EDT For Powerlifting
EDT, the short-term for the fancier, extended version: “escalating density training,” (whatever that means), has been a popular training method in the past but recently has circulated around our gym & other spaces. The need for cardio and work capacity becomes increasingly clear throughout your Powerlifting career, and the conversations around it are spreading.
The idea of the “Ideal Powerlifter” being an:
out of shape,
lacking lean muscle mass,
needing 10 minutes of rest between every single set and
can’t-get-through-volume-without-immediately-collapsing-individual-
is being broken, and for good reason.
The truth is, embodying these traits will not make you a great Powerlifter, and your ability to express your strength in the Big 3 collectively will suffer if this is your reality. You require some endurance, recovery time, hypertrophy, and general fitness- to be your strongest self & complete the training to get you there. This application is where EDT comes in. It opposes, in many ways, the typical concept of Powerlifting training, dismantling the theoretical box of what our sport entails. It’s time-based, gets you sweaty, it’s repetitive, you’re handling high levels of volume- and it’s precisely what many athletes need- at certain phases- during their careers. Not to mention, EDT provides tremendous mental benefits- helping athletes avoid burnout and refocus their priorities when maximal strength isn’t the number one goal. It can certainly have a meaningful role in Powerlifting training. While lifters may complain and groan in the moment, the truth is they’ll likely begin to crave the rush this training provides- at some point, even if they don’t want to show it.
What is EDT?
Before I continue to list the many benefits of this training system, let’s first define it.
“Escalating density training” implies that the workload you perform in your training increases over time. The goal is to progress your total amount done, emphasizing efficiency. The concept was coined by Charles Staley (more info on his method in this article). The intention encompasses effort, productivity, and capacity rather than strict sets and reps. EDT doesn’t confine you to a given volume. Instead, it allows the lifter to, in some way, decide that for themselves. In a prescribed timeframe- your goal is to accumulate as many sets as you can. You don’t focus on how many you’ve done or what’s ahead- you stay committed to the moment, go based on feel, and push your limits as many times as possible.
If things start to feel heavy, slow down, and fatigue catches up?
You can reduce some reps (i.e., going down from 5 to 3).
It helps us expand beyond the confinement we sometimes fall into when sticking with strict volumes and prescriptions. There’s a time and a place for sets and reps: they absolutely do matter, especially in certain cases (when you’re peaking or meet prepping or training for a specific number), but they aren’t the end-all, be-all every time.
The goal is focused work with as little rest as possible. You’re getting a lot done in each “block” you perform. To help you better understand, let’s go over what those blocks look like.
EDT pairings include both a superset and a timeframe. There are different ways to decide exercise selection here- with agonist or antagonist muscle groups. You can pair exercises that work the same muscle groups (to increase muscular endurance & time under tension) or with opposing ones (to increase recovery & load capacity). Both can work.
An example of each is as follows:
Agonist:
15 min EDT:
High Bar Squats-5 reps
2 ct Pause Hip Thrust (DB)-6 reps
The athlete will be given a percentage for the squat, performing as many rounds back-to-back of the two in the given period as possible.
Opposing/Antagonist:
15 min EDT:
2 ct pause Bench Press- 4 reps
DB Row-5/arm
This example follows the same style but with an opposite muscle group to the primary movement, performed in between. Programming this way could allow for heavier weights on Bench- compared to performing a lateral raise/tricep pushdown/push-up in between- you've got more recovery time.
EDT blocks can also follow for accessory work, usually with shorter blocks (6-12 minutes) and the same structure (such as a superset of cable rows & rear delt raises).
The goals of this training style, as a whole, are as follows:
get as much work done as possible within the allotted time frame,
remain focused throughout every set. Shut your brain off, be productive, and learn your capabilities,
Get in more volume than you would with typical training,
Build capacity & get used to performing greater workloads,
Maintain technique under fatigue, and stay tuned into how you’re feeling.
