T Nation

My EDT Routine: Feedback Requested

Bodybuilding
#1

I have been following 8 weeks of 5X5 with doing front squats 3X a week…I am planning to change the workout routine…I still have some fat to loose.I was looking to follow one of this routine:

  1. Lose The Fat, Keep The Strength: http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459309

  2. The EDT Fat Loss Solution: Lose 1/2% Fat Per Week With NO Dietary Changes! one with hybrid lift (hardcore Rambo training) www.staleytraining.com/static/articles/articles/EDT-for-fat-loss.htm

I am planning to go with the second one because of time restriction and also I do not want to go for singles at this moment…will increase load if able to achieve more than 60 reps.

I have decided to use following exercise selection based upon :

  1. equipments I can use without having to switch places as I work in commercial gym.
  2. I also want to stress on shoulder endurance.
  3. Do not want to add any isolation stuff.

from top of my head It should look something like this.

Day One:
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Front squat
A2 Bent over barbell rows

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Single hand dumbbell snatch
B2 walking lunges

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 Jumping pullups
C2 squat jump --> calf raises

Day Two:
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Deadlift
A2 DB push press

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 close grip bench press
B2 Leg raises

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 DB split jerk lunge hybrid --> Bulgarian split squat
C2 seated cable rows

Day Three :
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Power cleans
A2 Front squat

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Single leg RDL
B2 reverse lunge

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 Sumo deadlift pullover hybrid
C2 Lateral lunge and touch

Just looking back at this scares me a bit will do a 1 week trial to find appropriate load and exercise selection…at present it looks like too much push and pull in vertical plane…any suggestion/comments highly appreciated.

Edit: Made two changes in my routine. change denoted by -->

#2

Here is a helpful link for doing your pairings:

From my experience with EDT you can become limited by the time it takes to move from one exercise to another as well as likelihood for injury. In other words, when I did front squats I tended to take a few more breaths because there was greater possibility to screw up then say when I would do reverse curls.

In your day 1 & 2 you have some heavy pairings. From the article above, you may either want to have only one heavy pairing or one heavy exercise with one more body weight.

Three PR zones each day may be asking more than your body can deliver.

Good luck. It seems a bit much to me. I would cut it back some.

#3

this is way too much in my opinion namely that single leg/ single arm exercises are paired according to right left in EDT format… so single arm DB snatch is performed as one PR zone with A1 being right and A2 being left (or vice versa) as would be lunges

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Single hand dumbbell snatch
B2 walking lunges

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Single leg RDL
B2 reverse lunge

so these should actually be two separatec PR zones

also i think u just straight up have way way too much leg work

#4

thanks a lot for the comments…that link was very helpful…yea I believe my legs can endure lot more than my upper body…

today I tried few PR zone and I must say power clean & front squat combination was deadliest…I felt like puking after those…but after 5 mins I was recovered so I took another big combination of Deadlift and push press…weight was not much heavy so I was able to do them without issue…

My main emphasize was that I do full ROM on each rep with minimum sacrifice of form…

I think I can nail 3 PR in one workout if i rearrange tough exercise with simple one…

I am thinking of leaving Power clean out and doing 1 session of front squat per week only…

#5

Ok… First week on EDT over, felt pretty good and was able to get away with sore hams and glutes, too much leg work indeed but i feel I can do it. Modified routine to:

Day One:
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Seated rows to neck
A2 Lateral lunges.

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Pushups
B2 walking lunges

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 Jumping pullups
C2 DB squat and press

Day Two:
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Deadlift
A2 DB push press

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Single leg RDL / Single DB press

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 Bulgarian split squat
C2 seated cable rows

Day Three :
First PR Zone (15 Minutes)
A1 Front squat
A2 BB bent over row

Second PR Zone (15 Minutes)
B1 Sumo deadlift High-pull
B2 Crossover lunge

Third PR Zone (15 Minutes)
C1 Close grip bench press
C2 Leg raises

I am having a feeling that along with fat loss I maybe able to achieve a strong posterior.

#6

Finally 6 week of hell is over…last workout was really tough…I was having slight fever and there was no chance of me doing any workout for 3-4 days so I decided to go for it as i didnt’t want to miss the last workout. My observation :

– I was stuck at same weight for a long time but after this I noticed a drop of around 5 Kg in 6 weeks. So I am pretty much happy :slight_smile: I observed most noticable loss in weight during 3rd - 5th week.

– First 2 weeks was all huffing and puffing…but by 3rd week I got used to the intensity.

– Paid lot of attention on my form on DL’s and squat, speed was compromised a bit though.

– As for muscle gain I can see a clear defination in my back and shoulder.

– After 6 weeks though my legs are hurting real bad but I don’t see much improvement there. So I feel heavy weights works best for lower body.

– I also tweeked my approch a bit. In the first PR i empahized on strength trying to stay in rep range of 40-50. In 2nd PR I tried to use a mid line approch and try to hit a range of 50-60 and in 3rd I try to hit 65+ reps on both exercise…

– 3 15 min PR was definately a bit too much and it required lot of concentration. next time I will go with one heavy compound exercise followed by 2 10 min PR.

– EDT was definately fun and I really enjoyed it…esp the looks of people in the gym.

– Taking a much needed 1 week rest and then planning to go back on a conventioanal strenght building routine…

– I still have some fat to loose maybe will try complex this time…

#7

If EDT worked for you and now after going through it you maybe learned some things to tweak it and make it even better for you why not take some time off it and go back to it? I think a lot of people have the mentality that this worked so well let me do something else that might not work as well?

Keep doing something (with modifcations, don’t do the exact same thing as you just did) but keep to the principles until they stop working. When the results stop then change, but if the results are good keep going with it.

#8

Hotcarl… love your avatar.

OP… yes. Too much. EDT is HARD!! It will be er… VERY HARD with exercises such as front squats, walking lunges and DB snatches… Promise.

Have a trial week and see how it goes… after day one expect to make the changes :wink:

Joe

#9

Hi OneMoreRep,

Agree with you…but the above routine was real hard for me and i went the extreme way to get past the plateau. Doing a simillar thing again maybe too much of a good thing :slight_smile: what I am planning is to go for a 8 weeks of strength based routine with 3 day for lifting heavy and 2 days for BW circuits and after that cycle back to EDT. But still you have a point :slight_smile:

and joe, yest it was hard and i had to make some changes to get past 6 weeks :slight_smile: