People oftentimes call into question the legitimacy of Charles Staley’s unique Escalating Density Training concept. It really isn’t as odd as you think.
Allow me to explain it to you. When you exercise, your muscles don’t know you’re trying to make them bigger and stronger. They only know that they are being forced against a resistance. Your muscles will then make sure to strengthen up and get ready for the same resistance next time you exercise.
All your muscles know is adaptation.
This is the main principle of Escalating Density Training. Let me give you an example. On week one, you bench press 200 pounds with 15 reps. This causes your muscles to “get ready” for the same workout the following week.
However, you bench press 20 reps of 200 lbs next week. The same process occurs, your muscles beef up to prepare for the same resistance next work out.
Your muscles will have no choice but to grow stronger each time you increase the reps. When your muscles have adapted to the high amount of reps, you can up the weight to force more adaptation.
A well known suntan analogy works in a similar fashion. If you know tanning, you’d know to start by building a base. You then step-up your time in the sun gradually. Although many people don’t realize this, you should apply the same principle when working out.
However, the amount of increment depends on the base you developed. Put differently, you can only improve at the rate that your body is capable of. This is a worthy lesson you’re learning right now about effective exercise. Unfortunately, people often apply this principle incorrectly.
A lot of training programs actually share this common problem. They lack a system for raising work load. With Escalating Density Training, the whole premise of the system is on systematically increasing workload.
