A Med Ball Slam Variation You're Missing!

Medicine balls are found in almost every single gym in the world. They are used for added resistance to abdominal exercises, or even thrown around for power movements. They are great and effective exercise tools. "Med ball" will be applied throughout today's post, just for training purposes. 

Med balls come in all colors, sizes, forms, and have different exteriors and interiors. For the exercise being worked on today, the best choice is a non-bouncing med ball with a tough rubber external shell, as shown below. Non-bouncing med balls are best for slams to avoid the possibility of having a bad finishing position and getting hit right in the face! Another training consideration when it comes to the med ball is weight. A 20 pound med ball isn't always necessary. A SPEED component needs to be used with certain med ball techniques, and because people cannot throw around heavy med balls without injuring themselves, lighter may be better in this case.

Med balls can be used to train more than just abs! Triple flexion and triple extension can both be trained with med balls. These two basic, yet vital, movement patterns are crucial for explosive movements such as a jumping or sprinting. Triple flexion involves flexion of the hips, knees, and ankles, while triple extension involves extending the same three joints. The med ball slam is a great exercise for developing triple and trunk flexion by getting your whole body involved in the movement. Slamming the ball into the ground as hard as you can produces a great deal of force. This employs many muscle groups such as those in the shoulders, abdominals, hips, and legs, commonly known as the anterior torso or core muscles. Most people have probably seen others at gyms doing med ball slams. This is where a person picks up a med ball overhead, engages their whole body by flexing the torso and going into triple flexion, extends the arms down, and drives the med ball hard into the ground. Just in case, I've added an image of the med ball slam here:

When done correctly, a slam is actually very useful for training the counter movement used milliseconds before going into a vertical jump. The end of the slam is actually identical to the eccentric (muscle lengthening) contraction used in plyometric movements, such as in a jump. The speed of the arms swinging down is crucial to generating an explosive amount of force. This helps reverse the arm action quickly right back up using concentric (muscle shortening) contractions that occur when jumping. This explosive eccentric-concentric muscle contraction combination is known as the stretch-shortening cycle.  

There's a way to continue this movement to use the posterior chain of the body as well. The posterior chain includes the muscle groups, tendons, and ligaments (mostly extensors) on the posterior of the body, such as the glutes, hamstrings, and upper and lower back muscles. Many of these are used when extending the body for the vertical jump mentioned earlier. The technique in today's post is a great exercise to develop power and explosiveness through both the anterior AND posterior chains of the body. How? By combining the med ball slam and the vertical jump into one continuous movement!

Medicine Ball Slam To Vertical Jump

To begin, elevate the med ball of choice overhead with the arms extended. Quickly generate as much force as possible and slam the ball into the ground. This triple-flexed end position should look like a landing position for a jump. That is, hips should be sitting back, with the arms back, shoulders above the knees, and the knees above the toes. Once the deceleration/end position of the slam is reached, the amortization, or transition phase, of the vertical jump has simultaneously been reached! Using the force just created through the slam, quickly reverse the arms back up into the air and use triple extension to jump as high as possible. Always remember to land softly after jumping, finishing in the landing position (hips sitting back, with the shoulders over knees over toes).

Here is the same technique from different view. Notice how at the end of the concentric action of the slam (middle picture) there's no valgus (inward) collapse of the knees. They are pushed out for proper form, as well as to 1) avoid hitting the legs with the ball or arms and to 2) prepare the body for the vertical jump that follows.

Due to the complexity of the movement and high involvement of the nervous system, it should be done at the beginning of a workout. This exercise should be done for 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions. To further increase intensity, pick a slightly heavier medicine ball. Although many athletes will benefit by including this exercise in their workouts, volleyball and basketball athletes should definitely add this move to their training programs to help with their plyometric training, and for its sports-specificity. If the goal to increase vertical jump height for rebounds and spikes, this move should really be a go-to. Go give it a try and have some fun with the med ball!

- Alex Adragna, CSCS