2. Benefits to Powerlifters
EDT allows one to build up qualities that many of us lack. It targets all of the necessary points that an off-season entails. When not focused solely on developing maximal strength, we want to promote modalities that improve our foundation- to continue pushing numbers in the long run. Because the focus of meet prep is specifically building our 1RM strength in the comp lifts, other qualities can get neglected, and that’s what the post-meet blocks are for.
EDT hits all of those points:
Hypertrophy (since you’re performing so much volume and training closer to failure, with great effort, you can build a lot of muscle mass),
Work capacity (the entire goal is efficiency: you’re performing much greater volumes than typical training, & doing so in a shorter time frame),
Tissue capacity (the higher volumes lend themselves to increased tendon & ligament strength),
Mental resilience (the training style and goals are so vastly different from what you’re used to, and it’s fucking hard. EDT challenges you. When you can build consistency in discomfort here, deriving accomplishment, you can do that with the things you love and are excited about),
Variety (we need some degree of variation to prevent stagnation- as stated by the Law of Accommodation. EDT serves that purpose with its change in rest periods, intensities, and volumes),
Technique Consistency (maintaining technique under fatigue is a challenge & EDT forces you to work on it).
Essentially, EDT helps us fill the gaping holes in (some of our) training, surrounding hypertrophy and work capacity, in particular. It provides a unique target to shift our vision surrounding our training and tie our brains to goals & outcomes that feel exciting in the moment, helping avoid burnout. It encourages variety, an important aspect that can get lost in the monotony of performing similar lifts and intensities for weeks and weeks with back-to-back meet preps. It’s an intelligent and applicable off-season solution to supply your needs at that moment- and develop them for the future.
Will EDT directly increase your 1RM strength in the squat, bench press, and deadlift? Likely not, it violates the law of specificity for, say, a meet prep program. But that’s not what “off-season” or “development blocks” are for. The purpose of these training phases is to widen your base and improve other non-specific qualities.
Instead, EDT WILL:
allow you to handle higher volumes in the future (and volume is an essential aspect of getting stronger),
help increase your resiliency against pain/injury (or at least, in a less drastic/detrimental manner), boosting your longevity,
help you build muscle (and a bigger muscle has the potential to become a stronger muscle),
improve your health/conditioning (so you can be a better athlete and enjoy more activities outside of heavy training),
develop your technique (so you can be more proficient and efficient at higher loads),
help you enjoy your training, and prevent burnout (so you can continue finding joy and success in this sport long-term).
These adaptations all improve your future training and goals, which can eventually produce PRs when the time comes. I think there’s something revolutionary about Powerlifters breaking past their current norms and self-imposed restrictions and exploring a new world that enhances their development. EDT can provide that.
3. When to program it
As briefly hinted above, EDT is not conducive to Meet Prep or directly increasing 1RM strength. It doesn’t provide the qualities necessary for Competition itself. Instead, it works really well as a post-meet block, otherwise known as “off-season.” In this application, it makes sense to program for athletes who have just gotten out of a meet, won’t be competing within the next 8-12 weeks, and can benefit from higher-rep volume work. This state is where most Powerlifters find themselves right after competition:
Hypertrophy work has dwindled over the last few weeks/months, so they haven’t been building much muscle,
The focus stood on strength & maxes for such a long time, which is exciting but can also be taxing, and they’re looking for something different,
They want to make time for more non-Powerlifting activities, so they’re looking to develop their endurance & not spend too much time in the gym,
They are deeply under-conditioned & out of shape from doing singles/doubles with 5 minutes of rest in peaking, and we want to re-develop this as quickly as possible,
They feel fired up, ready to improve, competitive, but need to focus that energy on a different retrospect,
They may feel slightly beat up, maybe having some nagging pain from meet prep, and are looking to increase recovery & capacity for the future,
They’re not feeling super strong, still recovering from their efforts right after a meet, so removing the focus from heavy numbers will help them avoid feeling discouraged in the gym.
