Doberman Dan's Secret To Get Back In Shape As Quickly As Possible

Dear Friend,

I hope you have been following the advice from Part 1 of this series. Part 1 was the "getting back in shape so you can REALLY get back in shape" part of the program.

In the "PS" of Part 1 I said...

"You don't want to miss the next issue. I'm going to reveal a training program that will build back lost muscle mass in a matter of just a few weeks... and allow you to continue gaining muscle mass as quickly as possible. And the best part is... you'll see progress every single workout!

I'll also reveal the complete nutritional and supplement plan that will give you results you can see day by day. And the diet is easy and enjoyable and you'll actually look forward to your meals. It's easy to do. You don't need some Spartan effort to follow the diet."

That was MOSTLY true when I wrote it.

See, this information is turning out to be longer than I expected so I need to split it up over several issues. I want to make sure you get everything in easily digestible "chunks"... not in one big treatise that you won't read.

So let's cover the "secret" training program in this issue.

I say "secret" jokingly because it's actually no secret. It just took an incredibly innovative thinker to piece together many missing links to create what I feel is one of the most effective bodybuilding training programs in decades.

I WISH I could tell you I was the "innovative thinker" who put this all together... but it simply ain't true. My brother in arms, Charles Staley, came up with this.

Charles Staley is known as a "secret weapon" by his Olympic and professional athletes for his ability to see what other coaches miss. When the elite of the sports world want innovative, "out of the box" solutions in their quest to reach world-class levels of performance, they come to Charles.

Charles takes his hands-on experience with world class athletes and turns these proven and tested techniques into real-world experiences for everyday gym goers and fitness buffs. Through the Internet, printed books, audio and video programs, Charles is able to help thousands in their quest for performance optimization and physique transformation.

For the past several years, Charles has been developing and perfecting a training system he calls "Escalating Density Training" or "EDT".

For more complete information about Charles Staley's EDT, check out his book called "The Ultimate Guide to Massive Arms (Escalating Density Training: Vol I)".

In fact...

With Charles Staley's EDT program you can build lost muscle mass and lose body fat as quickly as possible...
WITHOUT many changes in your diet!

There are very few training routines that make as much sense and work as well as EDT.

I'll try to give you a brief overview of EDT in my own words and a sample routine. For the complete info I think you should really buy Charles Staley's book.

Here's the Doberman Dan interpretation of EDT:

To cause muscular hypertrophy (that means bigger muscles), weight training needs to be progressive. In other words, you need to do more work.

How do you do more "work" in weight training? There are several ways but 99% of bodybuilders only utilize one or two ways at the most.

By the way...

I hope you're not too anal-retentive as I'm going to cut to the chase and break everything down to it's simplest explanation. (This drives anal-retentive people crazy!)

Don't get stuck in a box because something contradicts what you've learned in 10 years of training. Think "outside the box" because, in all honesty, probably most of what you've learned is inaccurate.

Onward...

Here's the deal: Weight training has to be PROGRESSIVE. (That is, if you actually want to make progress!)

You can make it progressive three different ways:

1.       Use more weight

2.       Do more reps

3.       Do more work within a specific time frame.

Let's use all three to stimulate progress.

Let's say you are going to work chest. And you decide that you are going to use a time frame of 15 minutes. Coach Staley calls these time frames "PR Zones".

For this example let's assume that you are only going to do one exercise, dumbbell incline presses.

You can normally use 80 lb. dumbbells for a set of 10 reps where the 10th rep is the last one you can possibly do. You will start doing 5 rep sets with this weight.

Set your watch, stop watch, or keep an eye on the clock so that you are only training the exact 15 minute time period.

Do a set of 5 and rest a few seconds. It's not important how many seconds; use your fatigue level as a guide. As the 15 minute time period goes on, you'll probably need more rest between sets as fatigue sets in. Do another set of 5 and rest a few seconds.

As fatigue sets in, drop your sets to 4 reps, 3 reps, 2 reps, 1 rep... whatever. Don't even think of them as sets. We are simply going to add up total reps done within the 15 minute time frame so don't get hung up on sets.

