Ladder Exercises: 4 Incredible Things To Know

Ladder exercises are an important part of any gym workout training that focuses on making the body and mind strong at the same time.

If you are also a fitness freak and want to work on your mind and body simultaneously, then ladder exercises are what you need to know.

Ladder Exercises: Top 4 Incredible Things To Know

ladder exercise

Photo by abbs johnson on Unsplash

If you think that a ladder is used only for climbing walls and high roofs, then you are wrong. A ladder can be used as gym equipment too.

Even a ladder is one of the most important, unique, and innovative ways to exercise, which improves physical and mental health.

Let’s discuss some of the incredible facts about ladder exercises and how you can benefit from them. We shall also look for some of the best ladder exercises.

1. What Are Ladder Exercises

Before going for advanced knowledge on the topic, let’s start with the basic question of ladder exercises.

The name itself is sufficient to explain the workout plan. But if you are a newbie in the world of the gym, then don’t worry. Ladder exercises are such sorts of exercises that are done with the help of a ladder.

But the ladder is not as big as you think. Not the same as you use in your house. This ladder is equipment that is in the form of a small ladder for physical training made up of plastic or fibre.

It is used for improving our motor skills, body coordination, flexibility, heart health, and mental ability.

In ladder exercises, what one has to do is quickly move left-right, across the spokes of a ladder, and shuffle his movements. All of these movements have to be very fast, which makes our minds fast.

And the ladder, with the help of which you improves your speed or agility, is known as the agility ladder. And agility ladder exercises1 are called agility ladder drills.

This agility ladder is a 10 yards-long ladder that is used as training equipment. You can buy it online and offline at your convenience.

2. Some Agility Ladder Exercises

ladder exercises
Source: Depositphotos

There are many ladder exercise drills that you can perform. They are guided by the gym instructor and have to be done with caution. But there are some common agility ladder exercises which you can do.

These are common and very popular agility ladder training. However, some exercises depend on person to person, but anyone can perform these.

  1. Agility Ladder Exercises Warm-up

  • In this training program, starting with the basic workout under the plan is warm–up. Warm–ups are the basic and best way of starting any new exercise plan.
  • You can prepare your body for the new workout program here also. We have some of the warm–ups.
  • Under this warm-up, you can jog on the spot and make some dynamic moves. To raise your heart rate and loosen up your muscles.
  1. Carioca Agility Ladder Exercises

  • Carioca Agility2
  • After the warm-up, you can start your ladder exercise workout with this one of the common and basic moves to perform.
  • You can start by standing on the right side of the ladder. And then step sideways with your leading leg into the first box of the ladder.
  • Then cross – step your rear foot behind your lead into the second box of the ladder. Repeat the same with the opposite left foot and keep doing it until you reach the ladder’s last box.
  1. In And Out Ladder Drill3
  • Start this exercise by taking your feet apart from your hip width at the bottom of the ladder. Next, land with both feet and jump into the first box of the ladder.
  • As a next step, jump outside of the ladder opening your feet and landing on the outside of the ladder. Now jump into the third box of the ladder with your closed feet.
  • Repeat the same procedure unless you reach the last box of the ladder. Follow the same in the backward direction of the ladder.
  1. Ickey Shuffle Speed Ladder exercise4
  • Start this exercise with the left side of the ladder. Then take a later step to the right side of the ladder with your lead leg and step into the first square with your lead foot.
  • Then follow it just after it with your left foot and jump in the square with your left leg. Now step laterally with the left foot on the left side of the ladder and move the right foot to the ladder’s next box.
  • Continue this till the end of the ladder and follow the same procedure throughout the ladder. Repeat the same while coming for the backward of the ladder.
  1. High Knees Ladder Exercise5
  • Start this exercise by stepping into the first box of the ladder with both feet. Then run forward by lifting your knees high to the waist level, through the entire length of the ladder.
  • Also, bend your arms at 90 degrees and swing them back and forth so that you can generate momentum. This momentum will help you in your movement and jumping.
  • Continue this with the entire length of the ladder, and repeat the same in the backward directions.
  1. Two–footed Forward /Backward Jumps Ladder Exercises

  • One more ladder exercise in the list is this, first of all, stand facing the ladder. Then jump into the second box.
  • Now jump in the backward direction in the first box. Then jump forward in the third box of the ladder.
  • Repeat the same pattern throughout the ladder. The same procedure has to be repeated throughout the length of the ladder and in the backward direction.

