maratoolStanding Two-Arm Overhead Throw
How to do the standing two-arm overhead throw
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart holding a medicine ball in both hands. To begin, reach the medicine ball deep behind your head as you bend the knees slightly and lean back.
- Violently throw the ball forward, flexing at the hip and using your whole body to complete the movement.
- The medicine ball can be thrown to a partner or to a wall, receiving it as it bounces back.
Muscles worked
The force comes from the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so they have to produce that force immediately on contact.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the chest adds pushing force at the shoulder; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.
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 plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.
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 shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Straight Raises on Incline Benchbarbell
- Two-Arm Kettlebell Cleankettlebell
- Upright Cable Rowcable
- Alternating Deltoid Raisedumbbell
- Back Flyes - With Bandsband
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 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 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.