If you bypass the medicine balls at the gym, you're missing out. "Med-ball drills might not look difficult, but professional athletes use them to train their muscles for extreme power," says Sean De Wispelaere, a coach for Thrive Training Systems, who demonstrated the tall-kneeling chest pass at Men's Health headquarters in Emmaus, Pennsylvania yesterday. Adding them to your weekly routine will help you jump higher, sprint faster, and accelerate faster. Those are skills you won't get from only picking up and putting down heavy weights, he says.
When most guys do this drill, they use their arms to throw the ball. But the key is to think of your body as a bow, and the ball as the arrow, says De Wispelaere. Hinge your hips back, snap them forward, and then release the ball. Powerfully extending your hips will help propel the ball to the wall with as much force as possible. "It's the same explosive movement pattern you see in the kettlebell swing and the hang clean," he says.
To start, De Wispelaere recommends performing 8 reps in a row using a 6-, 8-, or 10-pound medicine ball. Why so light? These drills are meant to build power, not take the place of iron. "A heavier load will give you more of a strength gain than a power gain," he says. So when you're ready to progress, don't increase the weight or reps. Instead, add more velocity and intensity to the move. One way to do this: Perform the move in a half-kneeling stance, so one knee is on the floor and the other is bent 90 degrees with your foot flat on the floor.
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