Pace Ladders (This Time with Squats!)

A few years ago, I was spending a lot of time training with kettlebells and happened upon a work-rest scheme that, as far as I could tell, no one had hitherto written about - pace ladders (2009 blog post).

The idea of pace ladders was to have an interval scheme that started at a slow cadence then, over succeeding sets, progressed to a fast pace, then dropped back to the slow cadence to begin the progression again. This would be repeated as many (or as few) times as desired.

For example, one set I did for kettlebell snatches with a 53lb kettlebell was 30 second intervals, resting in the overhead position, 2 reps - 4 reps - 6 reps -8 reps -10 reps - 2 reps - 4 reps - 6 reps, switch hands and repeat. That's 84 reps in 8 minutes with one hand switch at a pace that varied from 4 reps/minute at its slowest to 20 reps/minute at its peak - not bad for one extended set!

I've recently started doing this rep scheme with squats. Understand, I'm not recommending this exactly, just telling you about the training I'm doing lately that is making the higher reps feel a little less laborious.

In this workout, I squat for 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The ladder consists of doing 1 rep for the first 20 seconds, 2 reps for the second, 3 reps for the third, 4 reps for the fourth, and 5 reps for the fifth 20 seconds. I do this twice.