Medicine ball slams: how to do them, which ball to use and a session

A medicine ball slam is an overhead throw into the floor. You raise the ball above your head, throw it down hard with your whole body behind it, pick it up and repeat. It's done fast, so it gets used as a power exercise or a conditioning one. This page covers the setup, which ball to use, three versions, what the research found (not much), a session with sets and rest, and the faults.

The ball is also in the Russian twist, which is a different job: that one turns your trunk, and the slam throws. The jumps and clap push-ups that make good stand-ins are on plyometric exercises.

How to do a medicine ball slam

1. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, holding the ball at your chest, with a clear patch of floor a foot or so in front of your toes.
2. Raise the ball overhead as you rise onto your toes, arms long. Keep your ribs down rather than leaning back.
3. Throw it down hard into the floor in front of your feet, bending your knees and hips as you throw, and follow the ball down with your chest.
4. Pick it up by sitting back into a squat with your chest up, not by bending over and pulling.
5. Reset and go again. Each rep is a throw, so make it fast. When your reps start to slow, the set is over.

Which ball

These are practical points, not findings.

• A ball made for slamming. Soft-shell or sand-filled slam balls don't bounce. A bouncy medicine ball comes straight back at you.
• A weight you can throw fast. Many adults start somewhere between about 4 and 8 kilograms (roughly 9 to 18 pounds). Pick the weight you can raise overhead with your ribs down and still throw quickly for every rep. If the slams get slower, the ball is too heavy.
• A floor that can take it, such as rubber gym flooring or a mat, not tile.

Three versions

Change one thing at a time: first the standard slam, then the kneeling version if you want less leg, then the side slam once the standard one is smooth.

What the research found

Not much, for the slam itself. A PubMed search for this page found no trial that tested weeks of slams on their own and no study measuring muscle activity or intensity during a slam in adults. The closest evidence is on the family it belongs to.

• Upper-body plyometric training. A 2023 meta-analysis defines it 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, from various sport and fitness backgrounds, 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.¹
• Slams were among the exercises. Two of the programs the meta-analysis lists, both in boys aged about 12 to 13 who played tennis and both with a 2 kg ball, included an overhead slam among their medicine ball throws.¹
• The dose in those programs. The authors say an effective dose may involve a minimum of 4 weeks, 2 to 4 sessions a week, 1 to 6 exercises a session, 1 to 10 sets of each, about 12 reps a set on average (3 to 30, with the lower end usually at maximal effort), and 15 to 240 seconds of rest between sets and 48 to 96 hours between sessions. They also say further research is needed to establish the optimal dose.¹

So the slam is a reasonable way to do the kind of exercise that review studied, not one tested against the others. The muscles it uses are a description, not a measurement: it's an overhead reach and a fast fold forward, driven by the legs and hips, so the whole body takes part. No study here ranks which muscles work hardest.

A session with sets and rest

These are practical sessions, not protocols from a trial. The power block sits inside the ranges above. Warm up for five minutes first, with a few light slams to get the pattern.

• The power block goes first, right after the warm-up, when you can still throw fast. The finisher goes last.
• Twice a week, at least two days apart. That sits inside the review's 2 to 4 sessions a week and 48 to 96 hours between sessions.¹ Keep them off a heavy upper-body day if you can.
• For the finisher, use the talk test: a few words at most during the 20 seconds. The HIIT workout covers hard efforts and recovery.
• Add one thing at a time: a set, then a rep, then a heavier ball. Don't change the ball and the reps in the same week.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• The ball is too heavy. The slams get slow and your back arches. Go lighter.
• All arms. The ball drops but your legs stay still. Bend your knees and hips as it goes down.
• Leaning back overhead. Ribs down, and reach up rather than back.
• Standing too close. A slam ball can splash or roll back toward you. Take a step back.
• Bending over to pick it up. Sit back into a squat with your chest up.
• Slamming through something that hurts. Working hard is fine; a sharp or lasting hurt isn't. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Common questions

Are medicine ball slams good for abs?

A PubMed search for this page found no study that measured abdominal muscle activity in a slam, so there's no number to give. The slam is a whole-body throw, and if abs are the goal, the core workout covers exercises with studies behind them.

Medicine ball slam or Russian twist?

Different jobs. The slam throws the ball down in a straight line; the Russian twist turns your trunk from side to side. Both use a ball and they don't replace each other.

What can I do without a ball?

The nearest stand-ins are the other power exercises on plyometric exercises: squat jumps, broad jumps and clap push-ups.

How many slams should I do?

The power block above is 24 slams in four sets, twice a week. The review's programs averaged about 12 reps a set, with fewer reps usually at maximal effort.¹

If you'd rather have the week planned

A slam takes a minute to learn; deciding where power work goes in a week that already holds squats, presses and rows is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. How coaching works explains the rest, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: after your next warm-up, do four sets of six slams with a ball you can throw fast.