People frequently call into question the legitimacy of Charles Staley’s unique EDT method.  The method truly isn’t that outrageous.

Allow me to explain it to you.  Your muscles do not know that they are getting worked out to grow bigger.  All your muscles know is that they are moving against a resistance.  And if the resistance is stronger than what they’re used to, they will need to grow larger and stronger to be able to handle it.

All your muscles know is adaptation.

This is the main concept of Escalating Density Training.  Let me give you an example. On week one, you bench 15 reps of 200 lbs.  This causes your muscles to “get ready” for the same workout the following week.

However, next week you do 20 reps of 200 pounds.  Your muscles again will repair and build to be strong enough for 20 reps of 200 pounds the following week.

Every time the resistance is raised, your muscles have no choice but to adapt by getting bigger and stronger.  When your muscles have adapted to the high amount of reps, you can up the weight to force more adaptation.

There is an old analogy regarding suntanning that we can relate to here.  If you want a complete tan, you need to start out small and build a base. After that you can slowly increase your exposure to the sun.  It’s the same concept when exercising.

However, the amount of increase counts on the base you developed.  You can only advance at the rate your body is capable of so you’re not overworking which is counterproductive.

This is a valuable lesson you’re learning right now about effective exercise.  Unfortunately, people oftentimes apply this principle incorrectly.

This is a real problem with a lot of training programs. There is no systemized method for raising work load. With Escalating Density Training, the whole premise of the system is on systematically increasing workload.

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