Escalated Density Training for a Quick Workout or Training on the Road

Every now and then, when I'm in a rush, or simply looking for a change of pace, I find myself using "escalated density training," otherwise known as EDT. While I wouldn't recommend EDT for the development of pure strength or power, I find it particularly useful for two scenarios: 1) When you have very limited time to train, and just need a simple "Get In, Get Out" workout. Something that will allow you to complete a training session in roughly twenty minutes or less.

Given that, once you've attained a reasonable level of strength, it can take you thirty or more minutes just to warm up to your working sets of deadlifts or squats, EDT allows you to finish your workout rather quickly due to the lighter weights involved.

2) If you're traveling, and - as is unfortunately common in hotel rooms - the weights available are extremely limited (often capping out at 50lbs or less).

How To Do It

You'll complete two "blocks" of 5-10 minute intervals, utilizing two exercises in each block. These two exercises will ideally utilize opposing muscle groups, or "antagonist" pairings. For example, the good ol' push-pull pairing.

Pick a weight for each exercise that is roughly your 12-rep maximum, but only perform ten reps for the first set. Then, you're going to go back and forth between each exercise, using the same weight, without resting, for 5-10 minutes straight.

Let's use a dumbbell bench press and chest-supported row, for an example.

Chest- Supported Row (reps)

Dumbbell Bench Press (reps)

Set 1:

10

10

Set 2:

9

8

Set 3:

7

6

Set 4:

7

5

If you can perform 10 reps for multiple sets, then the weight is too light. On the contrary, if the number of reps you can perform with good form drops too rapidly (i.e. you can only get 4-5 reps on the second set), then it is too heavy. Also, note that the first set should especially not be taken to failure, as this will cause you to burn out too quickly. Always stop each set before your form degrades.

Begin on the low end of the time spectrum (5 minutes) for each "block," during your first session, and slowly increase the total time to 10 minutes as your body adapts and your endurance improves.

You'll also find that you'll be able to squeeze in more sets in the same period of time as you progress.

Perform two blocks of exercise pairings (four total exercises per workout), and you'll be in and out of the gym in twenty minutes. Also, for the those in the crowd who love "feelin'  the burn," this will be right up your alley!

To help you out, I've provided a list (albeit far from comprehensive) of some exercises you can choose from. Choose one from each column for each pairing.

“Pull”

“Push”

Chest-Supported Row (various grips)

DB Bench Press (various grips)

TRX Inverted Row

Inclined DB Bench Press (various grips)

BB Inverted Row

Perfect Pushup

(x infinity variations)

Lat Pulldowns (various)

SA Landmine Press

Bent-Over DB Row (all kinds)

DB Military Press (various grips)

Pullups (various grips)

BB Military Press (various grips)

Bent-Over BB Row (various grips)

DB Floor Press (various grips)

Seated Cable Row (various grips)

Single-Arm Presses (all kinds)

Curls (various)

Pressdowns (various)

You can certainly use EDT with the lower body, as well, just don't be a doofus with your exercise pairings (ex. deadlifts with back squats, or 400m sprints with snatches).

Olympic Trials, Wimbledon, Where I've Been

So, today is my first post in about 4-weeks. It feels kind of awkward... like if you've been purposely avoiding someone and then run into them at a store. I, of course, haven't been purposely avoiding my posts, I just feel kind of bad that I've been breaking my own rules. You see, we have two simple rules for SAPT posts: get it up by 10am and make sure there is fresh content every day of the week. Obvisouly, I break the 10am rule almost every week and recently had to break the fresh content rule, too.

Sigh! It couldn't be helped... I have at least four partially finished posts marked as "draft" just waiting to be completed.

Well, here's a quick wrap-up of some recent events:

1. Two track athletes I coach at Mason made it to the Olympic Trails. One went for the long jump and triple jump and the other for 400m. I'm proud to say David made it to the FINALS in the 400m. WOW. He said it was pretty amazing to be running next to the legends he grew up watching on TV.
2. Wimbledon is easily my favorite sporting event of the year.Easily! I started watching it when I was bored one summer (I think I was about 14 years old) and got hooked. To this day I can't really explain why my love of Wimbledon does not extend to other major tennis tournaments. Serena Williams is also easily my favorite female athlete. I feel strongly that if the other women trained in a way that would help them gain a little of what Serena's training and genetics have provided, we'd see a lot more power and explosiveness in the game. Tennis players at the college level are notorious for placing little value on the type of physical preparation that will help "first-step" and other power indicators.
3. My training is in the toilet.
4. We've got two new service offerings that will take place at the old SAPT on Pickett: Team Training (we've received about a bazillion requests for low-cost team training over the years, so here ya go!) and Batting Cages designed for soft-toss and tee work. Stay tuned for the roll-out of both! More info to come shortly.

