Jacobs Ladder is my favorite piece of cardio equipment at Spiece Fitness. Since I do group classes I don’t use it that often as I did in the past. This morning I climbed Jacobs Ladder after my chest training for a little cardio. I hardly see anyone use it and when I do it’s usually a beginner with a trainer. Most people are using the treadmills, ellipticals and other cardio machines. It’s probably intimidating to them and some tell me it looks hard to do.
Jacob’s Ladder arrived at Spiece around the Fall of 2013 and I remember Derek Frisk testing it out and showing me how to use it. Kit, my workout partner at the time, used one at a gym she trained at before coming to Spiece She would use it for her cardio workouts so I knew it was a good machine.
Before one uses the Jacob’s ladder, they must set a waist strap for their height measurement along a small rope. Next, the waist strap is adjusted to fit snugly around their waist and you snap it closed. This strap is used to regulate the speed of the motor as you climb the ladder and the rope stays taught. The faster you climb the ladder, the faster the rungs move because of the rope getting tighter.
Part of the directions
Jacob’s Ladder does take coordination to use because both hands and feet are moving on the rungs in unison. If it’s too much at first, it has vertical handles you may hold with your hands so you just use your legs and feet to climb the revolving ladder. When I use it, I climb with both hands and feet on the rungs for more of a work-out. The part of my body which feels it the most are usually my calves. Today I did 10 minutes on it and other times I’ve done 15 and 20 minutes. Once I did 30 minutes, but Kit was talking to me the whole time which kept my mind off of my fatigue. There is a TV in front of it to take your mind off of the exercise, but I always forget to set the channel before I get on it.
Try it out and for something unusual compared to the other cardio machines. It’s nice how many different machines we have at Spiece Fitness and this certainly is a unique one. If you’re reluctant to try it, I’ll show you how and before long you’ll be climbing the Jacobs Ladder of fitness success.
