I am on my second week of EDT (with minor changes to the original program in regards to exercise selection), and I love it! I have my training log with me, and I know exactly what I need to beat each workout. The soreness is incredible. I feel pretty beat after most of my workouts, but I usually feel fine later that evening and the next morning. It’s not until the following late afternoon or evening that DOMS sets in, and then I know I kicked my own ass. I’m looking forward to making some great gains and helping to correct some imbalances. I’m going to take some “before” photos this weekend, and after about 8 weeks, I’ll go ahead and take new photos to rate my progress. This is just the kick in the ass I needed to get remotivated and training hard in the gym! EDT is the bomb!
Nate Dogg, I’m very pleased that you started this thread. This morning, Monkeyboy and I were actually discussing EDT.
I have a new trainee--as in brand spankin' outta the box never lifted a weight before Monday NEW--and I'm looking for a program for him. Right now, I'm just walking him through a full body circuit; basically I want him to learn proper form and get and idea of certain maxes.
I was looking at EDT earlier and I think it's a little harcore for someone so new; but please share your opinion.
Additionally, I'm currently doing 5x5, which I think I'll stay on for another 3-4 weeks. After that, I had been planning on using TC's Oscillating Wave program, as it seems to be a nice mix of strength and hypertrophy training. However, maybe I'll give EDT a shot instead. So many people have had great results with EDT.
Or, perhaps you or anyone else might know a good program to use after 5x5? My goal is to work back up to maintanence calories and build strength for a Christmas time bulking phase (ie I'll be home from school and food is free).
Please let me know what you think, and keep us all appraised of your results. I'm glad you're enjoying the program. Good luck with your training.
i’ve finally got to try EDT arm training for the first time monday. i fucking love it !!..back at it tomorrow…
Yeah, for a newbie, EDT may not be the best thing for them. Not yet at least! But after a few months of learning proper form and letting the body adapt, I think EDT would be a great way to go.
As for you, why not follow 5x5 with EDT? You can either tailor it for strength (as Staley’s newest EDT article is geared for), or more for hypertrophy (like the first three articles). I think it’s a great way to keep your volume high (I typically complete 8-10 sets of an exercise per 15-minute time frame, and I usually do 2-3 exercies per bodypart for a total of about 16-30 sets). So if you’ve been training with low volume, EDT will kick your ass!
Now, I’m sure many people will start bitching about the volume, but you know what? I seem to make better gains with moderate intensity and higher volume. Too many people have gotten into the low-volume approach and have stalled out. It really depends on your body and what it can handle. And I’m only doing EDT three times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri). Also, I don’t always get 8-10 sets per exercise during the time period. For certain exercises, I may only get 4-5 sets. So it’s not like I’m doing 30 sets for every bodypart. Anyway, I like it. I used EDT for a month back in April, and I liked it, but took a break from training and didn’t get to reap all the benefits. But I’m back on track now. And I’ll post new photos on the T-mag yahoo pix group to track my progress.
After the 5x5, Ko and I then went into a “Natural Bulking Program” that Joel was so kind in putting together for us. And we were experiencing fantastic gains on this program as well. It’s the type of program the 5x5 prepares you for. Another program to consider: the Renegade Bodybuilding. Ko and I are embarking on some sort of Renegade training now.
Someday, I will try the EDT program.....
I, too love the hell out of EDT. The only “problem” for me is I don’t seem to get hit with DOMS. How many total reps are you getting?
I average 60-65 reps per exercise, except for curls where I'm at around 45 since I go heavy...
If you can do 60 or more reps per exercise you need to up the weight. That should help bring back the DOMS a bit.
Trev, what are your goals right now and what will your goals be when you complete the 5x5 cycle? (i.e. fat loss, strength, hypertrophy, increased muscle tone, or a combination of the aforementioned?)
-JM
im on my 4th week of EDT now, just going to up the weights and let the volume crash accordingly, great programme, thing tend to get a bit frantic though when im 15 min into a 20min exercise and relise im going to have to strain my guts out to get more reps.
I did a month of EDT and liked it a lot. Very visible gains, no overtraining at all, short workouts. The only reason I stopped is that, having done EDT right after a Meltdown cycle I felt the need to get back into heavy weights to rebuild a bit of strength. (I don’t feel I lost it with EDT, but Meltdown uses such light weights that your strength levels suffer.) So I’m doing 5x5 during October.
I did the original 20-minute version of EDT last month with maintenance calories and plan to give the 15-minute version a shot with bulking cals in November (and maybe beyond). I agree with Nate that lower weights and more volume can be the way to go - IF the program is intelligently designed, which EDT certainly is.
Just as a suggestion, it might help if people posted their favorite exercise combinations here. I’ll start by saying that chest dips coupled with upright rows give a great upper body pump.
Oh, and for anyone thinking about trying the program, here’s a piece of advice: Don’t couple two large muscles together. I tried putting leg extensions and leg curls together, and even though neither exercise is considered a “killer” (like squats or something), just the fact that two large muscles were working at the same time gave me less than optimal gains on that combo. Next time I’m gonna take a leaf from the BodyComp program and pair both quads and hams with some relatively small upper body muscle instead.
Patricia, thanks for the input. Perhaps Joel will send me a copy of that program.
