How to do Medicine Ball Push Ups (With Form Guide)

Looking to enhance your workout routine? The medicine ball push-up is a powerful variation of the classic push-up that adds challenge and engages more muscle groups. In this article, we’ll cover how to perform this exercise effectively, its benefits, and common mistakes to avoid. Are you ready to take your fitness to the next level? Let’s get started!

What is a Medicine Ball Push-Up?

A medicine ball push-up is a variation of the standard push-up that incorporates a medicine ball to increase difficulty and engages a greater number of muscles. In this exercise, one or both hands are placed on top of the medicine ball while performing the push-up. This change in hand position challenges your stability, making your core and shoulder muscles work harder to keep your body balanced. It also increases the range of motion in your arms and chest, providing a deeper stretch and promoting muscle engagement. Medicine ball push-ups are great for building upper body strength, particularly in the chest, triceps, and shoulders, while also improving balance and coordination.

Medicine Ball Push-Up Benefits 

Incorporating medicine ball push-ups into your routine offers a range of benefits that can enhance your overall fitness.

1. Gets You Ready for Additional Workouts: Medicine ball push-ups help improve overall strength and endurance, preparing your body for more challenging workouts. By engaging different and deeper muscles and improving stability, a stronger foundation is built, making it easier to handle other exercises like weightlifting, medicine ball slams, and cardio routines.

2. Offers a Full-body Workout: Medicine ball push-ups activate multiple muscle groups, including the chest, shoulders, triceps, core, and even legs. Since you need to stabilize yourself on the ball, your core and lower body muscles engage to maintain balance, giving you a full-body workout beyond just targeting the upper body.

3. Works on your Equilibrium: Balancing on the medicine ball during push-ups challenges your coordination and balance. As your muscles work to keep you stable, you enhance your equilibrium, which benefits athletic performance and daily activities that require stability, such as walking on uneven surfaces or engaging in sports.

Standard Medicine Ball Push-Up Form

The primary medicine ball push-up involves placing both hands on a single ball, making it ideal for beginners. This foundational exercise prepares you for more advanced variations, such as using two balls or alternating push-ups. Mastering this form builds the strength and stability necessary for proper technique and balance in more challenging movements.

Here’s how to do the Standard Medicine Ball Push-up:

1. Place a medicine ball on the floor in front of you, ensuring it’s stable. Get into a high plank position with your body straight and your hands directly beneath your shoulders.
2. Place both hands on the medicine ball, keeping them close together. Your fingers should grip the sides of the ball for stability.
3. Tighten your core muscles, making sure your back stays straight and your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels.
4. While maintaining your plank position, slowly bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the medicine ball. Keep your elbows close to your body to avoid flaring them out.
5. Once your chest is close to the ball, press through your palms and push yourself back to the starting position. Keep your core engaged to maintain balance.
6. Continue for the desired number of repetitions, focusing on maintaining form and control throughout the exercise.

Related: Slam Ball vs Medicine Balls + Exercises to Do

Ideal Sets and Reps

For beginners, aim for 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions to build strength and stability. As you progress, increase to 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions to challenge your endurance and balance further. If you're looking for variety, consider incorporating medicine ball slam alternatives to keep your workout dynamic. Rest for about 60 seconds between sets to maintain proper form and avoid fatigue.

Advanced Medicine Ball Push-Ups

1. Two-Armed Dumbbell Push-Up

This push-up variation involves gripping dumbbells with both hands, allowing for a deeper range of motion. It enhances chest, shoulder, and tricep strength while also engaging the wrists and forearms. This exercise improves joint stability and flexibility, making it a great addition to an upper-body workout.

Here’s how to do the Two-Armed Dumbbell Push-Up:

1. Place two dumbbells on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Get into a plank position with one hand gripping each dumbbell.
2. Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels, engaging your core muscles.
3. While keeping your plank position, bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the dumbbells, ensuring your elbows stay close to your body.
4. Press through the dumbbells to return to the starting position, keeping your body aligned throughout the movement.
5. Perform the desired number of repetitions, focusing on maintaining form.

2. Stability Ball Push-Up

In the stability ball push-up, either your hands or feet are on a stability ball, creating an unstable surface. This engages your core muscles more intensely, improving balance and coordination while strengthening the chest, triceps, and shoulders. It effectively combines upper-body strength training with core conditioning.

Here’s how to do the Stability Ball Push-Up:

1. Position a stability ball in front of you and get into a plank position with your hands on the ball.
2. Make sure your body forms a straight line from head to heels, tightening your core muscles for stability.
3. While maintaining your plank position, slowly bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the ball, keeping your core engaged to maintain balance.
4. Press through your hands to lift your body back to the starting position while maintaining control.
5. Complete the desired number of repetitions, focusing on balance and form.

3. Two-Armed Medicine Ball Push-Ups

This variation requires placing each hand on a separate medicine ball, increasing the challenge of the push-up. It demands greater core strength and balance to stabilize the body during the movement, targeting the chest, triceps, and shoulders while also activating stabilizer muscles. This exercise adds a functional and dynamic element to your routine.

Here’s how to do the Two-Armed Medicine Ball Push-Ups:

1. Place two medicine balls on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Get into a plank position, placing one hand on each ball.
2. Keep your body straight from head to heels, engaging your core muscles for stability.
3. While maintaining plank, bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the balls, ensuring your elbows stay close to your body.
4. Press through the balls to lift your body back to the starting position while maintaining a straight line.
5. Perform the desired number of repetitions, focusing on control and stability throughout the exercise.

