Dave Hakes' – Island Mode

Everyone, well not everyone, but a lot of people, has been asking me to explain my workout to them.  Well, here it goes:

1st -> Print this .pdf – it’s 14.4MB, so give it a few minutes

2nd – > I will just explain the first 2 pages, cause the rest is pretty self explanatory – just shows the exercises for each workout…

OK, at the beginning of each set you wanna get your 10RM (10 rep max – the most weight you can do for that exercise 10 times – if you have something left over, keep adding weight until you’re there) for each exercise you’re gonna do for that set.  I do this every time because somedays your body just doesn’t wanna push heavy and others it really does (don’t worry about it, this will kill you anyway!).

Once you have your 10RM (should take a few minutes to set up both exercises), write that weight in the box next to the exercise that says “Weight” in the heading.  Then start your egg timer at either 15 or 10 minutes ) whatever the sheet says under the heading “Time”…

You job at this point is to do as many sets as possible until the egg timer goes off…

Don’t do more than 5 reps per set/exercise – the idea is to do as many sets of each exercise as possible.  If your doing it right (if you’ve really put a good weight on and are really doing as many sets as you can possibly do safely) the last few minutes should be excruciating – if your doing more than 2/3 reps per set, you weren’t pushing hard enough the first 7.5/10 minutes…

Anyway, for each set/exercise, put a mark for the number of reps done in the appropriate box (5-1).  Don’t worry if they aren’t the same for the two exercises!  Just cause you pushed out 5 reps in Exercise #1 ten minutes into it doesn’t mean you can do the same in Exercise #2 (be careful with Exercise #2!) – I’m usually the opposite cause of a bum knee that acts up randomly…

Don’t forget!  It’s all about form – don’t get hurt!  

Now, here’s the cool part.  At the end of the workout, after you’re showered and kicking back, add up the reps for each exercise individually, take that number and multiply it by what you have written in “Weight” for that exercise.  If the exercise was bilateral (working the body separately – ex: dumbbell curls with the right hand and the left hand holding their own dumbbell, or a forward lunge one side to the other) multiply the number in the last sentence times two (x2 is how I have it marked on the sheet right next to the exercise).  If the exercise was unilateral (ex: curls with a bar, or squats with a bar), then keep the number as is (x1 is how it is marked on the chart).

Anyway, sorry about that, once you have multiplied reps times weight, and multiplied that by your type of exercise – bilateral (x2)/unilateral (x1) – put that number in the box for that exercise marked “Density”.  That is how much weight you moved for that exercise in a 15/10 minute period today…

The idea is to “beat” your last “density record” every time you work out, as you do you will see it escalate – which is why this training is called Escalating Density Training (or EDT)…

I designed 12 workouts (on the sheet) which I do sequentially, so I don’t get my “Escalated Density” for a given workout until I finish the 12th and start again at the 1st; but I can see it often for individual exercises…

Always give yourself at least 24 hours of recovery between these workouts!  Everyone of these workouts is a Full Body Workout.  If you’re really smart you’ll take a few days between workouts, or skip from one-to-two-to-one-to-two-and-so-on days off…

(WG) -> Wide Grip

(RG) -> Regular Grip

(CG) -> Close Grip

Every time I do Bench with dumbbells in my hand I do flys and tri extensions with them – Push (1), Fly (2 down-3 up), Tri Extension (4 down-5 up), and down to the chest (that makes one rep). “45 Bench” means “Incline”, “0 Bench” means “Regular”, and I do Dips instead of “Decline Bench”…

Let’s see, what else, oh yeah!  Chin up is palms facing you, pullup is palms facing out…

Can’t think of anything else at the moment…