note: This won't work for everyone with hard flaccid / chronic pelvic pain syndrome (HF is often a symptom) - from reading around some people seem to suffer through this problem for months, if not years. However, as somebody who had the condition to a mild degree and managed to get rid of it in under 4 weeks - with 4 days of 'active' recovery - I want to shed some light on what might help for you, and hopefully provide some psychological comfort to those freaking out (as I truly believe a huge part of the problem is mental). I think this problem is likely more frequent with beginners than imagined, but many people just recover relatively quickly and get on with it. Even if this isn't the case I want to provide some lessons learnt for newbies, because there's advice been given out there on other websites (this one not so much) which leads to the problems.
My advice for anybody who wants more information would be to look at the long (300+ pages) thread on this site about hard flaccid, and follow the advice laid out by Voodoo and Orbitto (sp?).
My Experience and Lessons Learnt
For me this problem started due to auto-regulation. This forum suggests slowly building up from low volume / intensity and paying attention to PIs (i.e. the way you react to training). This advice is golden. However, on other leading PE forums, a certain high profile coach advocates a high volume program built around auto-regulation. I.e. if you are responding well to the volume then don't take a rest day. Don't, under any circumstances, as a beginner (or even somebody who's done less than 6 months of training) do this.
As somebody with a great deal of experience in physical training for sport I should have ignored this advice, but I didn't, and this is where I ran into problems. Within 2 weeks of training I started increasing the volume with positive PIs happening day after day and I was witnessing fantastic results. Until one day I woke up and that was it: no warning, no pain. Just a shrivelled up, hard, limp and cold dick with a tingling towards the base down to my pelvic floor, tension in my PC muscle, and basically no signs of life.
So following on from the advice of the coaches on this site, sure, follow your positive PIs, but also pay attention to everyone giving you advice not to go too hard too soon. Build the volume slowly. Don't add any 'advanced' exercises, or even start off doing the entire JP90. Finally, my own advice would be to keep that pelvic floor relaxed! If you're a clencher especially, stop doing it and start focusing on reverse kegels before you kegel normally again.
What I did next
When I realised that I had a problem ~4 weeks ago I didn't know what hard flaccid was. I realised that something was going on with my pelvic floor but that was it. Once or twice that first week I spent ages playing around until I had light, dead feeling 60% semi (with absolutely no blood in the glans) and just decided to leave it and wait. Through the second week still nothing. I quit watching all porn (I'm not big on it anyway), and didn't masturbate. At this time my mindset was completely calm. This is important. I had distractions going on elsewhere, but beyond slight annoyance I simply didn't think or worry about the situation. I got on with my life as normal.
Into the 3rd week and I still wasn't improving: no morning wood, no spontaneous erections. So I started stretching my pelvic floor and hip-flexors. I'd do basic stretches, deep breathing and relaxation techniques, reverse kegals, and I'd sit on a lacrosse / tennis ball for 10 minutes at a time. I also started reading up on the condition a bit, and saw just how many people seemed to be in complete despair over this condition. This is where you really can't afford to suddenly start worrying. This is a phenomenon which happens all the time on the internet when it comes to a medical condition: hysteria. This is also the main reason I'm making this post instead of getting back to my progress log. The reality is that the people who recover quickly, or hardly suffer from a problem aren't going to be thinking about posting about it online. With any illness when you go online you begin to see a cycle of panic, and despair, and it makes the problem much worse for yourself. In my case, I still didn't care at all, I just figured that I needed to fix it.
I kept up my routine for 4 days, and also kept up the no-porn / no-fap / no panic situation. I was as relaxed as possible. I eat very cleanly and work out a lot as it is, but I introduced omega-3 in higher doses, niacin, zinc and l-arginine to my diet. I began noticing my flaccid penis seemed to be returning to normal. But I still had symptoms: a tight, weird tingling feeling in my pelvic floor (as if my 'inner penis' was pulled into my body) and no erections. If, for example, I felt horny, my dick would get a little bigger, but still basically be completely floppy. If I played around with it it might get to 50-60%, but the corpus spongiosum (the bottom part) would seem to be very flat, and only the base of my penis and the area below that (in pelvic floor) would feel engorged.
It was on day 5 that I actively got annoyed. I still wasn't worried, but I was incredibly frustrated with the situation and basically sat down at my computer, fired up the porn, and, over an hour, mentally willed my penis to fix itself. That's the only way can I describe it. I sat there and took deep breaths down into my stomach, and put 100% focus into getting an erection. It wasn't easy. At around 60-70%, the usual period in which things would all go wrong, I had to really grind it out (this sounds ridiculous now with a working penis, but seriously, I mentally had to almost go into a trance). It took a long time but eventually it was back.
Now here's where it really got interesting: my penis was .5" longer both bone pressed and npb than it was pre-injury. The girth was the same, but that 'tight' feeling in my pelvic floor had gone and I'd somehow gained a considerable amount of length. I initially wondered if it was a result of abstaining for almost 3 weeks, but since that day those gains have stuck around.
