Escalating Density Training is a concept created by Charles Staley about 2 million years ago, give or take. The driving principle behind it is to perform a ton of reps at a moderately heavy weight spread out over a 15-minute work period. Pick 4 exercises for the workout and perform 2 of them in a circuit fashion for 15 minutes. Take a brief rest period and perform the other 2 exercises in a circuit for 15 minutes. You need to keep a log of the total number of reps completed and you need to beat the number the next time you perform the workout. You would be amazed at what you can accomplish in 30 total minutes.

 How much weight should you use? Pick a weight that is around your 10-rep max and keep the reps per set between 1 and 5. At first, you will feel like you are flying through the reps, but as you approach the 15-minute mark you will start to feel fatigue creeping in. Keep every rep as clean as possible.

When you can increase the total amount of reps by 20%, you will want to add about 5% more weight to the exercises the following workout. My favorite exercises for these circuits are, unsurprisingly, the big badass exercises like trap bar deadlifts, squats, rear foot elevated squats, sled pushes, rows, pullups, pushups and dumbbell presses. You should pair your exercises in a lower body-upper body circuit, something like a Deadlift and a pullup in the first 15 minutes, a sled push and a pushup variation in the second 15 minutes. Select exercises that you have mastered, high volume and working against a clock is a recipe for injury if you are working with a new exercise.

 Currently, I have my full-grown humans performing EDT training 2 days per week. The exercises have been selected based on clients goals, physical needs and abilities and exercise comfort. They love the change up from the “boring” stuff I normally have them performing and the internal competition the use of a stopwatch invokes