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Explosion Ladder Training
Explosion Ladder - Backwards Walking
Purpose
- Trains upper body pulling and climbing strength that works the grip, biceps, shoulders, lats and middle back.
- Coming back down the ladder is a great coordination and single arm eccentric strength exercise, that develops core strength when stabilising the body against swinging and rotation.
Execution
- Take your time and take it slow when learning, and always ensure you have a safety matt under the ladder when practicing.
- Start in a position underneath the bottom rung of the ladder, so your back faces the direction of the top of the ladder.
- Reach up and grip the bottom rung with your palms facing away from you.
- Lift yourself up into a half chin up, then reach one arm up to the next rung.
- Keep the tension in the arms, pulling with both arms again, and reaching to the next rung.
- Continue upward till you reach the top.
- On the top rung, walk your hands around, so your back faces down the ladder.
- Reach one arm back and down, aiming to grab hold of the next rung down.
- Create tension in the bottom arm, then eccentrically lower your body as you let go of the top arm.
- Control the swing of your body, and grab the next rung as you lower under control.
- Continue to walk backwards, by alternating your arms, eccentrically lowering and controlling the swing as you reach for the next rung.
Tech Points
- Hold on tight by ensuring you have a full grip around the bar.
- The tighter you squeeze the bar, the more tension you can create for lowering your body.
- Coming down the ladder requires a lot of control and eccentric strength so take it slow.
- As you descend backwards, make sure you reach back and grip tight first, don’t rush, then release and reach again. Hold for a second to gain balance with each and every repetition of reaching back and griping.
Explosion Ladder - Lateral Jump
Purpose
- Trains upper body pulling power and hand eye coordination.
- Adds frontal plane movement and asymmetrical loading through the torso, arms and shoulders.
- This is also a great integrated core exercise, where the torso needs to be stabilised to create lateral movement whilst the hips and legs generate momentum to assist with the pull.
Execution
- Ensure explosive single ladder jumps have been mastered before moving to this advanced variation, as well as having a crash matt under the ladder for safety.
- Set up underneath the bottom two rungs of the ladder, so you face parallel along the ladder.
- Reach up and grip the two bars, so one arm is held straight and the other bent.
- Lift yourself from the floor.
- To begin the kip, push your chest forward, and swing the hips back with straight legs.
- Swing your legs forward and pull your knees upward, using the momentum created to pull with the arms explosively to jump slightly laterally.
- As you jump, pull your arms downward toward your body, so you don’t catch your hands as you reach up again to grab the next rung. The hands should travel in a J or U shaped pattern, down, quickly around the bars and up to the next rungs.
- Look to the rungs you are traveling to and wrap your hands quickly into a full grip, aim to snatch at the bars.
- Let yourself extend, straighten the legs, swing the hips back and push your chest forward into the next kip.
Tech Points
- When beginning this variation, only perform a single repetition or only travel up a single set of rungs and back down one set. Practice this a few times before traveling further.
- Build the number of rungs travelled and reps slowly by progressing up the ladder when you are ready.
- Timing and rhythm are very important. Take it slow to begin with.
- When grabbing the next rungs, remember to bring the arms down and around in a J or U pattern. The lowest hand needs to clear the rung it’s on, or it will clip the bar and cause you to fall.
- Use the kip and your hips to generate speed and power.
Explosion Ladder - Single Jumps
Purpose
- This is a plyometric chin up, used for generating and developing power and speed for climbing, whilst targeting grip and hand strength.
- Works the shoulders, chest, grip, arms, back, hip flexors and anterior core.
- This is a great integrated, sagittal plane dominant core exercise utilising the abdominals and hip flexors.
Execution
- Ensure you have mastered hand walking up and down the ladder as well as a minimum of 10 full range, strict chin-ups before attempting the full variation of this exercise.
- Always use a crash mat under the ladder when preforming exercises.
- Set up underneath the bottom rung of the ladder, so your back faces in the direction of the top of the ladder.
- Reach up and grip the bottom bar in a full and tight grip.
- Lift yourself from the floor, looking slightly backward to spot the next rung of the ladder.
- To begin the kip, push your chest forward, allowing the hips to swing back with straight legs, still trying to spot where you want to go.
