Medicine ball exercises: slams, wall balls, throws, twists and push-ups, and what the studies measured

A medicine ball is a weighted ball you can throw, slam, catch or hold. Because you can throw it, you can move it fast and let go. This page covers six ways to use one, a session labelled practical, and what the studies cited here measured. They are mostly about throwing, in athletes.

Two of the exercises have their own guides: medicine ball slams (which also explains which ball) and the Russian twist. The wall ball is a section of the thruster page.

Six exercises

The slam is described and sourced on its own page, so this one doesn't repeat it. The wall ball is covered there too, where the page says no study measured the wall ball on its own, so this page makes no claim about what it trains.

Throws: what the training trials found

Three trials added medicine ball work to sports training. They are all in young athletes, so they don't tell you what the same work does for anyone else.

• Handball players, 12 weeks. 21 young female handball players (average age about 17) added a medicine ball program to their regular sessions for 12 weeks; 10 players trained as usual. The ball group made larger gains in every medicine ball throw test, and in the power of the bench press and shoulder press. Both groups gained in the one-rep maxes of those lifts, with no difference between the groups.¹
• Handball players, 6 weeks. In 28 competitive female handball players, 15 trained with a medicine ball program three times a week for six weeks and 13 were controls. Throwing velocity rose about 14% in the ball group, a larger change than in the controls; throwing precision did not differ.²
• Baseball players, 12 weeks. In 49 high school baseball players, 25 added rotational and full-body medicine ball exercises three days a week to the same program as the other 24. Torso rotation and the medicine ball hitter's throw improved more with the ball work, and the predicted one-rep maxes for the squat and bench press rose in both groups with no difference between them.³

A 2023 meta-analysis puts these in a bigger frame. It defines upper-body plyometric training as exercises that use the muscle's stretch-shortening cycle, such as bench press throws and medicine ball throws. In 30 studies and 1,412 healthy male and female participants aged 7.3 to 27.2, it improved maximal strength (a small effect), medicine ball throw performance (a moderate effect), sport-specific throwing performance (a small effect) and upper-limb muscle volume (a moderate effect) compared with controls. The authors rate the certainty of the evidence as low or very low.⁴ Plyometric exercises covers the family.

The rotational throw and the trunk

In 30 athletes doing a side medicine ball throw with 2 kg, 4 kg and 6 kg balls, ball speed differed between the athletes who threw far and those who threw short at all three ball weights. In a second session, 10 athletes (five long throwers and five short ones) had muscle activity recorded in the chest, the rectus abdominis, the external oblique and the lat, and the main difference between the two groups was in the left external oblique.⁵ That compares two kinds of thrower; it isn't a training trial, and it doesn't say that throwing builds your obliques. It does record trunk muscle activity during a rotational throw.

The push-up on a ball

In 12 healthy men (average age about 23), push-ups on a medicine ball were compared with push-ups on a stable base. Deltoid activity was always greater on the ball, and so was activity in the pectoralis major (the chest) in the push-up. The wall press on the ball also raised upper trapezius activity, and the bench press showed no difference between bases.⁶ Activity in a short test isn't growth, and these were healthy young men. As practical advice, if you try it, start with your knees down.

A medicine ball session

Practical, not a protocol from a trial. Pick a ball light enough to throw fast: slams and throws are about speed. Throw to a sturdy wall or a partner you've warned, and clear the space.

The dose in the meta-analysis above ranged widely (about 12 reps a set on average, with 15 to 240 seconds of rest between sets), and the authors say more research is needed to establish the optimal dose.⁴ The table above is a start, not a prescription. Twice a week sits inside the 2 to 4 sessions a week the authors cite, in athletes. Stop a set when the throws slow down. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand, which covers healthy adults, advises at least two sets per exercise for strength work.⁷

Common questions

Are medicine ball exercises good for abs?

They put the trunk to work: in 10 athletes the side throw recorded activity in the rectus abdominis and the external oblique.⁵ That's a measurement of activity, not abs growth. The core workout has the core block.

What weight medicine ball should I use?

In the throw study, athletes threw 2 kg, 4 kg and 6 kg balls.⁵ As practical advice for you: pick one you can throw fast; if a throw slows right away, the ball is too heavy for that exercise.

Medicine ball or dumbbells?

No study cited here compares them. As practical advice, they're used differently: a dumbbell for slow, loaded sets, a medicine ball for moving something fast.

Can I do medicine ball exercises at home?

Yes. As practical advice: use a wall you can throw against without damage, or skip the wall, since slams and twists only need a floor and a ball. A soft ball made to be thrown and caught suits wall balls and wall throws; a slam ball is for the floor.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

Throws are quick, but where they go, before the lifts or at the end of a session, depends on what the rest of your week is trying to do. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the equipment you have and the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: try the first three rows of the table this week and write down the ball's weight.