The Queen of Ladders

Although I am the self proclaimed Queen of Swing, my second kingdom would be that of "Ladders"! Anyone who has trained with me, or by me, knows this to be true.

When I design a workout I never know where the starting point is going to be, but I know it's going to get progressively harder set, by set, by set. The key word here is progressively. I'm all about building up the intensity of my workouts, brick, by brick. Or easing up on the intensity by simply turning around and going in the opposite direction.

"Ladders", or "ladder combinations" are infinite, and therefore never boring. I won't get into all of the variables in this blogpost, because I may need to make my next DVD about this subject.

For instance the workout written below ladders up the weight of the bell for the first 2 rotations (16kg - 40kg), but then it ladders down the length of each rotation by, again, laddering down the number of sets in each rotation, progressively.....laddering down the intensity by removing the last, hardest, or heaviest KB. You can also do the same exact workout in REVERSE! Or how about this? Do it twice, once in each direction....laddering up, and then laddering down....or, do it twice in reverse!

You see, I just gave you multiple workouts. Same weights...but oops, there's more..... If you double the workout, you just laddered up your workout time!

Here's a picture of the bells I used to end my Thursday dbl KB workout....the main workout, loaded with heavy dbl presses, swings and cleans, just wasn't enough, but I only had about 15 minutes before my next class.

All sets were 10 reps, 15 sec work/rest)

16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg, 40kg

16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg, 40kg

16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg,

16kg, 20kg, 24kg, 28kg,

16kg, 20kg, 24kg,

16kg, 20kg,

16kg,

16kg

14 minutes 280 swings

Of course this was not preplanned, and as I've mentioned before my OCD would have made it into an even 15 minutes of swings....don't worry, the new and improved "Swing / Weight Ladder" will make another apperance!

PS Equinox didn't have a 36kg available so I was forced to use the 40kg. Dang! After all of those heavy presses I really felt those heavy bells in my upper back, but never in my grip.