Fitness Friday – Fast and Furious Ladder Workout

FastFuriousLadderWorkout

Are you ready for a challenge?

Today’s workout is going to kick your behind… So get ready to sweat!

As you know one of the keys to success with any fitness plan is to change things up so you don’t get bored and you keep challenging your muscles. This ladder workout is completely different from the BURST workouts you’ve come to enjoy with me and I know you are going to love it!

The principle of a ladder workout is simple:
You perform a base of exercises then add one exercise at a time to the base.
Each time you go back to the base,  perform all the exercises and add one more.

What does that look like?

  • Start with 20 squats followed by 10 reverse lunges on each leg (20 total)
  • Do 20 jumping jacks
  • Do 20 squats, 10 reverse lunges on each leg, 20 jumping jacks and 20 Push ups (on your knees if you need to)
  • Do 20 squats, 10 reverse lunges on each leg, 20 jumping jacks,20 Push ups and  10 lateral lunges on each leg
  • continue until you’ve reached the end with a 30 to 60 seconds plank hold.

Sounds like fun no?  I know, you’re probably thinking “I’m tired already!” but don’t let that deter you.

This is a challenging workout but it is fun and works all your muscle groups, while adding some cardio for good measure.

Be prepared… Your muscles are going to get fatigued as you progress through this workout. Whatever you do, never compromise on form. If you find that performing the exercises properly becomes too challenging, cut down on the number of repetitions. And if you can only get through part of the workout, celebrate your accomplishment, take a rest day and try it again.  Before you know it you’ll be pushing through to the end and loving it!

Make sure to warm up for a couple of minutes before jumping into this workout —  Take a quick walk around the block, jog in place. or run up and down a flight of stairs a handful of times.  Do a few straight leg kicks to loosen up your hips and stretch your hamstrings, and some arm circles to get your shoulders warmed up.

Alright, crank up some energetic tunes and HAVE FUN!!!

FastFuriousLadderWorkoutWO

Not sure how to properly execute all these exercises?

I’ll be shooting a series of videos very soon in the meantime here are some tutorials that should be helpful:

Squat

The squat is a fabulous exercise which, properly executed, calls upon all your leg muscles so you get that nice, balanced sculpting.

Jumping Jacks

I suspect we’ve all been doing these since childhood 🙂

  • Start standing with feet together, hands by your side.
  • Jump both feet out as you raise hands overhead.
  • Jump back to starting position

Reverse Lunge

Push Up

The push up is one of these exercises that feels intimidating for a lot of women.  If that’s you, check out my post with a step by step progression on how to execute a push up with proper form.

Lateral Lunge

This is a great exercise for targeting that inner thigh.

<

Reverse Lunge with Kick

You can execute this with a straight kick as illustrated in the video below, or by bringing a bent knee up towards your stomach which most find a little less challenging. Make sure to engage your core as you bring your knee or leg up. If you find yourself struggling to maintain balance, place your hand on a wall or table for support.

Dips

This exercise isolates the tricep, that smaller muscle in the back of the arm. You’ll need an elevated platform of some sort to get the most out of this one. If you have a bench great. Otherwise you can use a coffee table or even a chair as long as it is stable.

Mountain Climbers

Mountain climbers are a great full body workout. Keep your core engaged and your hips low. No booty in the air please, that puts too much strain on your back and keeps you from getting the full benefit of this exercise.

1 rep = right leg + left leg

Bicycles

A fabulous core workout 🙂

Plank Hold

Yes the plank! One of my favorite exercises for overall core strengthening because it is super effective! You can do this on your forearms or with extended arms, whichever you prefer. Just remember to keep your core engaged and if you do this with straight arms you are putting a little more pressure on your shoulders.

Don’t forget to let me know how it goes and if you’d like to see more of these in future Fitness Fridays.

ValerieSignature1

Comments

  1. Darlene Wright says:

    This looks tough to me!

  2. Wow…looks like a challenge!

  3. Sounds like hard work!

  4. Hina momin says:

    Good looks like a challenge! 🙂

  5. It definitely looks like a challenge – but it also looks like a GREAT workout! Thanks!

  6. I am so out of shape I think this might kill me if I didn’t work up to it! Looks like a challenging and awesome workout.

    • It’s not something you want to jump into if you have not worked out for a while Julie but you can absolutely work up to it. Start with the base plus one or two of the exercises. You can go in the order I give you or pick two or three that you feel comfortable with. Whatever you decide make sure you start doing some physical activity at least 3 or 4 times a week. The hardest part is getting started but you’ll start seeing and feeling a difference soon enough if you stay committed and it only gets easier as you keep at it. Good luck!

  7. This looks like a great workout but I’m afraid I am too out of shape to tackle it all at one time. I would probably have to break it up into increments so it would be manageable for me. I appreciate you sharing your workouts because I really do need the extra push to get off the couch more!

    • You are most welcome Andrea and you are right on with how to approach this. Ease into it, but push a little so you feel good about your commitment. The hardest part is getting started. Those first few workouts are going to feel the hardest. But if you stick to it, and slowly add on, you’ll start to see and FEEL a difference and you’ll have created a healthy habit for yourself that you can keep building on. Good luck!!

  8. Alright, I’m ready! I’ll give it a shot & see how many I can do. Think I’ll have to work up to a respectable number.

  9. This looks like a hard core workout. I am so out of shape since having my youngest 8 months ago.

    • Congratulations on your little one Alicia. What a blessing! There’s only one way to get back into shape and that’s one day at a time. Ease back into it. A little bit every day, whether it be a walk, running after our little one, flying her on your feet, or taking fifteen minutes to do as much of this workout as you can. This is a tough workout but the beauty of it is that you can do as much or as little of it as you want. So if all you can do right now is the base, do that consistently for a few days then add whichever exercise looks inviting to you. Add another one a few days later. Before you know you’ll be feeling strong and loving it!

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.