Up And Down The Ladder Lifting Workout

Here is a technique up and down the Ladder workout that is sure to have your entire body burning. Now, we will preface this by saying this is not for the faint of heart. And, truth be told, many lifters usually only use them for a few lifts. You can try them for several exercises or even body parts, but get ready for an intense workout. These are no joke. They are Up & Down the Ladder sets.

What is the up and down the ladder workout?

They may sound like a children’s board game, but they are most certainly not a game. Using Side Lateral Raises as an example, you would essentially take a lighter-than-normal set of dumbbells (DBs) and start performing a set. Once you hit a designated number of reps, grab the next pair of DBs and start another set. And so on…and so on. That, my friends is UP the Ladder. You can continue this mayhem by going back DOWN the Ladder once you’ve done this 3-4 times on the UP swing.

The good news is that there are no rules here.

You can go for as many sets up as you want. Same applies for going back down. A good rule of thumb is to start at a heavier-than-normal set of DBs and work your way down. So for example if you start with 45s, you’ll end with 15s. Once you get down to the 15s, you may look like a wuss using those DBs, but we promise you they will feel like 100s!

Up & Down The Ladder Workout:

Exercise 1) Side Lateral Raises
1st set- 10 reps
2nd set- 20 reps
3rd set- 40 reps
4th set- 20 reps
5th set- 10 reps

Exercise 2) Front Kettlebell Swings up and down the Ladder
1st set- 10 reps
2nd set- 20 reps
3rd set- 40 reps
4th set- 20 reps
5th set- 10 reps

Exercise 3) Dumbbell Bench Press
1st set- 10 reps
2nd set- 20 reps
3rd set- 40 reps
4th set- 20 reps
5th set- 10 reps