Joel, my goal when I started 5x5 was to increase both strength and muscle tone while losing a bit of fat. I've gotten pretty lean, but my diet is very low carb, and I am going to slowly introduce higher amounts until I hit about a 25/40/35 (c/p/f respectively) macro balance, as I've determined that works well as far as maintanence.
My goal one I'm finished with 5x5 will esstially be to keep increasing strength while possibly allowing my slowly increasing carbs and calories to allow for growth--which I expect will be minimal.
I'd like to gain some lean mass, but for some reason I feel it's unlikely that I'll gain much between now and my planned bulking cycle. Mainly I'd really like to be able to stay lean as my diet changes, and increase strength.
Thanks for all the suggestions and insight so far, everyone. I really appreciate it.
Jack, typically, I’m in the 40-50 rep range for most of my exercises. I have gone in the 60’s and 70’s for some, but I add weight the next workout so I’m not doing so many total reps. I think that will definitely help with the DOMS.
Char-dawg, I disagree about combining leg extensions and leg curls. I've been combining the two, and I get a great leg workout that way. Maybe you're going too heavy?? I also combine narrow-stance squats and stiff-legged deadlifts as part of my leg workout. I only manage four sets in the 15-minute time frame, but it is working very well. I'm using light weights since this is the first time I've squatted since April, but I do like putting them together. They really make me feel like I'm getting a good leg workout.
I don’t even have anything to add yet but wanted to rear my contorted little head onto this thread as all my favorite T-peeps are here. Yay.
MBE: “He’s all over the place, what an Asshole. - Airplane. Since 1978.”
-Eric
Good idea. Here’s a few of the combinations that I had good success with: BB Bench Press/Seated Cable Row (horizontal push/pull) and Standing BB Press/Chins (vertical push/pull) for the upper body. I didn’t train arms directly and yet they grew more than I remember them doing on any previous program I’ve followed in the last 10 years. For lower body I did: Squats/Standing Calf Raises (I agree that a small muscle group with squats is the way to go) and SL Deadlifts/Seated Leg Curls (hams were my weak point so I wanted to hit both of their primary functions in the alternating set combo – which worked very well).
You’d probably be best w/ sticking with a strength based program considering your goals and caloric intake; plus, you’ll continue to prime your system for your bulking phase. You may want to go go with Poliquin’s Training w/ Maximal Weights during this time; I’d rather see you leave EDT for a time when caloric intake is adequate to faciliate growth. Feel free to drop me an email,
Joel
Monty, let me know how the Ice works for you, I am very interested in adding bcaa to my diet, I have heard of great results.
Well, I was getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-90 reps (in at least 15 sets) over the 20-minute period, so I don’t think that going too heavy was the problem. I just would start to crash after about 10 minutes. Like I said, this didn’t happen with any of the other exercise combinations, all of which combined a large and a small muscle group, so I have to think that that was the problem.
I have to ask you about your squat/SLD combination. You get FOUR sets in 15 minutes!!! Not a flame, bro…it just seems like an awfully small number of sets for that time-frame - especially if you’re doing EDT weights. Are you rehabbing your knees or something?
Also, just thought of another mistake I made that the Forum can (hopefully) profit from NOT doing: I combined wrist curls with pulldowns. Not a smart thing to do, as your grip starts to suffer along about the 13-minute mark. I heartily recommend combining forearm work with some exercise that isn’t dependant on grip strength. Maybe I’ll throw forearms in with quads next time…
Yeah, you are getting many more reps than I am per time period. But you’re also doing 20-minute time periods, and I’m doing 15. I usually get 40-50 reps per time period which is typically about 8 sets per exercises. And for most of my exercises, I’m doing 5-8 reps per set (8 sets x 5-6 reps = 40-48 total reps).
As for squats and stiff-legged deadlifts, I’m trying to work through them quickly, but when I’m doing sets of 8-10 for both squats and deadlifts, it tends to slow my sets down. Not to mention that after I do the stiff-legged deadlifts, I powerclean the bar back to the rack so I can do my next set of squats. I end up taking about a minute or two rest. And yes, I am rehabbing my knee, so that’s another reason why I get so few sets in the 15-minute time frame. But I make up for it when I do leg curls/extensions, since I usually get 8-10 sets of each one. After the first month of EDT, I’ll switch up squats and stiff-legged deadlifts for leg presses and some other hamstring variation (glute-ham raises or dumbbell stiff-legged deadlifts, etc).
Nate Diggity Dogg! My number one Dogg, what the hell is up, bro!!! Drop me a line sometime, my man. Glad to hear that you’re kickin’ some major arse with your new P-L-A-N. Keep up the hella hard work…and give me a “Dayum” when you get a chance:-)
DAYUM! Timbo, bro, where have you been hiding? You’ve been MIA for so long that I figured you ended up a POW in one of those BFL contests! Bro, are you okay? Do I need so send some 4AD to my number one T-bro in order to get him juiced up and ready to go? I’d love to drop you an email dogg, but I don’t have your address anymore. My freakin’ computer blew up at home and I lost everything. So send an email my way, and I’ll be able to put your addy in my address book and hit you back. EDT is kickin’ it live. I just posted some “before” shots of myself that I took this weekend. You’ll have to check back in a while to see the new and improved Nate Dogg! Until then, hit me up brotha dogg! And let me know what’s up with my boy now that he’s in grad school! Don’t let those mofos get you by the balls. Peace out Timbo!