That's it. Sorry about not providing any eye-candy. Maybe I'll get a chance to update this later on.

Monday Musings: New Facility, Backpacking Europe, and Deadlift Foot Placement

Gotta make this one brief today... 1. I'm thrilled to say that, last Friday, we successfully moved SAPT into our new location last Friday. To those of you who train with us, you can look forward to a climate controlled environment during your next session!

Also, thank you again to all those that came to help us move.  Your assistance was MUCH appreciated, and we're extremely grateful that you gave up your time on Friday to aid us.

Our new address is 3160 Unit E, Spring Street, Fairfax, Va 22031.

2. This October, I'll be fulfilling a childhood dream of mine by going backpacking in Europe. Thanks to pretty much the most awesome boss, SAPT team, and wife, that I could ask for, I'm able to take a couple weeks off to backpack through Ireland, Switzerland, and Italy.

Needless to say, I'm already as giddy as a little schoolgirl for October to arrive, as I've been literally dreaming about it (and slowly, very slowly....been saving up for it) since I was twelve years old.

For those interested, I'll be glad to share more details in the future, but for now I did want to share one of the things I'm most excited about: Canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland.

One of my good buddies did this last year, and told me it was literally the experience of a lifetime. Basically, you take a bus up right into the heart of the Swiss Alps, and then repel, jump off, and slide down the canyons and waters of Switzerland to return to the bottom.

Here is a video of what I'll be doing, you can catch the gist of it in the first 45 seconds of the vid:

While in Switzerland, we also plan on visiting Schilthorn, the breathtaking summit of Burnese Alps, upon which a revolving restaurant sits. The restaurant, Piz Gloria, was actually a setting used during the old James Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Here's a picture of the location:

Needless to say the entire experience will be pretty surreal and I'm definitely open for suggestions from those of you who may have traveled Europe before.

3. My friend Tony Gentilcore recently uploaded a brief video explaining the "ideal" foot placement for deadlifting. Given that he discusses what is easily one of the most common mistakes I see (both in commercial gyms and in people entering SAPT for the first time), I thought I'd share it here:

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

SAPT is Moving Today

So it's 615am, and in fifteen minutes I'll be heading to the Magic Kingdom (that would be, the SAPT facility) to join the SAPT crew - along with a few awesome clients/athletes who're helping - to pack up our facility and move it to a new location. We will be doing this ourselves, as none of the moving companies returned our emails/phone calls. I have a sneaking suspicion that part of it has to do with the fact we're a gym. Sarah already gave some details on the new space, HERE, where you can see a few pictures. She has been working her butt off and been doing more "behind the scenes" work than I ever thought would be possible or necessary, so a huge thank you to her for helping us get the new digs!

It goes without saying that this move has been much anticipated. In case you were unaware, up until now we have not had a working HVAC unit, which means no climate controlled environment (yep, I realize this a first world problem, but still...). There are a four things I'm particularly looking forward to:

1) Air conditioning in the Summer. Training in the heat isn't so bad....it's just when you begin filling up the spaces between the keys on the keyboard with your sweat dripping that you know the 105ºF+ degree weather is a bit too hot for office work.

2) Heating during the Winter. Having your fingers stick to the pullup bar is always interesting.

3) Actual office walls. You'd be surprised at how many people feel they can walk, uninvited, into your office and snoop around when you work in a cubicle as opposed to an office with a door. Not to mention, it will be nice to place phone calls without music blaring and weights smashing in the background.

4) The same awesome, warehouse training environment with the concrete walls, no mirrors, and a large bay door.

This should be an all-day event, so, for you office workers in the crowd: If any of you are in the area, and want to help "undo" your day spent in cervical flexion, shortened hip flexors and kyphotic posture, you are welcome to come help. A gold star being the reward for your aid.

And with that, I'm out. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

For future reference, our new address is going to be:

3160 Unit E Spring Street Fairfax, Va 22031

How to Get in a Good Lift on the Road

I’ve noticed a common theme lately with people who have stepped outside the matrix and into a real training facility. It becomes harder to figure out what to do in the gym when they then have to step BACK into the matrix for a quick visit.  Usually this occurs on a vacation/business trip and they have to train at an awful hotel gym or a piss-poor commercial gym for a short period of time. They are left dumbfounded as to what to do when all they find is a sea of useless machines and a bench press to squat rack ratio of 20:1.  Don’t worry that’s why I’m here, to show you how you can make the best of a crappy situation. All in all it’s really not that difficult to get in a good workout at one of these places; we can take advantage of the machines, light dumbbells, and the absurd amount of benches.  Below is a sample workout that I put together that someone could do when they find themselves in the predicament I just described.

A1) DB Bench Press

4x7/side

A2) Goblet Squat to Box

5x8

A3)* Lat Pulldowns

40 reps total

B1) Pushups

3xLeave 2 in the Tank

B2) 3 Point DB Row

4x10/side

B3) BSS

3x9/side

C1) Facepulls

2x20

C2) Plank

2X1 min.

