Hailey Andrew PTA
Wall ball exercises are Performed with a weighted ball of either soft or hard texture against a wall. They can be either therapeutic or high intensity/CrossFit style.
The benefits of wall ball exercises are to either strengthen the upper body and involve the lower body and core or to isolate certain muscles within the shoulder girdle and back and chest.
They usually require a little room to perform but very little equipment so your cost is low to be able to perform these at your home or in the gym.
You can target as many muscles or as few muscles as you’d like according to the workouts you select to do.
To select a wall ball, determine whether you’re going to need it to bounce off the wall or you want it to absorb some of the impacts. You may also consider how easy it is to move the ball or how heavy it is.
How grippy a ball is may determine which exercises you perform.
When throwing a ball against the wall I typically like to use the soft heavy ball.
When performing more therapeutic exercises that require a firmer rolling surface against the wall I would choose a Hard surface ball that looks more like a basketball.
These are great for those who want to rehab their upper body and perform safe isometrics or small movement small range of motion exercises while still building muscle at a lower risk for injury.
If performing throwing or tossing exercises with the soft ball against the wall, this is great for those targeting larger multi muscle groups and looking for a higher intensity work.
These should be avoided by those who are at risk for shoulder injury, have a history of shoulder dislocation or rotator cuff injuries, or have spinal pain or back injuries.
When performing the therapeutic wall ball exercises with the harder medicine ball, anyone can perform those and do not need to be avoided by many people at all.
First most of these exercises are for the intent of isolating certain muscle groups to help prevent injury and or rehab muscles that have been injured in the past. I use these very frequently in physical therapy with my patients.
5 exercises to try are:
1.The first exercise is called wall clocks:
starting with the ball at the center of your palm
shoulders squared to the wall
straighten your elbow completely and push the ball up against the wall
roll the ball with your palm leaning into the wall with a straight arm up to 12 o’clock 1 o’clock 2 o’clock etc. until completing a full 12 hours.
Then switch arms and repeats the same exercise.
Don’t forget to go both directions and use a lighter weight ball that you can manage.
2.The next exercise is called horizontal rolls:
in the same position as the first exercise using only the shoulder and not the rest of the elbow, roll the ball side to side.
If it’s easy, pick up the speed a little bit. Another variation of this exercise is to do small I’ve been down movements rolling the ball.
3.The third exercise is called wall circles:
placing the ball on the wall in the original starting position, roll the ball in a full circle as big as you can make it while still controlling the ball with one hand.
Then repeats going back-and-forth between each direction of circles.
4.The fourth exercise is simply pushing the ball into the wall as hard as you can keeping your shoulder at a 90° angle with elbow extended. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 1 minute if possible.
5.The last exercise to perform with the ball on the wall is to please both hands on the ball and roll the ball from 90° up to above your head walking it down with your hands and leaning your body into the ball on the wall. Keep your core tight and try to create almost a triangle with the pressure on the ball.
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