler on the CM side there is exactly 2mm of space before the measurement starts. My old one was slightly less. Keep in mind I’ve actually ignored the space and just recorded what measurement I’ve seen on my ruler this whole time. So all my stats are actually a conservative record of my measurements, and will continue to be. But its something I keep in mind, that I’m actually slightly longer than what I read on my ruler measurements.

Friday was measurement day

Pre BPFSL: 16.3cm
Post BPFSL: 16.3cm
Strain: 0%

I’ve been more diligent and stringent than ever with my measurements, always making sure my penis is parallel to the floor when I measure. Along with neutral hips and eyesight level, all that jazz. Like Scienceguy’s signature says “Measure for accuracy, not gains”. And I’d rather be realistic than fool myself into thinking I’ve gained.

It’s disappointing that I’ve seen no progress thus far. But I take this Cycle as a trial run, I’ve learned a lot doing this, especially about measuring more accurately. And yes, I’m aware I’m still hanging pretty light weights and I’m not anywhere near what my weight range should be according to Kyrpa’s calculator.

Speaking of Cycles, I’m going to end this cycle here and take a Decon break. I’ve done more reading in the US threads again and I’m grasping the concepts a lot better this time around. I feel more confident in using Ultrasound. During my decon I’ll be ordering one and setting up a new routine and getting some practice in before I start back up again.

I’m thinking of either following how Kyrpa and Igigi have done it with shaft OTL, or Tutt’s electronic extender device. The former definitely being a lower barrier of entry for me as I just have to get good on the technique with the transducer. Whereas the latter I’d have to figure out how to create a backing phantom, and also how to DIY my own Electronic Extender, on top of getting good with US transducer. I have no engineering or technical expertise but I’d be willing to try and learn how to make my own.