You WILL need to keep a training log so you'll know what you did previous sessions so you can try to beat what you did the session before.

When it's all said and done, let's say you did a total of 50 reps with 80 lbs. in a 15 minute period. You're done with chest.

The next chest session your goal should be to do more than 50 reps with 80 lbs. in the 15 minute time frame.

Capiche?

You're simply trying to do more work in the set time frame.

If you do 10% or more reps than the previous session, on the NEXT training session use more weight and start this whole progression over again.

For example: In your 1st chest session, you did 50 reps with 80 lb. dumbbells in 15 minutes.

Your second session you did 55 reps with 80 lb. dumbbells in 15 minutes. You had a 10% increase in reps.

That means in your next chest session you will start this whole cycle again but yet with more weight. 85 lb. dumbbells are probably the next heaviest set of dumbbells available.

So your 3rd chest training session you will use 85 lb. dumbbells and do your sets/reps as before.

Naturally since you are now using more weight, your total reps per 15 minute time frame will more than likely be a little less than your previous 2 sessions. That's OK because you progressed in reps in the 2nd session and now you are progressing in weight in this 3rd session.

Is this making sense?

Here's another little trick Coach Staley recommends to minimize time in the gym. Work opposing muscle groups together in the same time frame or "PR Zone" in a super-set fashion.

For example, chest & back. I'm going to do my first 2 chest & back exercises for a 15 minute time frame. Here's what I do:

Dumbbell bench presses supersetted with Chins: I use a weight for both I could normally only do for 10 reps, with the 10th rep being muscular failure. I set my watch and start with a set of 5 reps of Dumbbell bench presses.

After those 5 reps, without rest, I do a set of 5 reps of chins. I rest 15 seconds or so and do another set of 5 reps of Dumbbell bench presses supersetted with a set of 5 reps of chins.

I continue this process for the entire 15 minute time frame. Naturally, as fatigue sets in I do fewer reps per set and take more rest between supersets.

Let's suppose I did 50 reps of each exercise. My next chest and back session, the goal is to do more than 50 reps within that time frame, which in this example is 15 minutes.

I like the super-sets because while my chest is recovering from a set, I'm not just sitting there doing nothing. I'm doing a set for the opposing muscle group, which, in this example, is back.

Plus, by working opposing muscle groups in this fashion, the muscles actually seem to recover a bit faster between sets. It's a much more time efficient way of training and it seems to facilitate better recovery between sets.

As far as time frames per muscle group, 15 to 20 minutes per each set of opposing muscle groups is what Coach Staley usually recommends. You'll have to experiment a bit to see what is best for you. Some people can tolerate more time and others less.

My recommendation is to start the program using 15 minute time frames if you have average genetics and don't recover well and grow quickly from weight training. Stay with 15 minute time frames per muscle group and progress in reps and weight for a while using 15 minute time frames.

After you have done that for several weeks and you think you could recover from longer time frames, try 20 minute time frames.

See, the time frames are the key here.

In most other training programs a person might progress in reps and/or weight... but if the training time per muscle group fluctuates each time, you don't really have an accurate measure of progress.

Because of the minimal rest, I've also personally found that I'm getting leaner without aerobics. I HATE aerobics and they usually cause me to stop making muscular gains. I have a somewhat crappy recovery from exercise and too much (ESPECIALLY aerobics) stops my progress dead in its tracks.

Anyhoo... that's my "Cliff Notes" interpretation of Charles Staley's EDT program.

This article is turning out to be a little longer than I planned. I'll have to give you a sample EDT routine in Part 3 of this series.

In the meantime, check out Charles Staley's book called "The Ultimate Guide to Massive Arms (Escalating Density Training: Vol I)". The title is a bit misleading because it's not only about arm training. It covers his EDT training system in detail.

Or, if you simply can't wait for my next newsletter to get started with EDT training...

My friend, Rick Gray, is giving away a very comprehensive EDT training manual written by Charles Staley called "The Escalating Density Training (EDT) Training Treasure Chest".

With "The Escalating Density Training (EDT) Training Treasure Chest" you'll have a step by step, day-by-day plan for your training and nutrition that allows you to make the maximum muscle mass gains possible.