- Pull your body back sharply and swing your legs forward, bending the knees and bringing them up upward and toward the body.
- Use this momentum to initiate the chin up, pulling explosively with the arms, but aiming to travel backwards as well as upward. Keep looking at the rung to want to travel to.
- Release the bar as you travel backward and up, scooping the hands down and shooting them quickly onto the next rung in the ladder.
- Holding on tight, let the arms extend and body fall, moving straight into another kip, pushing the chest forward and swinging the legs and hips back.
- Continue to use rhythm and timing to swing and pull up and down the ladder.
Tech Points
- Timing is everything so you can move smoothly up and down the ladder.
- To begin with, only move up one rung, then down one rung. Build your reps and rungs over time.
- Take it slow initially, using a single kip to move to the next rung. Once you move, let yourself fall to a dead hang and stop, before trying another kip.
- As you jump, pull your arms down and around in an arc, so you don’t clip your hands on the next rung traveling upward.
Explosion Ladder - Triple Jumps
Purpose
- This is a very advanced plyometric chin up, used for generating power and speed for climbing.
- This is a tremendous power building exercise, requiring coordination, rhythm, timing and precision.
Execution
- Ensure single and double jumps have been mastered before attempting this advanced variation.
- Always use a crash mat under the ladder for safety.
- Set up underneath the bottom rung of the ladder.
- Reach up and grip the bar in a full grip.
- The kip needs to be very explosive, so be forceful with the swing and pull, it has to be sharp and with purpose.
- To begin the kip, pull yourself into a half chin up for extra momentum.
- Throw your chest, legs and hips forward, looking back to the rung you wish to travel to.
- From this forwards position, allow the body to start to swing back, pulling the legs and knees up toward the body.
- Pull hard with the arms, still looking to the rung you wish to travel to, aiming to travel backwards and upwards.
- Release the hands and allow the body to jump, pulling the hands into the body, then shooting them up to the rung you want to travel to.
- Snatch at the bar with a full grip.
- At this point, reset and move into a dead hang. Get ready to repeat for another rep.
- If you have completed single reps, you can try to use rhythm and timing to move from rep to rep and bar to bar.
- Treat the rhythm and timing the same as for the single jump exercise, just accentuate the movement and kip.
Tech Points
- Remember to use your legs and body to generate power and speed.
- Always look to where you are going and snatch at the bar with a forceful grip.
- Timing is everything so you can move smoothly up and down the ladder.
- Take it slow to begin with, only moving up three rungs and down three rungs.
- As you jump, pull your arms down and around in an arc, so you don’t clip your hands on the rungs traveling upward.
Explosion Ladder - Zig Zag
Purpose
- This is a plyometric chin up, used for generating power and speed for climbing.
- This is a great variation of the jumping exercises that shares frontal and sagittal planes of motion, whilst traveling and redirecting energy from one direction into another.
Execution
- Ensure single jumps have been mastered before attempting this variation.
- Always use a crash mat under the ladder for safety.
- Set up underneath the bottom rung of the ladder, moving over to one side of the ladder.
- Reach up and grip the bottom bar in a full and tight grip.
- Lift yourself from the floor, looking slightly backward and diagonally upward to spot where you wish to go.
- Essentially the kip is the same as for the single jump, except instead of focusing all of your energy moving forward, you need to move diagonally and laterally.
- As you pull your legs up toward the body aim to move your left knee in the direction of your right elbow and vice versa, aiming to generate power in a diagonal direction.
- Pull with the arms, look over to where you want to go, and release the bar, snatching the hands down and up to the other side of the next ladder rung.
- Allow the body to swing into the next rep, moving the head to look at the next direction of travel.
- Redirect the swing, aiming to travel upward and to the other side of the ladder.
Tech Points
- Get the hang of only moving up and down one rung before moving higher.
- When starting at the bottom, be mindful of the upright of the cage so you don’t diagonally swing into the upright.
- Start with small zig zags before move across the full width of the cage.
- Remember to use your legs and body to generate power and speed.
- Always look to where you are going and snatch at the bar with a forceful grip.
- Timing is everything so you can move smoothly up and down the ladder