I've seen a lot of questions lately on warm-ups, and wanted to give my theory on this subject. Keep in mind that these are only my views which I will attempt to back up with scientific data. I am in no way suggesting that you should not warm up or otherwise take my view on this subject as scientific fact. I only offer this information so that each individual can draw their own conclusions and use this information as they see fit for themselves in their own PE routine. My intent is not to cause a debate, nor is it to offend those who believe in warm-ups.
At present time, I have been PEing for 2 months. I have used my own routines and have been quite aggressive (I regularly do clamping, ULIs, Horse Squeezes, Supra Slammers and a host of other exercises that most would deem as unsafe for someone with such little PE experience). I have never sustained any kind of injury, and I have never warmed up for any of my routines. I have a very strong belief that warming up does little to nothing to prevent injuries when it comes to PE. I work in the chemical industry and work with thermodynamics almost every day. I am very knowledgeable in heat exchange, conservation of energy and all other thermodynamic principles that would apply to pre-PE warm-up.
First, lets talk about what the goal of warming-up is. Many believe that by heating up the soft tissues of the body, they become more elastic and therefore less susceptible to injury. Improved blood flow is another desired effect of a warm-up. While there is some truth to the notion that warmer tissues are slightly more elastic, improving blood flow actually works against warming up the tissue. The problem in not in the reasoning of warming up, it lies in actually heating up the tissue sufficiently enough that the desired effect is obtained. I am going to attempt to show why this is nearly impossible with currently used methods.
Transfer of Heat
Many people believe that by putting a 115 degree rice sock on their male parts, that they are heating those parts up to 115 degrees. This is not true. Heat will move from hot to cold, at an increasing rate as the temperature differential increases. For our purposes, temperature differential (usually referred to as "Delta T") is very important - keep this in mind.
What happens is that depending on the mass of the two objects that are thermally bridged, the temperature will reach an equilibrium between the two temperatures. For example, assume you have 2 glasses of water both half full, with one glass containing water at 100 degrees and the other glass containing water at 120 degrees. If you pour these two glasses of water together, you should end up with 1 full glass at 110 degrees. The warmer glass did not bring the cooler glass up to its higher temperature - an equilibrium was reached which was between the two temperatures. Since the mass of both glasses was the same, this equilibrium is exactly in between the two temperatures.
When it comes to warming up for PE, we have to consider the temperature differential between the warm-up heat source, and the body. For simplicity, lets say that the body is 98 degrees, and the heat source is a rice sock at 120 degrees. We only have a 22 degree differential to work with, which means that if we attempt to heat up an equal mass of soft tissue with absolutely no losses, the maximum we can get the tissue to is about 111 degrees. Of course, even this is impossible as the rice sock will lose much of its heat to the atmosphere.
We also have to consider the masses involved. While a rice sock is pretty sizable, it has low density and low mass. When it comes to the body, you have to consider more than just the mass of the penis and the fat pad. You also must account for all the mass of blood that flows through that entire area through the warm-up period. Lastly, thermal resistance of soft tissues has to also be considered (its R-value). If you put a hamburger on a hot plate, see how long it takes for the top side of the hamburger to warm up - you may be surprised!
The human body
Now lets discuss the human body. The body regulates heat through convective cooling (dilation of blood vessels), and evaporative cooling (sweating). This is why blood vessels dilate - to increase blood flow and carry the heat away. While I won't argue that there are health benefits from having increased blood flow - when it comes to warming up, the increased blood flow is doing nothing more than trying to cool the area back to normal temperature. In fact, because of blood flow, it is very hard to heat internal structures such as the ligaments. With the low grade heat being applied and the low differential temperature, the blood moving through the area can carry the heat away almost as fast as its applied. If you use a cloth soaked in hot water, you also have additional evaporative cooling happening at the surface of the skin. The chances of heating internal structures more than a degree or two in 10-20 minutes is very slim. Even if you do heat them up, normal temperature will be restored almost immediately because of blood flow, and the heated tissues reaching equilibrium with surrounding tissues. Simply put, a minute after removing the rice sock - your internal structures are likely back to a normal temperature.
Test it out
You can test this out yourself with nothing more than a faucet that has hot water available and an infrared thermometer (the kind that gives you instant readings from your ear). We need a small cross section of soft tissue to work with... Look at the webbing between your thumb and your index finger. This is a very thin area of soft tissue to do a test on. Use your infrared thermometer to take the temperature of this webbing on both sides (the back side of the hand, and the palm side). Now start a fairly slow trickle of hot water from the faucet, and insert your hand into the stream palm-side down. Tilt your hand so that the water runs down the back of your hand and does not contact the palm-side of the webbing directly. Leave your hand in this position for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove your hand and immediately take the temperature of the webbing where the water was contacting. Its temperature should still be elevated. Now take the temperature of the opposite side of the webbing (where the water did not contact). You should see very little to no temperature increase. By the time you check the webbing back on the other side again (where the water was contacting), you will also see that it returned to normal temperature very quickly.
I personally did this test. The webbing between my thumb and index finger isn't much more than 1/4"-1/2" at most. Even at 10 minutes of continuous hot water (water that never cooled off by losing heat to the atmosphere), the heat was barely able to transmit through even this tiny cross section of soft tissue. How on earth is someone's ligaments behind 1" of fat pad going to heat up during a warm up session (also realize that fat has a higher thermal resistance than other soft tissues)? The blood flowing through all the capillaries and blood vessels in the skin were able to carry most of the heat away as fast as it was added. Head that wasn't carried away directly by blood simply conducted to surrounding cooler tissues.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that while there is nothing wrong with warm-ups (they are quite soothing in fact, and the temporary increase in blood flow carries in more nutrients which makes it a overall healthy practice), it is not very effective in providing the desired result in making your tissues more elastic and resistant to damage from the stresses of PE.
