Campus laddering


Considered as the most basic campus exercise, you make upwards ladder-like movements on a campusboard.



  • Moderate

Muscles Involved

  • Lats
  • Shoulders


  • Campusboard
  • Weight Belt

Remark or addition


  • The ladder is the campus exercise you start with. Laddering is an alternately hand over hand exercise where you repeat the same upward movement on the campus board without using the feet.
  1. Hang on the starting rung of your campus-board in a semi-open hand position with your hands at shoulder width.
  2. In the first movement you fluently move your left or right hand to the next rung. You chose the movements you make by skipping or not skipping rungs in between. The more rungs you skip the harder the laddering will become.
  3. To finish of the exercise you should match your second hand on the top rung. Jump off or campus back down to end the exercise.
  • Aim for 3 sets of 8 moves with 3 - 5 minutes rest between the sets.

Points of attention

  • Always start your set with your weakest hand first and as you move trough the set you should switch hands each time.
  • Keep your body straight at all times. Once your body gets out of balance, the risk of injury gets higher.
  • Do not perform this exercise if you get pumped forearms.
  • If you feel pain at any time during the exercise, stop immediately!

Progression Ladder

  1. If laddering without feet is not yet an option, you can perform this exercise by using the footholds under the campus-board. This way you reduce the force required by the fingers and forearms.
  2. Change the number of rungs you skip or change the height in between the rungs.
  3. You can change the angle of the campus board with steps of 5 degrees to make it hard or easier.
  4. Change to a campus-board with smaller or bigger rungs.
  5. Add a dead point just before each contact.
  6. Add a weight-belt around your hips to increase the weight. Use steps of 1kg at a time.