Herman Goerner

One of my favorite ladders to work with is inspired by a girevik of yesteryear, Herman Goerner, I discovered via Zach Even-Esh. It entails performing a snatch followed by a press, returned to the hang and immediately cleaned and pressed again. Any variation of the movements is acceptable, and in my gym welcomed. I've been doing these movements for a long time, but put together in this precise manner was something that I knew immediately I should have been doing for a very long time. I use DB's, KB's, or even BB's. I get a much different response from all the different implements, but if I only had ONE tool to use, I would be super excited about it nonetheless. The KB's allow a more fluid, cyclical and circular movement, so to speak, while the DB's are more linear. Both address the unilateral elements of training, which often gets ignored by many athletes. One the other hand, the barbell will allow a much greater load to be used. I use a clean grip when using a barbell, and personally always use the power version of the lifts. So it goes like this...

snatch+press+clean+press

You have a few options here, three of which are repetition ladders, timed ladders, and weighted ladders. Pick the option that best suits your goals. I'm a strongman kinda guy, so I usually pick a light weight, do the complex for 1 rep with each hand, then go to the next biggest weight and go again for 1 rep. Start with maybe a 30 lb DB, and go up 5-10 lbs every time until you hit you're limit, then work back down. If you do repetition ladders, just add a rep every set, snatch press clean press snatch press clean press, then switch in that manner. And for time, just do what you can in a given time frame, and add some time to every set, say 10-20 seconds, it adds up quickly. I prefer doing timed sets with just one movement, like a snatch only for example, but there are no rules here, except the "Don't be a wanker" rule. I might even do some heavy rack quarter squats after my Goerner sets as well. See you on the other side.