In Figure . 2b, the percentage of condensed counterions in x, ŷ, and ẑ directions are shown as a function of the deformation ratio λ. At λ = 0, the hydrogel is undeformed, and the ionic condensation levels around the chains aligned in all three directions are equivalent to each other within the error bars. The total fraction of condensed ions calculated by considering all chains is f ≈ 0.3 ± 0.02. Note that individual counterions near the chains change dynamically, but their average number exhibits a steady-state behavior (see Supporting Information Figure ). The condensation value for f is lower than the values estimated via the Manning condensation theory, which is f M = 1 -ℓ 0 /ℓ B = 1 -1/ξ ≈ 0.55 > f after assuming a Bjerrum length ℓ B = e 2 /ϵ 0 ϵk B T ≈ 0.7 nm for water and a thermal-energy value of k B T ≈ 4 pN × nm at room temperature. We attribute this difference to our choice of the condensation cut-off, d, since this value can alter the numerical value of f . Nevertheless, as we will discuss further in the next sections, our main conclusion is not affected by the methodology of counting the condensed counterions.