Med Ball Workout to Throw Harder: A Game-Changing Routine for Baseball Players

Throwing harder in baseball isn’t just about arm strength—it’s about improving overall body mechanics, engaging the core, and maximizing explosive power. Whether you’re an infielder, outfielder, or catcher, increasing your throwing velocity is a critical skill for improving your performance on the field. A great way to boost your throwing power is through dynamic exercises, and one of the best tools for this is the medicine ball (med ball).

In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into a med ball workout designed specifically to help baseball players throw harder. Chris Barnard, a seasoned strength and conditioning coach at Overtime Athletes, has crafted a series of exercises that target the entire body, emphasizing explosive movements and integrated mechanics. Let’s break down this routine, from the basic exercises to the more advanced drills that will help you maximize your throwing potential.

1. The Importance of Whole-Body Integration

The first thing you need to understand about increasing throwing velocity is that it’s not just about the arm. To throw harder, you need to generate power from the ground up. This means working with your entire body to develop force through the lower body, core, and upper body. Chris Barnard’s med ball workout takes a whole-body approach, focusing on developing coordination, strength, and explosiveness from head to toe.

The key to this workout is to develop integrated movement. Your arm strength matters, but it’s how your body moves as a whole that will increase your ability to throw harder. By using med ball exercises that engage the entire kinetic chain, players can develop the kind of explosiveness needed for high-velocity throws.

2. First Exercise: Isolating and Elevating with Soccer Throws

The workout begins with a basic but crucial exercise: isolating and elevating while performing soccer throws. This exercise is done from a kneeling position, which takes the legs out of the equation and isolates the upper body movement. This forces the player to focus on generating force through the core and arms, setting the foundation for more dynamic exercises later in the workout.

How it works:

• Begin by kneeling on the ground and holding a med ball in front of you.
• Engage your core and throw the ball explosively as if performing a soccer throw, using your trunk and shoulders.
• This exercise helps you focus on the upper body’s contribution to the throw while developing the right posture and form for generating force from the torso.

The soccer throw, in particular, is a great way to work on rotational power, which is essential for increasing throwing velocity. By isolating the torso and focusing on movement from the core, you’ll start building the necessary foundation for generating explosive power.

3. Reactive Soccer Throws for Explosive Movement

Once you’ve mastered the basic soccer throw, the next step is to progress into reactive soccer throws. This variation requires the athlete to catch the load or tension from the med ball and then explode into the throw. By adding a reactive element, this exercise mimics the real-life throwing motion, where the body shifts from a loaded position into an explosive movement.

How it works:

• Start in the same kneeling position as the initial exercise.
• Instead of a simple throw, you now have to catch the load (the tension from the ball) and transition into the throw by exploding downwards.
• This added element of reactivity challenges the athlete to engage the core more effectively and fire off the hips and shoulders with more explosiveness.

The transition from loading to throwing is critical for baseball players, as it mirrors the kinetic chain needed in a real throwing motion. The exercise improves the timing of your throw and enhances your ability to generate velocity.

4. Dynamic One-Step Throws: Building Power and Momentum

The next progression in the workout is a one-step dynamic throw. This exercise adds more movement and engages the entire body, beginning to incorporate lower body mechanics and momentum generation. The focus here is to take one step opposite your throwing arm and follow through with full power.

How it works:

• Stand up and position your body as if you’re about to throw, with the throwing arm back and your opposite leg forward.
• As you step forward with the opposite leg, use the momentum from your body’s movement to drive the throw forward into the wall, following through with your back leg for full extension.
• This exercise begins to train the full-body integration needed to generate a high-velocity throw. The key is to drive from the lower body and use the step to engage the hips and legs fully.

Adding a step forces you to stabilize your body while coordinating a fluid, powerful movement. By initiating the throw from the legs and working through the hips and core, this exercise simulates a realistic throwing motion while also helping to develop more power.

5. Crow Hop for Increased Momentum

As you progress through the med ball workout, the next step is adding a crow hop into the movement. A crow hop is a dynamic, powerful movement used in baseball to build momentum before making a throw. This exercise incorporates more explosive energy by teaching athletes to load and transition their weight smoothly before releasing the ball.

How it works:

• Start by performing the one-step throw, but instead of a single step, incorporate a crow hop where you build momentum by taking a couple of steps before driving your throw into the wall.
• Focus on driving through the back leg and exploding forward with your whole body, transferring energy from your feet through your core and into the throw.

The crow hop builds on the dynamic movements you’ve already practiced, teaching you to generate speed and force from your legs and core. This exercise is crucial for throwing harder, as it focuses on how to properly load the body and use momentum to propel the ball forward with velocity.

6. Frontal Plane and Oblique Training

Once you’ve developed the foundational throws, the next step is to work more specifically on the core, focusing on the frontal plane and obliques. The obliques play a significant role in rotational movements, which are key for generating throwing velocity. This part of the workout will help improve your core stability and rotational strength.

How it works:

• Stand tall with your feet planted and hold the med ball in front of you.
• Focus on accelerating from the hips, twisting slightly to engage your obliques, and explosively driving the ball down into the ground, keeping your feet planted.
• This exercise emphasizes the need to create power from the trunk and hips, which will translate directly into better throws.

The focus on the core and obliques helps players build rotational power, which is essential for a fast, powerful throw. Strengthening these muscles enhances your ability to rotate efficiently, transferring force from the lower body to the throwing arm.

7. Finishing Strong: Dynamic Med Ball Slams

To wrap up the workout, Chris Barnard suggests a dynamic, sport-specific med ball slam. This exercise mimics the final stage of a throw, where the body fully opens up and releases all the accumulated power. It’s a great way to finish the workout with a bang, emphasizing explosive strength and velocity.

How it works:

• Stand tall with the med ball above your head and use a powerful motion to slam the ball down onto the ground, following through with full intensity.
• This exercise builds the explosive strength necessary for throwing velocity and simulates the final explosive release phase of the throwing motion.

The med ball slam is an excellent way to wrap up the workout, reinforcing the concept of explosive power and providing a sport-specific movement that ties everything together.

Conclusion

Chris Barnard’s med ball workout to throw harder is a complete, dynamic routine that trains baseball players to generate more velocity with their throws. By incorporating exercises that engage the whole body, players can develop strength, explosiveness, and proper mechanics. From isolating and elevating throws to dynamic movements like crow hops and med ball slams, this workout targets all the key areas needed to increase throwing power. For players looking to take their throwing game to the next level, this med ball workout is an essential addition to their training regimen!