Week 4: Full Recovery
In the 5 or so days since I 'recovered' I've continued taking supplements, focused on keeping my pelvic floor relaxed, doing reverse kegels, and stretching out my pelvic floor and hip flexors. I'm now having multiple erections per day, and can easily get it up. Additionally, it's bigger than ever and my glans fill up more than they ever have. What I surmise as the cause of this is that I've always kept my pelvic floor contracted during sex and masturbation most of the time, and I'd keep it tight as a force of habit a lot. When I started PE I was always keeping it tight, and, with the edition of lots of kegels, I think I somehow over tightened my pelvic floor and my nervous system kept the floor on lock. To get it off lock you need to completely relax, and in order to do this you can't be anxious. You also need to get more in tune with your pelvic floor. For the first 2 weeks, when I did absolutely but remain calm and not touch anything, I didn't really improve at all.
Once I started stretching and learning how to reverse kegel, in combination with being completely relaxed the entire time about my situation, I was able to recover well within a week of active recovery, and am now completely sorted (and then some). Interestingly enough, a lot of the cases I've read about online seem to be far more mild than my own: I literally didn't get a single erection in 2 weeks. I'd get horny and just get a weird semi. If you're still getting moderate erections and morning wood you're in a good position to get this fixed quickly. The take away from this though is that you need to be mentally solid. My past experiences and knowledge about hysteria when it comes to online diagnosis, distractions in my personal life, and a calm, 100% belief that there wasn't a concern made this very easy to get over.
Get it into your head that this isn't a permanent problem, and isn't even necessarily a long term problem, and you'll be on your way to sorting it out.
If anyone wants any more advice PM me. I'll check in a couple of times per week.
TL;DR / Summary + Prevention
-Fixed hard flaccid in under a week (1.5 weeks full recovery, 2 weeks elapsed until I started working on active recovery).
-The key was a solid mental state throughout, staying very relaxed, and learning how to relax my pelvic floor (went from being a clencher to now no longer doing it).
-My key physical exercises were:
-Supplements:
-Finally got over it by a 1 hour refusal to accept the situation. If you've ever played in an intense competition, or have been under intense pressure in doing something and put yourself into that zone where you simply can't fathom failure that's basically what happened. There is no doubt a physical element to this problem, but you can't overstate the mental component.
-To prevent this from happening to you:
My advice for anybody who wants more information would be to look at the long (300+ pages) thread on this site about hard flaccid, and follow the advice laid out by Voodoo and Orbitto (sp?).
My Experience and Lessons Learnt
For me this problem started due to auto-regulation. This forum suggests slowly building up from low volume / intensity and paying attention to PIs (i.e. the way you react to training). This advice is golden. However, on other leading PE forums, a certain high profile coach advocates a high volume program built around auto-regulation. I.e. if you are responding well to the volume then don't take a rest day. Don't, under any circumstances, as a beginner (or even somebody who's done less than 6 months of training) do this.
As somebody with a great deal of experience in physical training for sport I should have ignored this advice, but I didn't, and this is where I ran into problems. Within 2 weeks of training I started increasing the volume with positive PIs happening day after day and I was witnessing fantastic results. Until one day I woke up and that was it: no warning, no pain. Just a shrivelled up, hard, limp and cold dick with a tingling towards the base down to my pelvic floor, tension in my PC muscle, and basically no signs of life.
So following on from the advice of the coaches on this site, sure, follow your positive PIs, but also pay attention to everyone giving you advice not to go too hard too soon. Build the volume slowly. Don't add any 'advanced' exercises, or even start off doing the entire JP90. Finally, my own advice would be to keep that pelvic floor relaxed! If you're a clencher especially, stop doing it and start focusing on reverse kegels before you kegel normally again.
What I did next
When I realised that I had a problem ~4 weeks ago I didn't know what hard flaccid was. I realised that something was going on with my pelvic floor but that was it. Once or twice that first week I spent ages playing around until I had light, dead feeling 60% semi (with absolutely no blood in the glans) and just decided to leave it and wait. Through the second week still nothing. I quit watching all porn (I'm not big on it anyway), and didn't masturbate. At this time my mindset was completely calm. This is important. I had distractions going on elsewhere, but beyond slight annoyance I simply didn't think or worry about the situation. I got on with my life as normal.
Into the 3rd week and I still wasn't improving: no morning wood, no spontaneous erections. So I started stretching my pelvic floor and hip-flexors. I'd do basic stretches, deep breathing and relaxation techniques, reverse kegals, and I'd sit on a lacrosse / tennis ball for 10 minutes at a time. I also started reading up on the condition a bit, and saw just how many people seemed to be in complete despair over this condition. This is where you really can't afford to suddenly start worrying. This is a phenomenon which happens all the time on the internet when it comes to a medical condition: hysteria. This is also the main reason I'm making this post instead of getting back to my progress log. The reality is that the people who recover quickly, or hardly suffer from a problem aren't going to be thinking about posting about it online. With any illness when you go online you begin to see a cycle of panic, and despair, and it makes the problem much worse for yourself. In my case, I still didn't care at all, I just figured that I needed to fix it.