3. Benefits Of Ladder Exercises

After discussing the ladder exercises and some of the main workouts, you can perform. Now it’s time to discuss the benefits of the ladder exercises.

  • Improves Speed

One of the most important benefits one could get from this workout plan is good speed. The workout plan aims at improving our speed through quick movements.

As you have studied in the above section, these exercises need a fast speed and quick movements.

So to match the level, you must have a fast speed. And that fast speed helps in our daily life also. In daily life, we come across many situations where we need fast speed. And then it becomes helpful to us.

  • Best Cardio Exercises

Cardio exercises are the best way to promote your heart health. And when you do ladder exercises at the proper and fast pace, it helps in cardio health.

Cardio health is the health of your heart. Our heart is the most important organ of the body. And good heart health prevents us from heart diseases.

This prevents us from the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and many other heart problems. And cardio exercises improve our heart health and heart-pumping speed.

So ladder exercises are very beneficial for heart health and prevent you from all these diseases.

  • Makes Your Body And Mind Strong

When the ladder exercises are done in the right manner, then it helps in making our body strong. Not only the body, but also gives strength to our mind.

Ladder exercises need a quick mind to perform all the workouts quickly. And this makes our minds fast and sharp.

A fast and sharp mind is very helpful in decision-making in our daily life.  It makes our body and minds strong and the tendons, joints, ligaments, focus, and coordination.

4. Precautions

precaution
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

As the ladder exercises are very intense cardio workouts. So it would be best if you took care of some of the precautions:

  • First of all, set up the ladder in the right place at your home or gym.
  • Space should be spacious, flat, and tidy so that you can perform your exercises properly with appropriate speed, pace, and foot landing.
  • As you are new to the ladder exercises so don’t be quick. Start your exercises at a slow speed. Take care of your movements and steps so you don’t fall.
  • When you are all set with the warm-ups and basic things, start with the basic ladder exercises. There are some basic and some advanced ladder exercises.
  • First try with the basic ones, with a slow speed and then at fast speed. And when you get used to it, come on the advanced ladder exercises with a slow and fast speed.
  • Last but not least, always challenge yourself. When you start with the basic exercises with time, get used to them.
  • And when you get used to it, it seems boring to you. So always give yourself a challenge so that the same exercises won’t feel boring.

Ladder exercises are becoming popular day by day because of the benefits it offers to the users. So don’t lag behind others. And give your body and mind a healthy and mindful workout program that is interesting too.

FAQs:

Q. What muscles do ladders work?
  • Agility ladder drills is a gym workout exercise that targets abs and calves and glutes & hip flexors and hamstrings and lower back and quadriceps and also involves biceps and shoulders and triceps.
Q. Can you do ladder drills every day?
  • Ladder drills can be completed every day as a warm-up. If you’re utilizing Kbands to help with muscle recruitment, it is suggested that you resist ladder drills every other day.
Q. What are the disadvantages of ladder drills?
  • Ladder drills may look cool on YouTube, and may be fun to perform, but young athletes should know that these drills have extremely little transfer to actual sport performance. The issue with agility ladders is that very little acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction occur.
  1. Chandrakumar, N., and C. Ramesh. “Effect of ladder drill and SAQ training on speed and agility among sports club badminton players.” International Journal of Applied Research 1.12 (2015): 527-529. ↩︎
  2. Alviana, Silva Icha, Edy Mintarto, and Agus Hariyanto. “The Effect of Exercise with Ladder Drill Slaloms and Carioca on Speed and Agility.” International Journal for Educational and Vocational Studies 2.1 (2020): 103-108. ↩︎
  3. Fatchurrahman, Faried, Andun Sudijandoko, and Achmad Widodo. “The comparison of the effect of ladder drills in out training and ladder drills ickey shuffle exercises on increasing speed and agility.” Jurnal SPORTIF: Jurnal Penelitian Pembelajaran 5.1 (2019): 154-165. ↩︎
  4. Pratama, Sandi Achmad. “Pengaruh Latihan Ladder Drill Icky Shuffle Terhadap Peningkatan Kelincahan Pemain Futsal SBI Dompu Tahun 2021.” Sportify Journal 1.2 (2021): 82-90. ↩︎
  5. Short, Trevor. “The effects of ladder training on sprint and change of direction performance.” (2018). ↩︎

Last Updated on by Muskan Mishra

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