Maximizing Inflations

You probably don't want to maximize your self, just keep going till you feel uncomfortable then stop. You don't need to be putting internal organs too close to the line of danger.

Try muscle relaxants. Not alcohol, but lavender oil and (seems to be prescription-only in some jurisdictions) a herb called Viburnum opulus work quite well - up to 5ml of the 1 in 5 tincture. Warm baths are also effective. It can also work better if you introduce air, then let it out again, then put a bit more in. Going slowly also works well. I also find that sort of meditating on expansive thoughts seems to help, but that may be a subjective thing.

Empty bowels, certainly. Also, don't do it after fasting, but do wait until about five hours after eating. The stomach will have adjusted to food and still be receptive to expansion. Actual food in the stomach is a risk.

Be careful with this advice. I know that in some places, Vib op is prescription only, for instance in Italy i tried to get it once and couldn't because i didn't have the documentation with me which would prove my profession. Here in the UK, it's general sales list and there are no suggestions that it shouldn't be right now. However, and i can't emphasise this too strongly: PAY ATTENTION TO THE DOSAGE ADVICE.

Viburnum opulus and Viburnum prunifolium, both work the same basically, can be found from herbal suppliers. It's also known as European cranberry bush in North America. Over here, it can be found all over the place growing by paths in places which have been left to go back to nature. You need the bark (don't ringbark it though!), which must be dried and then you can decoct it (bring it to the boil and simmer for say half an hour). It's also known as snowball tree, guelder rose and water elder, and it has bunches of berries like rowan or elder. However, you really would be better off ordering it or buying it OTC, in order to avoid making a mistake and poisoning yourself, unless you're really confident about identifying it.

A couple of references for you:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viburnum_opulus

Mrs Grieves:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/gueros44.html

I can't be more specific about where to get it from because the chances are you're not in the same country as me. However, i can tell you that it's the best safe smooth muscle (i.e. organ walls) relaxant i've ever used, and i can get a lot bigger without any cramps when i use it. It also relaxes skeletal muscle, so that helps with the abdominal wall.

If you can't find it, i imagine Californian Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) would work quite well, but if you're wildcrafting it, be careful not to mix it up with something like Greater Celandine, which is fairly toxic. There are also a number of much more toxic herbs which would work, but they're pretty nasty things and you'd probably end up dead if you used them. Extracts from those are injected in colonoscopy, but that's a job for professionals and they don't relax skeletal muscles as well as Vib op.

Lavender works quite well too, and you can massage it into your belly before you start.

When i say a warm bath, i might mean what you mean by a hot bath. I don't mean tepid.

There is a similar species from coast to coast in southern Canada, which may or may not work, called Viburnum trilobum, or the Highbush Cranberry. I don't know much about it. I'm not aware of a tradition of use among First Nation peoples (can't believe we're discussing this here - it's so surreal!). It grows in the south, i.e. British Columbia to Newfoundland. Viburnum opulus is naturalised in North America, but again i don't know where it grows. It does exist, like a lot of other native European herbs, because European settlers took it over with them, then it spread.

It sounds like your best bet would be lavender, which is a shame because Vib op is bloody marvellous stuff for this purpose. I really must be the only person in the world who uses it that way.

Well, I have been doing it since I was 14, and am 24 now. When I first started I barely had a bulge and now I can get a beachball belly. Which is a HUGE improvement. I wish I had a picture from when I was 14 to show you just how drastic of a difference I grew into. I still have relatively the same body type. I would say from experience that it can take about a year to get really good at inflating and once you start to learn how to do it from experience you will gradually get larger and larger.