Giant Ladders

When you do your strength training, do you find yourself going to the gym, or AT the gym, wandering aimlessly? You bounce around between exercises based on what equipment is currently being used? Do you look at what other folks are doing & decide to copy them based on their ideas?

There are lots of ways to do strength training. Some folks split their body parts into groups & train one body part per day, working that body part no more than one time per week. Others will combine body parts into muscles that push and muscles that pull, and may hit a muscle group more than once per week. Still others will perform total body training, working all muscle groups within the same workout. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method, with the one true statement being that if you do the same type of workout every single time, your body will stop progressing. So, you want to change up your routine every 12 weeks or so.

One of my favorite, and therefore Go-To workouts is what I call Giant Ladders. Giant Ladders work best on total body workouts.

Here’s how to design your own:

  1. Pick one exercise for each muscle group:
    • Legs
    • Chest
    • Back
    • Abs
    • Cardio
    • Shoulders (optional)
  2. Perform each exercise, circuit style starting with 10 repetitions per exercise, and at the beginning of each circuit subtract 1 repetition until you’re doing 1 repetition per exercise (example below)
  3. For exercises that repetitions are very quick (example: jump rope, russian twists, air squats), you may want to group a number of repetitions together to make them a ‘unit’. (example: 10 jump rope revolutions make up 1 unit. So therefore, the first round where you are doing 10 repetitions, would include 100 (10 x 10) jump ropes.
  4. For unilateral exercises, each side will do the same number of repetitions, starting with 10 & going down to 1.
Depending on the exercises, this workout should take 45 minutes to an hour. Good Luck!

Example:

The exercises that I’ll pick are:

  • Legs – Rear Lunges (unilateral exercise)
  • Chest – Push-ups
  • Back – Pull-ups
  • Abs – Planks (timed – 10 seconds = 1 unit)
  • Cardio – Jump Rope (10 hops = 1 unit)

AZ7B2292Round 1

  • 10 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 10 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 100 seconds of Planks
  • 100 hops

Round 2

  • 9 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 9 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 9 Push-ups
  • 9 Pull-ups
  • 90 seconds of Planks
  • 90 hops

Round 3

  • 8 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 8 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 8 Push-ups
  • 8 Pull-ups
  • 80 seconds of Planks
  • 80 hops

Round 4

  • 7 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 7 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 7 Push-ups
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 70 seconds of Planks
  • 70 hops

Round 5

  • 6 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 6 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 6 Push-ups
  • 6 Pull-ups
  • 60 seconds of Planks
  • 60 hops

Round 6

  • 5 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 5 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 50 seconds of Planks
  • 50 hops

Round 7

  • 4 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 4 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 4 Push-ups
  • 4 Pull-ups
  • 40 seconds of Planks
  • 40 hops

Round 8

  • 3 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 3 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 3 Push-ups
  • 3 Pull-ups
  • 30 seconds of Planks
  • 30 hops

Round 9

  • 2 Lunges, Right Leg
  • 2 Lunges, Left Leg
  • 2 Push-ups
  • 2 Pull-ups
  • 20 seconds of Planks
  • 20 hops

Round 10

  • 1 Lunge, Right Leg
  • 1 Lunge, Left Leg
  • 1 Push-up
  • 1 Pull-up
  • 10 seconds of Planks
  • 10 hops

Variation

If you want to test your mental resolve, perform this same work out going UP the ladder instead of going down in repetitions!