maratoolOne-Arm Medicine Ball Slam
How to do the one-arm medicine ball slam
- Start in a standing position with a staggered, athletic stance. Hold a medicine ball in one hand, on the same side as your back leg. This will be your starting position.
- Begin by winding the arm, raising the medicine ball above your head. As you do so, extend through the hips, knees, and ankles to load up for the slam.
- At peak extension, flex the shoulders, spine, and hips to throw the ball hard into the ground directly in front of you.
- Catch the ball on the bounce and continue for the desired number of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
Every exercise for:AbdominalsLatsShoulders
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A medicine ball can be thrown and caught, which suits movements where you keep accelerating the load all the way through instead of decelerating it to spare a joint.
Every exercise using:Medicine ball
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Pallof Presscable
- Plankbody only
- Press Sit-Upbarbell
- Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Smith Machine Hip Raisemachine
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 69 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.