Medicine Ball Chest Press
The medicine ball chest pass is a great core and upper body strength exercise. Grab a medicine ball with both hands and hold it against your chest while assuming athletic position. Execute a two-handed chest pass and pass the medicine ball against a solid wall. Catch the ball on the rebound while trying to keep your core stable. Repeat this movement for the desired number of repetitions.
Below is 3rd Round 95th overall First Year Draft Pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks Keon Broxton performing the Medicine Ball Chess Pass.
During the Medicine Ball Chest Pass focus on:
- Explosive throws
- Do not favor one side while passing
- Don’t throw your thumbs down like a basketball chest pass
Major League Baseball Teams often use the off season and preseason to develop programs that focus on making improvement in movement skill and muscular development by improving joint stability and joint motion. This foundation will help reduce the chances for injuries, make further gains in strength and progress to complex movement patterns where higher intensity training can be implemented (1). If baseball players are unable to stabilize the (scapulae, vertebrae and hips) in a static position then advancement to dynamic situations requiring similar patterns of stability may create movement dysfunctions and the potential for subsequent injury(2). As a result, the initial phase of all baseball strength and conditioning programs should include exercises focusing on isometric stability, with a specification on pelvic, vertebral and scapular control. As baseball requires dynamic movement in the frontal, sagittal and transverse plane of the human body, the medicine ball chest press is a creative exercises that requires the athlete to stabilize one joint or body segment while moving another to produce better neuromuscular conditioning while still promoting local strength gains(3).
- Hodges PW and Richardson CA. Inefficient muscular stabilization of lumbar spine associated with low back pain: A motor control eval of transverse abdominis
- Jantzen KJ, Oullier O, and Scott Kelso JA. Neuroimagin coordination dynamics in the sport sciences. Methods 45: 325-335, 2008
- McMullen J and Uhl TL. A kinetic chain approach for shoulder rehabilitation. J Athl Train 35: 329-337, 200
Love this exercise…one of my favs…like doing this one kneeling as well…Power moves like this really get the heart rate going as well…nice exercise and site!