Escalating Density Training
What is it?
First off, let us define density. In exercise terms, density refers to work done per unit time. For those of you who remember your basic physics, this should seem simple - reps x weight/time, right?
As it turns out, it's not quite as simple as that. Furthermore, EDT (short form) can be and has been done with bodyweight training. Unassisted, I might add, by weighted vests and the like. So how does this work?
Rather than talk in simplistic terms about 'weight', I prefer to divide resistance into two broad categories:
- Mechanical Resistance: Newtons of force generated by the muscles.
- Metabolic Resistance: Joules of chemical energy released by the metabolic system.
Mechanical resistance, the first of the two is the more immediately obvious way of increasing resistance. The simplest method is increasing the weight lifted, which lends itself to certain limitations, particularly with bodyweight exercise. The more sophisticated option is to sophisticate the exercise at hand, that is, to perform a more challenging version of the same exercise to elicit a stronger neural response which will, in turn, result in stronger and more complex muscular activation. This is done especially often in bodyweight training, but any and all weighted exercises can likewise be sophisticated for greater resistance with the same weight (or other external resistance, as is the case with stretch bands).
Head Coach Adam Steer demonstrates an example below:
Metabolic resistance is to some degree linked to mechanical resistance - after all, our muscles need to get their energy from some place. However, the metabolism supplies energy to more than just skeletal muscles. Everything we do requires energy - breathing, thinking, transmitting nerve impulses, creating and secreting hormones - and all this places a load on the metabolism.
Therefore, while skeletal muscle is generally the organ system with the single largest energy demand in the body, it is not the only one. By finding ways aside from magnitude of skeletal muscle activation to challenge the metabolism, it is possible to vastly increase the concentration of energy-producing enzymes in the metabolic system, hence improving metabolic power and endurance.
By far and away the best way of doing this is through sophisticating neural activation, which is why circuit training is superior by far to traditional station training for eliciting metabolic adaptations. Even more pronounced is high-intensity flow routines, which even more strongly emphasise the transition from one exercise to another without pause in between.
CST Instructor John Sifferman demonstrates the higher levels of the signature flow routine FlowFit below:
Now we have a working definition of resistance, let us move on to work. Here, we have to modify the elementary physics equation of work = force x distance moved, as, very often, the total mechanical work done during exercise is zero according to Newtonian physics (we lift a weight and put it down again).
Instead, I define work as total time under resistance (or tension, as Coach Sonnon likes to express it, but I like the term 'resistance' as it better illustrates things from the metabolic point of view). In other words, how long one spends under continuous challenge to the systems being trained. That leaves us with total Newtons of force produced by the muscles and total Joules of energy produced by the metabolism.
When we express the above as a time-limited function, we get work/time = POWER.
Hence, EDT is ultimately a way of increasing one's sustainable power, either mechanical or metabolic, usually some measure of both.
So, what are the nuts and bolts of building an EDT routine for oneself? I present three sample methods below.
1.) The safest and simplest method of going about EDT is to simply compress rest intervals. For instance, if you are following a circuit routine and rest 90 seconds between rounds, you can aim to knock a number of seconds off that time every so many sessions until you reach a given goal, assuming you take roughly the same time to finish each round of the circuit. I cannot stress enough at this point that, for the length of a given cycle, everything else must remain the same or you risk courting injury and overtraining. Once you have attained your target rest time, start a new cycle with your original rest time and increase one variable of resistance - either peak resistance, sophistication or volume - and aim to reduce your rest time all over again.
2.) Another method is to aim for volume over time - either to complete a given volume of work in as short a time as possible, or else perform as much volume as possible in a given time. Kettlebell athletes are very familiar with this approach and use both aspects to train for their sport, which is a perfect example of a density event. In their case, work volume is measured as reps x resistance and this can be carried over to other forms of training, using sophistication as a possible substitute for increased weight. This can be done with either a single exercise, or a circuit or flow routine, whereupon one aims to complete rounds for time.
3.) A popular mainstream approach to EDT is the classic pyramid routine - gradually increase the resistance each set till close to the threshold of failure, then reduce it in a symmetrical step fashion.
Pyramid Training Protocols
The problem I have with traditional pyramid training is that, from my experience, it tends to cause muscular fatigue before significant neural adaptations can be elicited to increase strength (which is the usual goal of pyramid routines). Suitability really depends on one's specific training needs - bodybuilders, for example, love traditional pyramids because it is a way of volumising the sarcoplasmic reticulum for the pumped look. However, if one is training for strength, I prefer the ladder protocol, which runs as follows:
1.) Follow the ascending side of the pyramid till you reach 100% 1RM (or whichever measure of resistance you choose).
2.) Drop right back to the bottom of the pyramid on the next set and ascend again but stop just prior to failure. In other words, if you feel yourself about to fail in the middle of a set or on the next set, stop immediately and drop back down to the bottom. From a strength perspective, training to failure is training to fail as fatigue causes the neuromusculature to develop self-imposed limits to force development as a failsafe against injury. Keep that brick out from under your accelerator!
3.) Repeat steps 1 and 2, taking each near-failure point as your new endpoint until you are unable to continue any longer. This form of EDT enables you to sneak a large amount of neural training under the fatigue radar each session, letting you get more bang for your strength buck.
Until next time, train smart, train hard.
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