Call me anal retentive, but I find myself trying to analyze the hell out of EDT. It sounds logical as hell and I love using it, but you don’t hear to many elite bodybuilders or physique competitors professing its use.
Studying Coach Staley’s articles has drawn me to the conclusion that it covers all of the bases in a self regulating way (i.e. hypertrophy, strength, and power). If true, it’s the holy grail. Any thoughts?
Well, first off most pro bodybuilders realy don’t know crap about training.
As far as EDT goes, it’s a great system. It’s a little inconvinent for me to use at my “gym” (read retirement home) because of the setup, but the two times i’ve used it it worked very well. If you judge your workouts on how much pain you are in, this is a great program.
As far as overanalyzing it, get the EDT DVD from the coach. It realy goes into the theory and coach does a great job of explaining the program.
La’
Redsol1
I never heard of EDT until I got on T-Nation. So, if a bodybuilder never got on T-Nation, it would have to be heard through the grapevine. I’ve used EDT and I think its a great way to train. If I get stuck in a rut, I’ll switch to EDT training for a bit. I’m on a great program now and it is what works for me, so I’ll stick with it.
If I had to nitpick at something, its just that you are doing one type of training. I’m not saying EDT training is bad at all, but your body does have 3 different muscle fibers (slow, medium, and fast). Even though the fast twitch muscle fibers are the ones that should be worked the most, the slow and medium twitch muscle fibers need to be worked and, when worked, will give maximal muscle growth, IMO. That is why I do training that targets all 3 of the muscle fibers.
Medium Twitch? I always thought it was slow twitch and two variations of the fast twitch fibers.
Back to the point of the thread, EDT is great. Strength, hypertrophy, and an increase in work capacity - not too shabby.
Somewhere Staley has a post where he combined EDT with the Waterbury method. That was a solid program, but you have to eat and sleep a ton or it will wear you out.
he probably means type IIa
I’ve been giving EDT a try recently. I am not following an exact program on this site, but will do something like:
Working without a workout partner I find EDT is resetting my expectations of “work”. I’m driven to go back and forth between the two exercises with as little rest as possible.
Admittedly a bit of a bastardization, with what I see as a safe compound movement tossed in, but it’s fun, motivating and seems to be bringing progress with it. It’s a good switchup and I think it’s great to try it if you work out alone.
Anyone interested in the EDT DVD email me at julianne@edtsecrets.com and for the next 2 days for T-Nation readers only I will throw in the “Ultimate Guide to massive Arms-EDT” ebook with your order-Julianne
[quote]vroom wrote:
I’ve been giving EDT a try recently. I am not following an exact program on this site, but will do something like:
Working without a workout partner I find EDT is resetting my expectations of “work”. I’m driven to go back and forth between the two exercises with as little rest as possible.
Admittedly a bit of a bastardization, with what I see as a safe compound movement tossed in, but it’s fun, motivating and seems to be bringing progress with it. It’s a good switchup and I think it’s great to try it if you work out alone.[/quote]
That looks almost exactly like EDT for fat loss. A compound movement followed by EDT zone. I frikkin LOVE that routine. It is the shit.
[quote]andy bumphren wrote:
he probably means type IIa [/quote]
Yeah. Technically, there are 4.
“Type I are the slowest, smallest, and have the highest level of endurance of all the fibers. Next come the Type IIA, IID, and finally the Type IIB, which are the fastest, largest, and least endurance oriented in the group.” - quote from Iron Magazine editor
I dig it.
I see it as a very valuable tool for “normalizing” a trainee. What I mean by that is this: if you have been lifting 10x3 or 5x2 or 3x10 or ??? for a while - you know, focusing on primarily one of the strength qualities - EDT will rapidly balance you out.
EDT provides a shockingly new stimulus and is a great new weapon to keep in the arsenal.
For me, the conditioning aspect is unbelievable. I now feel like a lucky dog when I get to do programs that allow 60 or even 90 seconds of rest. What to do with all of that time? I have totally dropped cardio from my regime, yet I look and feel better and am in far superior shape. For slow twitch fat guys, EDT is paradise.
Another great advantage is flexibility. You can train just one movement for 15 minutes … or maybe 10 or even 20 minutes. Or you can do antagonistic pairings … or three exercises. You can train in the 60% 1RM range … or in the 90% 1RM range. Really, need I go on?
The metric is awesome. It is a total binary indicator of progress. You either improved … or you didn’t.
The simplicity of EDT is overwhelming.
I could go on for hours, but I actually think I will work today.
Bastard
I am in the 3rd week of my second three week training cycle of EDT and I am LOVING to hate it. LOL. I only wish I hadnt waited so long to give it a full body go.
You will sweat like never before.
LOL…
Give it a go. What could it hurt but a good case of DOMS.
Oh forgot the competition factor is Fun as well You Must beat that damn clock.
Also this second round I have been begining instead with an EDT zone with the big compounds I am using a suggestion By Charles and doing 10x3 followed by a 15 min and 10 min Pr zone. doign an upper lower split. Though I made awesome progress doing the three PR zones I was Beat the hell up after the three weeks. This is allowing me to be a bit fresher and still kicks my own, A#*
Heck, go away for a few days and you miss everything!
I’m definitely going to pick up that DVD soon. When you find something good, you have to try to encourage it…