I am sure you have noticed all those colourful balls sitting in the corner of the gym! You might have even picked up some courage and copied the gym regulars and slammed some of those colourful balls into the floor! Feels good doesn't it? But what else can you do with a Slam Ball?

The modern medicine ball is possibly one of the oldest pieces of fitness equipment in history with some studies suggesting a form of medicine ball being used by both Hippocrates and Romans whereby they would throw around sand-filled bladders as a form of exercise. And if it was good enough for the gladiators then I am sure we could benefit from this piece of equipment as well.

Medicine balls are highly versatile and come in a number of different varieties. With a bit of knowledge you can literally power up your training sessions and reap the benefits.

Increasing Your Power

As Britain's Strongman 2020 champion and Mirafit ambassador Adam Bishop mentions, “Any athletic endeavor apart from darts requires some form of power.” And it is with power that medicine balls are primarily associated with. 

When training for power we want the muscles to contract as explosively as possible.  You will be limited in doing this with standard training equipment, unless you are happy throwing a dumbbell across the gym floor. However, with medicine balls you are able to slam, throw and toss them to your heart's content and no one will raise an eyebrow.

The throwing of medicine balls are instrumental in developing power because you are able to keep accelerating through the release point whereas, with standard gym equipment you will naturally decelerate towards the end of the movement.

There is another benefit to training power with medicine balls that Adam is also quick to point out and that is the level of technical skill required to perform power training. The holy grail of power training is the snatch and the clean and jerk. These exercises require years to master the movements. However with medicine balls the movements are far easier to learn and generally only require brief instructions, allowing you to get immediate benefits from power training.

Power Training Tip

Follow Adam's advice and include medicine ball exercises at the beginning of your workout. This is because power training requires high neural recruitment and once you have a build up of fatigue you will lose the training benefits. Perform lower reps but with highly explosive movements and longer rests.

Functional Strength and Stability

When talking about medicine balls we tend to get caught up with power training and we often lose sight of the fact that they can still provide a great stimulus for strength training. Standard gym equipment generally occurs in a single plane of motion. However human motion usually occurs by using a combination of three planes of motion. A medicine ball allows you to work through multiple planes very easily.

For instance you could do a lunge with a medicine ball rotation and you would be using both the forwards and rotational planes. By shifting the weight of the medicine ball through the different movement patterns your muscles also have to work to maintain its posture and not lose it’s balance. This is not only good for the general population but has powerful implications for rehab training and training of the elderly by challenging their stability and ultimately making them less prone to falling.

Another benefit of being able to move through multiple planes is that you can mimic sports skills and develop more strength and power for these sports skills. For example you could be throwing a medicine ball against a wall to improve your golf drive.

Functional Training Tip

Insert medicine ball exercises into your program where appropriate and remember to start with a lighter weight to allow you to adapt to the stability demands before increasing weight.

Metabolic Conditioning

If improving strength, stability and power is not enough to convince you of the benefits of the medicine ball, then we can also include metabolic conditioning. You can maximise your calorie expenditure during a strength workout by including a medicine ball exercise between exercises.

Select an exercise that requires a high recruitment of muscles such as medicine ball squat and throws against a wall. Do 30 seconds of continuous exercise to increase your heart rate before returning to your exercises. This will maximise your training time, burn more calories and result in a more interesting workout.

Metabolic Training Tip

Perform a high number of reps or repeat the exercise for a set time period such as 30 seconds. Include the medicine ball exercise during your rest periods between sets or exercises.

What Size Medicine Ball Should You Use?

This might be more important than it sounds. I won’t mention names, but I have seen an over zealous individual end up in a confused daze as they slammed a bouncing medicine ball into the floor as hard as possible only to be knocked out when the ball rebounded into his face. Being scraped off the gym floor with blood pouring from your nose is not the way you want to finish your gym session. Medicine balls can be grouped into the following categories.

Slam Balls

High durability balls that don't bounce - great for granny tosses, squats and throws

Wall Balls

Balls that, when thrown at a wall, rebound to the thrower, making it easy to do the next rep - great for side wall throws

Medicine Balls with Handles

Balls with hand grips - great for lunges and wood choppers

So now that you don't have an excuse, the next time that you are in the gym don’t ignore those colourful balls and make your training session more interesting along with the added benefits that medicine balls offer. Here are some of our favourite medicine ball exercises.

Granny Toss

Using a Slam Ball, stand with your feet just wider than your hips. Keep a neutral spine, lean forward and bend the knees so that the ball is between your knees. Now explode upwards by driving through your hips and swing your arms forwards and upward to throw the ball "through the roof." Let it land behind you and then start again.

Squats and Throws

Start half a meter away from the wall with your feet just wider than your shoulders and the wall ball held to your chest. Lower yourself into a squat, explode upwards and push the medicine ball out of your chest to hit the wall as high as possible. Catch the ball on it's return and repeat.

Medicine Ball Slams

Hold the slam ball between your hands and extend your arms above your head. Keeping your core muscles tight, explosively slam the ball into the floor, allowing your knees to bend in the movement. Pick up the ball and repeat.

Half Kneeling Medicine Ball Throw

Stand perpendicular to a wall, about 2m away. Lower yourself into a lunge position with the knee of the leg furthest away from the wall on the ground and the opposite leg bent in front of you. Holding the Wall Ball with straight arms in front of you, rotate explosively and release the ball to the wall. Catch the ball on the rebound and repeat.

Medicine Ball Woodchop

Stand with your feet just wider than your shoulders. Hold the medicine ball with straight arms and then squat and rotate to one side to touch the medicine ball to the outside of one foot. With the arms still straight, return to a standing position and lift the medicine ball over the shoulder on the opposite side to where you touched the floor.

Written by guest author Brendan McBirnie.

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Tags: Equipment > Medicine Balls and Slam Balls ; Exercise Type > Strength