I plan on starting a compound EDT program in three weeks.
I’ve been training for powerlifting for about 9 months and I’d like to switch over to bodybuilding training for about a month to try and gain some mass.
Rather then just an A,B program I came up with an A,B,C,D program with A and C focused on upper body and B and D focused on lower body. This mixes up the exercises more which I prefer. I plan on doing 15 mins per set of exercises although I may cut that back to 10 mins depending on how it goes. This is what I currently have:
Mon
Bench Press/Pull Ups
Rows/dips
Tue
Hack Squat/Good Mornings
Glute Ham Raise (GHR)/Reverse Hyper
Fri:
Front Squat/Romanian Deadlift
Lunges/Rack Pulls
What I’m looking for is suggestions from people that have used EDT before. Specifically critiques on exercise selection and time, 10 vs 15 mins. Thanks in advance.
The beauty thing about EDT is that there really is no right or wrong. What you wrote looks fine. Give it a try and make adjustments. You might find a particular pairing might be too much. For example, when I tried to pair Front Squats and RDLs like you are, my lower back would tighten up way too much to the point of being painful, so next time I changed one of the exercises to lessen that.
As far as 10 vs 15 minutes, again, try both and see what feels better to you. I normally would do 2-15 minute pairings followed by 1-10 minute paring each training session. Sometimes I’d do 20 minutes. It all depends.
I also found for me that I can only do EDT for about 3-4 weeks max before I burn out on it. It can be a little rough on the joints too.
I’ve just started EDT and was going to do 2 x 20mins, but I ended up cutting them to 15mins as people were hovering and asking how many more sets I had left! I might change it up and do 3 lots of 10mins instead.
It obviously depends on what you’re using and how busy your gym is, but for example I found it was hard to use the rack for such an extended period of time. It’s hard to let anyone ‘work in’ when you are supersetting on this kind of session.
So yeah, just something to think about when you are deciding your pairings. Other than that it seems like a fun old time
My gym is never that crowded and since I’ve started Sheiko I regularly use a rack for an hour or more at a time and have never had a problem. I’m going to start with what I have and then possibly change it depending on how I like it.
I like to pair a big movement with a smaller movement over actual antagonists. Smaller doesn’t mean little.
My favorite pairings:
inverted row/db tri ext
front squat/ab roll out
any kind of chest press/any kind of curl
deadlift/db shoulder press
dip/rack chin
weighted push up/45* back raise or rev hyper
Then there are the right/left pairings
KB snatch
db row
1 leg squat
1 arm push up
I pretty much always used 15 min PRs. I used 10 min PRs on a couple occasions: when I did two smaller movements, like db curls and cable push downs, and when I did single exercise PRs, which is something I just goofed around with to see how many reps I could get.
EDT is a lot of fun. Just rest a lot, eat a lot, and beat that log book. Everyday you go to the gym, you know what you gotta do–very easy to focus.
