Wave Ladders

CT - I’ve wanted to try your Wave Ladders since the article was first published. Does this plan look doable for a strength phase with some hypertrophy hopefully? Thanks very much for any input.

My plan is to hit my primary lifts (Bench, Push Press, TBDL, SGHP, Chinese Row) twice per week on a 4-day schedule. I wanted to include wave ladders once per week per lift. Plus submaximal ramping once per week per lift to practice each lift a second time without causing a lot of fatigue and to get activated for the wave ladders (plus I enjoy ramping and have not done them in a year).

Farmer’s walks are included twice a week to hit the traps with a little conditioning element. I havent been squatting in a while due to a knee issue, but TBDL is good enough for me as a 2-for-1 lift.

RAMPING SCHEDULE - Submaximal training maxes for the day. The final weight can be repeated once or twice if desired (or dropped 5-10 lbs for one or two backoff sets if the final ramp set was a bit too slow).

Week 1: 3RM
Week 2: 2RM
Week 3: 1RM
Week 4: 3RM
Week 5: 2RM
Week 6: 1RM

WAVE LADDERS - As the original article describes, plus slow mTOR eccentrics during first couple waves until the weight gets too heavy. Followed by density section with 80% of the final wave for 30 reps AFAP.

DAY 1 - PULL
SGHP ramp
TBDL wave ladders
TBDL density
Chinese DB row 4x6-8

DAY 2 - PUSH
Push Press ramp
Bench press wave ladders
Bench press density
Famer’s carry 3-5 x 30 sec

DAY 3 - PULL
TBDL ramp
SGHP wave ladders
SGHP density
Chinese BB row 5 x 4-6

DAY 4 - PUSH
Bench press ramp
Push press wave ladders
Push press density
Farmer’s carry 3-5 x 45 sec

For the record, I tweaked this a bit to keep the sessions shorter. Got rid of the ramp, each day starts with wave ladders on the main lift and then CT’s “long cluster triples”… using 70-75% of max… 30 total reps in 6 minutes or less (for each exercise). Then either farmers walk on push days or Chinese row on pull days. Military press is focused on the technique shown in CT’s recent post on hitting the lateral portion on the delts. Curls can be done in between benching waves if I don’t do SGHP the very next day. I’ve done two days of it and really like this setup, looking forward to the next 4-6 weeks.

Day 1
TBDL wave ladder
SGHP long cluster triples
Chinese DB row 4x6-8

Day 2
Incline tilt bench wave ladders
Military press long cluster triples
Trap bar farmers walk 3-5x30sec

Day 3
SGHP wave ladder
TBDL long cluster triples
Chinese BB row 5x4-6

Day 4
Military press wave ladder
Incline tilt bench long cluster triples
DB farmers walk 3-5x45 sec