I kept up my routine for 4 days, and also kept up the no-porn / no-fap / no panic situation. I was as relaxed as possible. I eat very cleanly and work out a lot as it is, but I introduced omega-3 in higher doses, niacin, zinc and l-arginine to my diet. I began noticing my flaccid penis seemed to be returning to normal. But I still had symptoms: a tight, weird tingling feeling in my pelvic floor (as if my 'inner penis' was pulled into my body) and no erections. If, for example, I felt horny, my dick would get a little bigger, but still basically be completely floppy. If I played around with it it might get to 50-60%, but the corpus spongiosum (the bottom part) would seem to be very flat, and only the base of my penis and the area below that (in pelvic floor) would feel engorged.
It was on day 5 that I actively got annoyed. I still wasn't worried, but I was incredibly frustrated with the situation and basically sat down at my computer, fired up the porn, and, over an hour, mentally willed my penis to fix itself. That's the only way can I describe it. I sat there and took deep breaths down into my stomach, and put 100% focus into getting an erection. It wasn't easy. At around 60-70%, the usual period in which things would all go wrong, I had to really grind it out (this sounds ridiculous now with a working penis, but seriously, I mentally had to almost go into a trance). It took a long time but eventually it was back.
Now here's where it really got interesting: my penis was .5" longer both bone pressed and npb than it was pre-injury. The girth was the same, but that 'tight' feeling in my pelvic floor had gone and I'd somehow gained a considerable amount of length. I initially wondered if it was a result of abstaining for almost 3 weeks, but since that day those gains have stuck around.
Week 4: Full Recovery
In the 5 or so days since I 'recovered' I've continued taking supplements, focused on keeping my pelvic floor relaxed, doing reverse kegels, and stretching out my pelvic floor and hip flexors. I'm now having multiple erections per day, and can easily get it up. Additionally, it's bigger than ever and my glans fill up more than they ever have. What I surmise as the cause of this is that I've always kept my pelvic floor contracted during sex and masturbation most of the time, and I'd keep it tight as a force of habit a lot. When I started PE I was always keeping it tight, and, with the edition of lots of kegels, I think I somehow over tightened my pelvic floor and my nervous system kept the floor on lock. To get it off lock you need to completely relax, and in order to do this you can't be anxious. You also need to get more in tune with your pelvic floor. For the first 2 weeks, when I did absolutely but remain calm and not touch anything, I didn't really improve at all.
Once I started stretching and learning how to reverse kegel, in combination with being completely relaxed the entire time about my situation, I was able to recover well within a week of active recovery, and am now completely sorted (and then some). Interestingly enough, a lot of the cases I've read about online seem to be far more mild than my own: I literally didn't get a single erection in 2 weeks. I'd get horny and just get a weird semi. If you're still getting moderate erections and morning wood you're in a good position to get this fixed quickly. The take away from this though is that you need to be mentally solid. My past experiences and knowledge about hysteria when it comes to online diagnosis, distractions in my personal life, and a calm, 100% belief that there wasn't a concern made this very easy to get over.
Get it into your head that this isn't a permanent problem, and isn't even necessarily a long term problem, and you'll be on your way to sorting it out.
If anyone wants any more advice PM me. I'll check in a couple of times per week.
TL;DR / Summary + Prevention
-Fixed hard flaccid in under a week (1.5 weeks full recovery, 2 weeks elapsed until I started working on active recovery).
-The key was a solid mental state throughout, staying very relaxed, and learning how to relax my pelvic floor (went from being a clencher to now no longer doing it).
-My key physical exercises were:
- Deep Breathing (into the belly, focusing on lightly pushing into a reverse kegel)
- Deep sumo-squats (weightless), heavy deadlifts, bulgarian split squats (weightless), cossack squats, lots of groin / hamstring stretching.
- Sitting on a hard chair with a tennis ball / lacrosse ball / juggling ball on pc muscles for 5-10+ minutes
-Supplements:
- L-arginine
- Omega 3 (1.8-3mg per day)
- Zinc (20mg)
- Niacin (500mg)
-Finally got over it by a 1 hour refusal to accept the situation. If you've ever played in an intense competition, or have been under intense pressure in doing something and put yourself into that zone where you simply can't fathom failure that's basically what happened. There is no doubt a physical element to this problem, but you can't overstate the mental component.
-To prevent this from happening to you:
- Stop clenching your pelvic floor so much, and focus on reverse kegels. I theorise that the cause for many people's HF when they start PE is that they have 'clenched' a lot throughout their lives without much in the way of reverse kegels which has caused a pelvic floor imbalance. Once they've introduced PE, and exercises which actively cause a lot of pelvic floor activation (if not direct kegeling itself), this imbalance becomes far worse and causes their pelvic floor to 'lock on'.
This is all complete conjecture, but from what it felt like to me, and from the numerous reports I've read of other people's symptoms, I think this is very much a possibility.
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