Ladders, no muss no fuss

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Craig Cooper

where is a good resource for ladders? or is there a simple explanation?

http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5756

[JW Luckett]

Also, Volume V, Issue 2 of Dan John's Get Up! has a good write-up by our own Mr. Shafley explaining ladders.

-jw

[William Hunter]

I believe the P&B link was Mr. Shafley as well. The "sled draggin' might be in the picture if you manage to grow a d*#k" quote sealed it for me.

Quick question, as I've just been playing around with these as well. Shaf detailed a 4x per week routine where each exercise is worked once, where others are concentrating on 1-2 exercises, performed 2-3 x per week. Has anyone tried both of these methods? I've usually done better with high frequency training (3x per week per movement). I'm wondering how many ladders I can squeeze into a session. Is 3 too many? I'm tinkering with Press, L-PU and Squats M-W-F, kind of a bastardized version of Rip's SS.

[Steve Shafley]

I've had the best results with 1 or 2 movements worked frequently (3-4x weekly) in this fashion, never failing or missing a rep.

I can not emphasize enough that if you feel you are going to miss the next rep, rack it and start from the bottom again.

If you are only doing it 1x weekly with an exercise, I think you can probably manage to go harder (i.e. closer to muscular failure) and with more volume.

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by William Hunter

I believe the P&B link was Mr. Shafley as well. The "sled draggin' might be in the picture if you manage to grow a d*#k" quote sealed it for me.

Quick question, as I've just been playing around with these as well. Shaf detailed a 4x per week routine where each exercise is worked once, where others are concentrating on 1-2 exercises, performed 2-3 x per week. Has anyone tried both of these methods? I've usually done better with high frequency training (3x per week per movement). I'm wondering how many ladders I can squeeze into a session. Is 3 too many? I'm tinkering with Press, L-PU and Squats M-W-F, kind of a bastardized version of Rip's SS.

I have used ladders in place of 5's. as littleas one day adn as many as three times a week. If I am looking to get 3 sets of 5 across (15 reps total) or even 5 sets across (25 reps) I replace the 5's with ladders of 1,2,3 sometimes 4~shooting for the approximaltey same number of reps so 1,2,3 reps, 3 times through, 18 reps. I have found this enables me to get similar quality work as 3 sets of 5 across but at slightly higher percentages, I can usually stay at about 85% of 1RM with ladderrs as opposed to sets of 5 across at 80% of 1RM.

At the start of this thread.. the woman I'm talking about was able to use ladders of 1,2,3 x 3 at percentages that were even higher, only adding weight when she made all 18 reps.

[Kris Reeves]

Resurrecting this thread with some questions....

I'd like to give these a go with my bench press, but I'm curious as the best way to implement it. I want to stick with the 3 rungs of 1,2,3 reps (and corresponding 1,2,3 minutes of rest for each step)....but how often should I do this?

twice a week? 3 times a week? everyday? multiple times in a day? I've been searching the web and find different answers all over the place. So, I'm reaching out to those here who have some experience with them and ask....how often would you do this?

Part of me says, as long as you leave a rep in the tank...the process is self regulating...so can one overdo it?

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Kris Reeves

Resurrecting this thread with some questions....

I'd like to give these a go with my bench press, but I'm curious as the best way to implement it. I want to stick with the 3 rungs of 1,2,3 reps (and corresponding 1,2,3 minutes of rest for each step)....but how often should I do this?

twice a week? 3 times a week? everyday? multiple times in a day? I've been searching the web and find different answers all over the place. So, I'm reaching out to those here who have some experience with them and ask....how often would you do this?

Part of me says, as long as you leave a rep in the tank...the process is self regulating...so can one overdo it?

the guy who wrote the original article i think advocates three or more times per week. twice a week worked well for me.

[Gavin Harrison]

Funny, just saw a new(ish?) article on t-nation by Dan Jon that involved ladders here:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ve_never_tried

Neat.

[Grissim Connery]

what should the time intervals look like between a step in the ladder verses a rung? is the rest between steps just like a breath and the time between a rung a few minutes?

[Kris Reeves]

As I understand it, that is a way you can do it. You can also do something like...

1 rep/1 min rest
2 reps/2 min rest
3 reps/3 min rest

or

1 rep/1 big breath
2 reps/2 big breaths
3 reps/3 big breaths

or

1 rep/as long as you need to feel ready to go again
2 reps/as long as you need to feel ready to go again
3 reps/as long as you need to feel ready to go again