Medicine balls are underrated, in my opinion. You can use them to improve your core stability, increase your strength, and test your cardio.
However, I think their most powerful benefit is their ability to crush stress.
I have a personal training client who often arrives at our sessions feeling tense, so we start her workouts with high-energy ball slams.
Throwing the heavy ball repeatedly against the floor increases her heart rate and helps shift her mindset.
Recently, I realized that my own stress levels seemed to be rising, and I wanted to find a way manage this.
I grabbed my two heavy medicine balls and decided to try slamming them into the floor for 30 days. Here’s what happened.
It helped me decompress
Mornings are busy in my house, with two young daughters to coerce out of bed and off to school, all before 8am.
There’s little time for anything other than breakfast and teeth cleaning. If I’m lucky, the kids will also brush their hair before it’s time to go.
When I get home after the school drop-off, it takes time to decompress, and ball slams really help with that.
I got into the habit of jumping out of my car and heading to my backyard for the ball slams as soon as I was home. Without fail, I always felt calmer after.
This high-energy movement forced me to focus, and the combination of intense concentration and physical exertion was a natural stress reliever.
My upper body and core strength increased
A ball slam is an explosive full-body exercise that works multiple muscles.
Specifically, it targets the core (the rectus abdominis and the obliques) as well as the pecs (chest), shoulders, and triceps.
I definitely felt stronger in my upper body and midline after 30 days doing the move.
I’d love to say slamming the medicine ball helped improve my coordination, but I still found myself dropping the ball at the end of the month-long challenge. It will take more than just one exercise to fix my natural clumsiness!
My cardio fitness improved
I don’t do much cardio, as I prefer strength training and mobility work. But I really enjoyed my daily slams and it felt good to get my heart pumping, especially on colder mornings.
Doing some extra cardio had a big impact on my energy levels and I found I had more stamina when doing other types of exercise, including cycling to school with the girls.
Improved cardiovascular fitness is also said to help with circulation—so I’m going to keep doing daily slams to see if this improves, which might help me stay warm over winter.
How to do a wall slam
- Stand with legs hip-width apart, knees bent slightly and core braced.
- Hold a medicine ball overhead with straight arms.
- Throw the ball onto the ground with as much force as you can.
My wall slam program
Week one: 10-20 wall slams, 7.5lb ball
Week two: 30 wall slams, 17.5-22lb ball
Week three: 10-20 wall slams, 22lb ball
Week four, 30 wall slams, 122lb ball
