E.D.T.
Escalating Density Training
Mr. Skeptical looks over my shoulder, sees my writing, and laughs. I look up questioningly.
He shrugs his shoulders, “When I saw EDT, I thought maybe you were going to talk about erectile dysfunction therapy.”
“No, not my area of expertise.”
“What the heck is escalating density training then?”
“It’s the most underappreciated workout in the fitness world.”
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Subconscious Fat at 30,000 feet
Escalating Density Training (EDT) is a powerful workout technique that challenges the muscles, maximizes workout efficiency, and stimulates muscle growth and fat loss. It’s a method that focuses on doing more work in the same amount of time, progressively increasing workout density.
Mr. Skeptical chimes in, “Sounds like just another way to torture yourself at the gym. What’s so special about it?”
“EDT isn’t about torturing yourself; it’s about maximizing results efficiently. It’s a technique many bodybuilders use for a few weeks before a competition.”
“Why only for a few weeks before a competition?”
“Many bodybuilders will work out the body’s common push and pull muscles. On a push day, the muscles worked out are the chest and triceps. Pull days involve the biceps and back.”
“Ok. Why is it done that way?”
“Dividing the workouts into push and pull allows the blood to flow to those muscles during the workout, helping to maximize muscle growth. I’ve spoken about this before; see my post here. However, in EDT, the opposite is done.”
Subconscious Fat at 10,000 feet
Mr. Skeptical asks, “Why would someone want to do the opposite of trying to get maximum muscle growth?”
“Because bodybuilders use push/pull workouts to gain bulk. But then, 2-4 weeks prior to a competition, they’ll need to get cut or shredded. They want to burn off as much fat as possible to look perfect on the day of competition. So, they want to mix in weight training with a little more cardio to increase the fat loss component of a workout. This is what EDT does.”
“EDT is good for weight loss?”
“Yes, it’s fantastic for weight loss. It’s what I start most of my online clients on to lose weight yet maintain muscle. Since my typical client is a man over 41, he usually wants to lose some belly fat but not any muscle. So, EDT is perfect for that.”
“Well, stop trying to sell it to me. Tell me how it works.”
Subconscious Fat at Eye-Level
“It’s straightforward. You take two antagonistic exercises (a push and pull) and do five reps of each back and forth for 10 to 15 minutes. For example, one might do five dips (a push exercise) and five pull-ups (a pull exercise.)
Mr. Skeptical’s eyes widen. “10 to 15 minutes without stopping?”
“Yes, this makes it also a cardio workout, but one that lets you keep your muscles.”
Mr. Skeptical puts his hands up. “Sorry, but this sounds like torture to me.”
“It’s not easy, which is why one starts with only 10 minutes and slowly builds up to 15 minutes.”
“Do you always have to do five reps constantly?”
“No, and that’s the point. The five reps should be about half of the maximum reps. Eventually, as you keep going, you cannot keep doing five reps, so you do 4 or 3. This makes one reach muscle failure multiple times.”
“Yeah, because I can’t imagine doing five reps the whole time.”
“No, you can’t, and that’s the point. What’s happening there is that the blood flow is moving constantly back and forth from the push muscles to the pull muscles. This creates high cardiac output, burning a lot of calories. Yet the crazy thing is that one can keep going longer because lactic acid doesn’t get a chance to build up too much in one group of muscles.”
“What does lactic acid do?”
“When too much lactic acid is built up in a muscle, you get that burning sensation.”
Mr. Skeptical smiles and flexes his arm. “Yeah, but that also lets you know you have a good pump going on.”
“True. But in EDT, because the blood is flowing back and forth, the lactic acid doesn’t stay put in one group of muscles, so you do more reps without the common muscle burn and fatigue.”
“I’ll bet you’re sore the next day.”
“Yes. You’ll feel it the next day if you went all out.”
Practical Suggestions and Conclusions
This workout is not for the faint of heart. One must be committed to going all out when doing it, which is why the first two to four workouts should only be 10 minutes.
Mr. Skeptical’s face distorts, “I don’t know, I like to lift a lot of weight and then take a break. Going back and forth like that seems too much for me.”
“I’ll admit it’s not an easy workout. The key to success is to document all the reps you do. Then you end up competing with yourself, which is the ideal.”
Mr. Skeptical gets up and walks back and forth like a caged tiger. “Well, I like to show authority on the gym floor. To show who’s the boss. I like to slap on heavier weight near others so they can see what I can lift.”
I roll my eyes, ignoring him. Don’t be like Mr. Skeptical. The best thing you can do is to only compete with yourself. If you want to retain as much muscle mass as possible but lose those last 5-20 pounds of fat, then EDT is the best workout you can do to get shredded. Of course, you still must eat right.
Be aware.
PS Links in Facebook and Instagram. Full disclosure: Chat GPT was used to research and enhance this post.
PSS I’ll be doing a LIVE Instagram workout starting this Tuesday, July 16th, at noon Eastern time. @HermannDiehl