All these scenarios make a Powerlifter in their post-meet phase a perfect candidate for EDT. It can work during other times, too, closer to a meet, just for the high-volume, hypertrophy & technique benefits. It provides similar advantages to other volume blocks, and that variety can be beneficial since it’s programmed differently than typical hypertrophy phases. EDT can be used instead of a 5x5 or 6x6- as long as you’re more than eight weeks out from a meet. Honestly, Powerlifters can make gains from EDT at most times where high-volume training aligns with their goals- and should include it at some point.
EDT is likely only necessary for 1-3 (max) consecutive blocks in a row because, over time, it will violate the law of strength specificity. If your goal is to get strong, at some point, you need to taper down the volume and up the intensity. But, it can be re-introduced at future dates for the same purpose.
4. Unique Considerations for Powerlifting
EDT isn’t inherently a Powerlifting program, but when programming it for Powerlifters, we must consider the athlete's goals, qualities, and needs. It doesn’t make sense to only do EDT bicep curls, kettlebell swings, or machines for Powerlifting- as an example. Train the main movements, and do so with intention.
Programming Recommendations:
A) Order of movements
Since Squat, Bench, and Deadlift should still hold priority in an EDT program (as they entirely compose our sport), they should be placed first on a given training day. You can maintain the structure of having one squat-focused, one bench-focused, and one deadlift-focused day throughout the week, potentially cycling other variations on opposing days (but, for off-season, it makes sense to emphasize accessory work to a greater degree). Perform these blocks when you're less fatigued to allow for adequate loading, emphasize technique, and accumulate as much volume as possible.
B) Intensity
For EDT, (of course) the intensities will be lower than what you’re used to for a strength (or even typical volume) block. You simply can’t perform a 10x5 at the same weight as a 4x4 or even 5x5. Start light, bearing in mind that your conditioning & capacity for volume after a meet- will be reduced. I recommend beginning around 50-55% and not exceeding 75-80% (for a standard, high-volume EDT program). Increase about 3-5% each week, and you can choose to either perform your reps belted or beltless- depending on the goal & how the intensity feels. The goal is not a lot of weight, but rather, a high effort & workload.
C) Exercise selection
For EDT, you want to focus on developing your comp lifts while choosing variations conducive to volume and hypertrophy. The stimulus will already be novel from typical training (since the orientation of the program is so different), so adding crazy variations (Chain SSB, banded pin bench, block pulls, specialty bars, etc) doesn’t make sense and won’t achieve the intended targets quite as well. But, changing from a Wide grip to a Close grip- or Low Bar to a High Bar- to help develop hypertrophy- makes sense. Choose comp-specific or close-to-comp-specific movements for best results. High Bar will help you target your quads more than Low Bar while carrying over to your competition squat, for example. Repeat these same variations throughout the program, aiming to progress over time. Since these blocks are supersets, include either accessory- or mobility- focused exercises between main movements- whether your goal is hypertrophy or technique/rehab/movement quality. For further accessory work, emphasize developing lagging muscle groups and pair them together- with higher reps (6-10).
D) Block lengths
Touched on above, but because the priority is still on main Powerlifting movements, we want to extend these blocks longer (15-20 min) than accessory work alone (6-12 min). That way, you can accumulate more volume.
E) Work Capacity
Know that your conditioning will increase rapidly each week, so the number of sets you can perform on week one vs. week three will likely differ. Establish goals for each week, aiming to improve in some way each training session. The intended outcome is to eventually accumulate a significant number of sets, more than you’d receive in traditional volume (i.e., more than 6). It’s fun to create competition with yourself and seek to beat it week by week.
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EDT: a training style that opposes what many Powerlifters habitually partake in and may feel intimidating or otherworldly to some. Yet, many potential benefits arise from incorporating it at some point. While the methodology is vastly different from typical strength development, this is exactly why it can be a supportive inclusion. EDT can develop mental resilience, variety, hypertrophy, work capacity, camaraderie, self-competition, and work ethic. These qualities will all make you a better athlete in the long run. EDT makes sense to include in a post-meet or development phase, not during direct meet prep, since it violates your training needs, in that period. It’s important to start conservatively and aim to improve upon that baseline each week. You get the chance to truly witness how hard you can push, especially at a different modality- and that’s highly rewarding.