Medicine Ball Push-Up Regressions

All push-up variations, with medicine balls, dumbbells, or stability balls, can be regressed by dropping the knees to the ground to maintain correct plank position (straight line from knees to head). Performing push-ups in this modified plank position helps to ensure your plank position is correct as you build strength. Below are two push-up variations which are best for beginners no matter if done in modified plank or plank.  

1. Two-Armed Dumbbell Push-Up

The two-armed dumbbell push-up is a simpler variation that uses dumbbells instead of a medicine ball. This approach provides a more stable surface while still allowing for a deeper range of motion, making it easier for beginners to build upper body strength and improve their push-up technique.

Here’s how to do the Two-Armed Medicine Ball Push-Ups:

1. Start by placing two dumbbells on the floor, shoulder-width apart.
2. Get into a plank position, gripping the dumbbells with your hands.
3. Ensure your body forms a straight line from head to heels and engage your core.
4. While maintaining plank, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the dumbbells, keeping your elbows close to your body.
5. Press through the dumbbells to lift yourself back to the starting position.
6. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, focusing on maintaining proper form throughout.

2. Dumbbell Diamond Push-Up

The dumbbell diamond push-up involves placing two dumbbells close together under your chest, forming a diamond shape with your hands. This variation emphasizes the triceps and inner chest while offering a stable grip, making it a manageable option for those still developing their push-up strength.

Here’s how to do the Dumbbell Diamond Push-Up:

1. Place two dumbbells on the floor close together under your chest to form a diamond shape with your hands.
2. Get into a plank position with your hands gripping the dumbbells, ensuring your body is in a straight line from head to heels.
3. Engage your core and bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the dumbbells, keeping your elbows close to your sides.
4. Press through the dumbbells to return to the starting position.
5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, concentrating on your technique.

Who Should Do the Medicine Ball Push-Up?

Fitness Enthusiasts

Fitness enthusiasts benefit from medicine ball push-ups because they enhance upper body strength and core stability. This exercise adds variety to traditional push-ups and challenges muscle control, making it a great complement to other workouts, such as medicine ball throws. It can be modified for different fitness levels, making it suitable for those looking to increase their strength and improve overall fitness progressively.

Athletes

Athletes can enhance their training with medicine ball push-ups, as this exercise builds upper body strength and improves stability and balance. It simulates movements common in sports, helping to develop explosive power and better body control. Additionally, it introduces variability to prevent training plateaus and keep workouts engaging.

Who Should Not Do the Medicine Ball Push-Up?

Beginners Without Strength Base

Beginners without a foundational strength base should avoid medicine ball push-ups, as this exercise requires significant upper body and core strength for proper form. Without this strength, beginners may struggle to maintain balance and control, increasing the risk of injury. Instead, beginners should focus on mastering basic push-ups. Explore medicine ball exercises for beginners to build overall strength before progressing to more advanced movements like the medicine ball push-up.

The Ones with Wrist or Shoulder Injuries

Those with wrist or shoulder injuries should refrain from performing medicine ball push-ups. The instability of the medicine ball can place additional strain on these areas, exacerbating existing injuries and hindering recovery. Individuals with such injuries must prioritize rehabilitation exercises and consult a healthcare professional before attempting any movements that could stress their wrists or shoulders.

Common Form Errors to Avoid

To get the most out of your medicine ball push-ups, you must be mindful of common form errors that can hinder your progress and increase the risk of injury.

1. Allowing Your Elbows to Extend Outward: When your elbows extend directly outward from your shoulders during exercises and not coming back at a 45o angle, it can strain your shoulders and reduce chest engagement. Keep elbows close to your body for better alignment and muscle activation.

2. Failing to Keep Your Hips Level: Letting your hips sag or rise disrupts form and stability, increasing injury risk. Engage your core to keep your hips aligned with your shoulders and feet for a strong position.

3. Not Utilizing Your Pectoral Muscles Effectively: Failing to engage your pectoral muscles means missing out on exercise benefits. Focus on squeezing your chest during movements and ensure your form promotes proper muscle activation.

4. Utilize Your Core Strength: Engaging your core and glutes is crucial for stability and proper form. A strong core supports your spine and helps control movements, reducing injury risk and enhancing performance.

5. Sinking Between Your Shoulder: Sinking between your shoulder blades is a common error when performing push-ups.  Push the ground away to ensure the shoulder blades are not retracted prior to the start of the exercise.  Continue to push the ground away as you move up and down through the push-up movement.

6. Dropping of Your Head: Dropping your head and allowing it to hang while performing push-ups can result in neck strain and injury.  To ensure proper form and alignment, keep the vertebrate in the neck, the cervical vertebrae, in line with the vertebrate of the upper back (thoracic vertebrae).  By lifting the head and resisting the temptation to let the head hang, you engage your shoulder blades, slide them down your back, and you push the ground away, all of which improve your form tremendously.

Conclusion

Incorporating medicine ball push-ups into your workout can significantly elevate your strength and stability. This exercise not only challenges your muscles but also enhances your overall fitness routine. By focusing on proper form and technique, you can maximize the benefits while minimizing the risk of injury. Embrace this dynamic movement to push your limits and achieve your fitness goals.