One minute “toss and catch” for whole body fitness

Medicine ball training is a dynamic way to develop strength, stability, balance, explosive power, whole body endurance, and physical control. Last week’s video showed a solo exercise for upper body strength and spinal health. In today’s video article MMA trainer Alan Orr shows you how to toss and catch the medicine ball with a partner, in a specific way that develop whole body, synergistic power and strength. This is great for athletes of all sports, rehab and those looking to increase muscle tone and strength overall. And it takes just one minute.

Types of medicine balls

The medicine ball used here has a sand bag in it which makes it harder to hold, which is great for developing core strength. Other medicine balls are densely filled with fabric making them heavy but more balanced and easier to manage. You can visit a gym or fitness store and see which is perfect for your needs.

Avoid poor posture pitfalls

The key to doing any kind of catching exercise is first to soften your joints. If your partner tosses you the ball and you catch it with locked joints and a stiff body, the ball can slam into your chest, or otherwise cause quite a bit of shock force which can damage your spine and back. Another common error is that people tend to catch the ball with a stiff body (for upper body strength) and then do a squat (for lower body strength.

Utilizing proper form will generate best results

The proper way is to catch it with supple joints. You want to relax (just enough) the joints of your arms, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles to absorb the force and weight of the on-coming ball.

It is safer and more dynamic and synergistic to have supple joints and catch and squat all in the same motion, then come out of the squat and toss the ball in the next half of the same motion. There should be one continuous motion with no jerky movements or stops along the way.

In this method you are working all your muscles, putting less strain on your joints, working your proprioception and also a form of plyometric exercise. Toss the ball back and forth with a partner for a set amount of time, rather than reps, and try to increase that duration over time. Maybe begin with 15 seconds, 30 seconds and build up to a minute or two or more as you are safely able to perform without losing proper form.

More difficult than it seems

You’ll be surprised how difficult this seemingly-simple ball catch exercise really is, and how quickly your muscles and cardio system fatigues. Over time your dynamic and explosive strength and lung power will increase manifold.