I'd like to share a
cool conditioning workout that I came up with a few months ago in order to get
stronger and better conditioned in a short period of time. It incorporates the
concept of "Ladders" found in Pavel Tstatsouline's book "Power
to the People," In this book Pavel shares the training secrets of the
Soviet commandos and athletes he used to train with that allowed the Russians
to dominate other countries in the Olympics. This is really popular in the
Marines and SEALS, and we use this type of training to get really high pure
strength and strength endurance levels while still keeping up our long distance
running.
What are ladders?
Basically you will pick
an exercise and start at the "bottom" of the ladder doing anywhere
from 1-5 reps. You will rest the same number of seconds as reps per set. So if
I start doing 2 push ups, I would rest 2 seconds, do 4 push ups, rest 4 seconds
etc until I reached a specified number. You want to try to do as many reps as
possible without going to failure. This is different from a pyramid set in that
you stop at the top of ladder in this workout, but I a pyramid set you will go
up AND down. This is great for building muscle, but not for strength or muscle
definition. Ladders are an excellent tool that can be applied to almost any
workout plan. I absolutely love them.
My "Special
Forces" workout Finisher
You will need access to
a pull-up bar. You will be doing 3 "ladder super sets" of push-ups
and pull-ups. This means you will complete one push-up ladder and then
immediately transition to pull-ups without rest. After this "super
set" (performing 2 exercises back to back), you will take 30-60 sec rest
and then repeat at least 2 more times. Focus on getting perfect reps at a
medium pace and stop before you feel like you can't do anymore. If I'm getting
guys ready for the Marines or SEALS we will do the push up ladders from 2 reps
to 14 reps going up by 2 reps at a time, and we do pull-ups from 1 rep to 7
reps going up by 1 rep at a time, and repeat this cycle 4 times. We do this as
a bad ass finisher to a long ruck march or run pretty regularly and a lot of
guys can max out at least 100 push-ups and 20 pull-ups for our PT tests.
Why this type of
training builds a hard and "compact" physique
I love this workout
because it combines a few key training principles into a single session. The
ladder principle builds strength, stamina, and conditioning since a high volume
of reps is accumulated in a short period of time, but your muscles don't get
"pumped" because of the rest periods. By super setting pushing with
pulling exercises I took advantage of making opposing muscle groups help each
other out. Basically alternating pushing with pulling gives each muscle group a
rest while at the same time telling the central nervous system to start
connecting the neurons that fire the individual muscle fibers. Essentially
doing pull-ups will start to help doing pull-ups and vice versa. Pretty cool!
The more you compress the time frame of the workout, the more you will release
fat burning hormones to make it a conditioning workout as well.
How I used this
training method to double my regular pull-ups and master the One arm Pull-up
After doing this
workout for the past 6 months I've increased my pull-up max from 20 to 40 reps,
and push ups from 100 to 135 in 2 min. I also think it helped me to achieve one
arm pull-ups, which I just mastered about a week ago(and which I'll do a post
on soon!). Doing this type of high volume, low rep training with perfect form
has similar effects to a power-lifting cycle. In fact, a ladder workout is
basically an entire power lifting cycle compressed into a few minutes! The
really cool thing is that I never feel sore any more from doing burnout sets,
but my strength and conditioning level is still improving.
Hi,
My name is Charles
Malina and I run the health and fitness website
[http://www.enduringhealthmanual.com/]. My goal is to help you achieve and
exceed your health and fitness goals. I'm just a regular college student who
happens to be laser focused on getting and maintaining ideal health, fitness,
and longevity, and now I want to share my ideas and findings with you. I've
helped several individuals in the civilian and military worlds achieve their
physical and aesthetic goals, including varsity athletes and prospective
infantry and special warfare officers. Recently I've had enough requests for me
to provide personalized training and diet plans that I decided to place my
thoughts and findings online for free, enabling anyone access to them.
I'm focused on
combining diet and fitness tips that mainstream actors and models use to
achieve great looking bodies with training methods and secrets used by elite
athletes and military units. Essentially I want to help you achieve the ideal
body; perfectly functional and capable of extreme power output and endurance,
but at the same time aesthetically pleasing and attractive to the opposite sex.
All the best,
Charles Malina
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Charles_Malina/605297
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4155062
Video: https://www.youtube.com/user/Calisthenicmovement
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