The Ripped Ramp Review - Steel Squat Wedge

Learn More About the Ripped Ramp here

 

What Is The Ripped Ramp?

It's very simple...it's an 11 pound steel ramp with a 30 degree angle.

It's made of solid steel and, in my opinion, is strong enough that you could drive a car over it with no damage at all.

The top ramp surface is patterned for good grip.

And the bottom supports are rounded so that you can loop a band or bands underneath the ramp to use an anchor when doing an exercise like band squats (with heels elevated).

This is a unique feature that I haven't seen anywhere else.

This picture also shows you the rubber grips on the bottom of the ramp that help keep it from sliding, no matter what surface you've got it set on.

 

What Is The Ripped Ramp Used For?

The primary use of a ramp like this is for doing heels-elevated squatting. When calf flexibility is lacking for squats, elevating the heels can help you keep a more upright torso without pitching forward. This helps you to focus on the quads when squatting.

You can use the ramp in two ways...the first is with the balls of your feet on the floor, heels elevated (like this way best as I find it minimizes knee stress).

You can also set your entire foot on the ramp surface so you're higher up on it.

You can use whichever setup feels most comfortable to you.

It's also extremely useful as a calf raise apparatus.

Using it for calf raises is much more comfortable on the feet than a square-edged calf block and allows for a more natural movement pattern, I find.

I'll use this ramp in conjunction with a safety squat bar so that I can go hands-free and hold onto the rack for balance.

You can also do dumbbell calf raises, holding a dumbbell in one hand and holding a solid object with the other.

And there's a lot more you can do with it!

Here's an example of upper body training you can use the Ripped Ramp for. This is a close-grip push-up for triceps, moving into an overhead, arm extended position to work the triceps over a larger range of motion.

The angle of the ramp is perfect for this for minimizing wrist tension. It allows you to push directly back to get maximize tension on the triceps during the exercise.

This is an example of using the ramp for abdominal training.

I've got my feet pushing against a post (a wall will work, too) while sitting on the bottom part of the ramp.

At the bottom of the sit-up, the upper back is entirely over the edge of the ramp. This really "ramps" up the tension on the six-pack abs while allowing you to arch your back over that edge to get more stretch on the abs.

This is a great way to add resistance to the abdominal sit-up movement (you can put a towel over the ramp for a bit of padding, if you like).

One other fantastic use for the ramp is to assist in loading and unloading a heavy deadlift bar.

Rather than picking up the entire end of a loaded bar (which is a pain once you start getting into heavier weights), you can roll the bar end up the ramp, pull the plate off (or put it on ), then let it roll back down.

The ramp is built solid enough to take whatever weight you roll up on it.

All you need to make sure of is that the plate you're putting on or taking off is not on the ramp once you roll the bar up it.

 

The Bottom Line

The Ripped Ramp is a rock-solid piece of training equipment. I don't think you could break it even if you tried.

It's well-designed and has some really unique, innovative features to it (the rounded bottom sections, for example).

The only real downside I could find with this isn't even related to the main purpose of the ramp itself...and that's the lack of padding or rounded edges for doing upper body exercises with it.

It's primarily intended for standing on when doing lower body training, so I choose to use it for upper body work, that's my issue, not theirs :).

Overall, I like this piece of equipment a lot. It does exactly what it's intended to do and does it well. The design also gives you a lot of options for extending the usability of it into other areas of training.

Again, when you click the link to get to their "Products" page, you'll need to scroll down about 3/4 of the way to get to the Ripped Ramp listing.

 

Get your Ripped Ramp here