*to be performed throughout entire session

There are three key factors in making this sample day a good off site workout…

1. A lot of volume is always fun when you are on vacation or even a business trip. Excuse my meat headedness but it’s an awesome feeling when you get done with a high volume workout and then proceed to get your George Jefferson walk going on with your shirt off at the beach. Since there probably won’t be that much weight to throw around in the weight room you’re at, take advantage, and get a high amount of volume in. You’re on vacation, have some fun and get your pump on (we all know that’s what your dying to do anyway).

2. Take this time to iron out the movement pattern. Moving heavy weight is the best thing in the world other than a Chipotle burrito. The only problem is as a movement becomes progressively more loaded overtime bad habits can form and technique can falter. So again take advantage of the lighter weight and higher volumes and use this as practice time; groove the pattern of the main lift (in this case a squat) so that when you come back to the real world you can get right back to throwing around weight

3. The third factor is keeping it simple and quick. Whether you are on vacation or a business trip it’s safe to say you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the weight room (unless your Stevo and Kelsey who choose to spend their vacations at a training facility). Don’t try and get too crazy with your workouts and spend all your time thinking about what machine will give you the greatest amount of glute med activation. Just stick with basic movements, get in and get out. This is not the time to program 20 different lifts either; again just stick to the basics.

I hope this helps everyone out who finds themselves in a similar situation.  Whatever you do don’t use business or vacation as a reason not to train!

How to Make Your Own Suspension Trainer

(Note: Updates to the construction process can be found on the second half of this post.) Suspension trainers are a fantastic tool to add to your quiver of training options, especially during travel. They'll never replace the barbell for quality strength training, but they can certainly supplement your routine quite well by providing a myriad options for assistance work.

I've mentioned before how I love to pack a set in my bag, be it for travel or for outdoor workouts, as they take up roughly the same amount of luggage space as a pair of socks, and open up a number of exercise possibilities. However, the primary issue that most people have with them is they cost an outrageous amount of money to purchase from the commercial suppliers.

An easy option here is to simply make your own for a fraction of the cost and have it be just as effective. You can see my homemade model below:

Back in 2009, I filmed a quick video on how to make a great suspension trainer in a matter of minutes, and it didn't take long for it to become extremely popular.

It's actually kind of funny, as I had my sister film the video in my parents' backyard during Thanksgiving. My at-the-time girlfriend (now wife), Kelsey, was GA for a weight training course out in California; she was enrolled in a post-graduate Kinesiology program at the time, and a few of the kids in her weight lifting class wanted to know how I made my own set of suspension straps, as I had got together with a couple friends earlier that Fall to figure out how to build our own. So, I haphazardly threw together a video tutorial on how to make one for her students to watch.

With large thanks to Ross Enamait (of RossTraining.com), the video quickly went viral as he found my video and posted it on his website. You can see his post HERE, where he discusses his experience using my video to make his own, and some of the tweaks he has personally made to make it even more excellent.

If I knew how often it would be looked at (currently it has over 247,000 views), I probably would have spiced up the video a bit, maybe by wearing a Speedo or something. Who knows. Either way, I'm really glad so many people have been aided by it.

Anyway, I realized I've never shared it here on SAPTstrength, so I thought it may be handy for some of you reading that want one in your equipment stash but don't want to spend the money buying it from a commercial supplier.

Here it is, in all of it's low-quality and wildlife-sounds-in-the-background glory:

A Few (Updated) Notes on Equipment and the Construction Process:

1) I now use straps with metal buckles, as they provide a much greater break strength. I personally purchased mine at REI, but Ross gave the great option of purchasing them over at Strapworks.com as they deliver them to many parts of the world and you can easily adjust the length of the strap you want to purchase.

2) I no longer use ropes for the footstraps, but I use part of the actual utility strap to make the footloops; Ross had detailed this idea here. These are much more comfortable than rope for the feet, and also don't untie nearly as easily.

3) The video for how to tie the bowline knot can be found here: How to tie a Bowline Knot

4) Currently, my video has 792 "Likes" versus 11 "Dislikes." Evidently, eleven people in the world are incompetent when it comes to tying knots.

5) Be sure you sand down the edges of the PVC pipe, and/or place duct tape (or some sort of protective coating) over the edges as they (the PVC piping) will wear down the utility straps over time. You can kind of see how I did this in the picture below:

6) Ross has since added a few updates and suggestions on his website, which I think are brilliant and extremely helpful, HERE. He provides some other options for easy-to-make handles, on top of showing the difference between a single vs. double attachment model.

7) In case you don't know who Ross is, shame on you. Here's a fairly recent training compilation of his:

Hope the above tutorial was helpful!