(I could go in to much more depth, but just wanted to put a simple explanation out there)
Any thoughts or criticisms?
At present time, I have been PEing for 2 months. I have used my own routines and have been quite aggressive (I regularly do clamping, ULIs, Horse Squeezes, Supra Slammers and a host of other exercises that most would deem as unsafe for someone with such little PE experience). I have never sustained any kind of injury, and I have never warmed up for any of my routines. I have a very strong belief that warming up does little to nothing to prevent injuries when it comes to PE. I work in the chemical industry and work with thermodynamics almost every day. I am very knowledgeable in heat exchange, conservation of energy and all other thermodynamic principles that would apply to pre-PE warm-up.
First, lets talk about what the goal of warming-up is. Many believe that by heating up the soft tissues of the body, they become more elastic and therefore less susceptible to injury. Improved blood flow is another desired effect of a warm-up. While there is some truth to the notion that warmer tissues are slightly more elastic, improving blood flow actually works against warming up the tissue. The problem in not in the reasoning of warming up, it lies in actually heating up the tissue sufficiently enough that the desired effect is obtained. I am going to attempt to show why this is nearly impossible with currently used methods.
Transfer of Heat
Many people believe that by putting a 115 degree rice sock on their male parts, that they are heating those parts up to 115 degrees. This is not true. Heat will move from hot to cold, at an increasing rate as the temperature differential increases. For our purposes, temperature differential (usually referred to as "Delta T") is very important - keep this in mind.
What happens is that depending on the mass of the two objects that are thermally bridged, the temperature will reach an equilibrium between the two temperatures. For example, assume you have 2 glasses of water both half full, with one glass containing water at 100 degrees and the other glass containing water at 120 degrees. If you pour these two glasses of water together, you should end up with 1 full glass at 110 degrees. The warmer glass did not bring the cooler glass up to its higher temperature - an equilibrium was reached which was between the two temperatures. Since the mass of both glasses was the same, this equilibrium is exactly in between the two temperatures.
When it comes to warming up for PE, we have to consider the temperature differential between the warm-up heat source, and the body. For simplicity, lets say that the body is 98 degrees, and the heat source is a rice sock at 120 degrees. We only have a 22 degree differential to work with, which means that if we attempt to heat up an equal mass of soft tissue with absolutely no losses, the maximum we can get the tissue to is about 111 degrees. Of course, even this is impossible as the rice sock will lose much of its heat to the atmosphere.
We also have to consider the masses involved. While a rice sock is pretty sizable, it has low density and low mass. When it comes to the body, you have to consider more than just the mass of the penis and the fat pad. You also must account for all the mass of blood that flows through that entire area through the warm-up period. Lastly, thermal resistance of soft tissues has to also be considered (its R-value). If you put a hamburger on a hot plate, see how long it takes for the top side of the hamburger to warm up - you may be surprised!
The human body
Now lets discuss the human body. The body regulates heat through convective cooling (dilation of blood vessels), and evaporative cooling (sweating). This is why blood vessels dilate - to increase blood flow and carry the heat away. While I won't argue that there are health benefits from having increased blood flow - when it comes to warming up, the increased blood flow is doing nothing more than trying to cool the area back to normal temperature. In fact, because of blood flow, it is very hard to heat internal structures such as the ligaments. With the low grade heat being applied and the low differential temperature, the blood moving through the area can carry the heat away almost as fast as its applied. If you use a cloth soaked in hot water, you also have additional evaporative cooling happening at the surface of the skin. The chances of heating internal structures more than a degree or two in 10-20 minutes is very slim. Even if you do heat them up, normal temperature will be restored almost immediately because of blood flow, and the heated tissues reaching equilibrium with surrounding tissues. Simply put, a minute after removing the rice sock - your internal structures are likely back to a normal temperature.
Test it out
You can test this out yourself with nothing more than a faucet that has hot water available and an infrared thermometer (the kind that gives you instant readings from your ear). We need a small cross section of soft tissue to work with... Look at the webbing between your thumb and your index finger. This is a very thin area of soft tissue to do a test on. Use your infrared thermometer to take the temperature of this webbing on both sides (the back side of the hand, and the palm side). Now start a fairly slow trickle of hot water from the faucet, and insert your hand into the stream palm-side down. Tilt your hand so that the water runs down the back of your hand and does not contact the palm-side of the webbing directly. Leave your hand in this position for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove your hand and immediately take the temperature of the webbing where the water was contacting. Its temperature should still be elevated. Now take the temperature of the opposite side of the webbing (where the water did not contact). You should see very little to no temperature increase. By the time you check the webbing back on the other side again (where the water was contacting), you will also see that it returned to normal temperature very quickly.
I personally did this test. The webbing between my thumb and index finger isn't much more than 1/4"-1/2" at most. Even at 10 minutes of continuous hot water (water that never cooled off by losing heat to the atmosphere), the heat was barely able to transmit through even this tiny cross section of soft tissue. How on earth is someone's ligaments behind 1" of fat pad going to heat up during a warm up session (also realize that fat has a higher thermal resistance than other soft tissues)? The blood flowing through all the capillaries and blood vessels in the skin were able to carry most of the heat away as fast as it was added. Head that wasn't carried away directly by blood simply conducted to surrounding cooler tissues.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that while there is nothing wrong with warm-ups (they are quite soothing in fact, and the temporary increase in blood flow carries in more nutrients which makes it a overall healthy practice), it is not very effective in providing the desired result in making your tissues more elastic and resistant to damage from the stresses of PE.
(I could go in to much more depth, but just wanted to put a simple explanation out there)
Any thoughts or criticisms?

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