Wall balls are a classic CrossFit move that combines squats and explosive movements. This full-body exercise gets your heart pumping, promotes endurance, and targets multiple muscle groups, including the arms, core, glutes, and hamstrings. All you need is a wall and a weighted medicine ball.
Wall balls might be your new go-to if you’re trying to make the most of your gym time while working on cardiovascular fitness and strength. Here, Katie Bergstrom, a fitness trainer and yoga instructor, explains how to get started.
Wall balls are a cardiovascular and strength exercise with several benefits:
- Improve core strength: Wall balls activate the core muscles, which support the spine. A strong core enhances overall stability and balance, helping you achieve other fitness goals and reduce the risk of injuries.
- Strengthen your arms: Many people don’t strength-train their arms, and specifically their triceps, with much weight, repetition, or frequency, Bergstrom told Health. You can help strengthen the triceps with moves like wall balls. Every rep also works the chest, shoulders, and lats.
- Tone your glutes: This move works your glutes more than a traditional squat because the added weight enables most people to sink lower into a squat position.
- Promote healthy weight loss: Wall balls get your heart pumping, which helps improve endurance. Research has shown that exercises that combine endurance and strength training help burn fat.
To do wall balls, you need a sturdy wall or surface and a medicine ball. Beginners in strength training might opt for a six- to eight-pound ball. More experienced exercisers can use a 12- to 14-pound ball.
Each rep should look the same, and the ball’s contact with and departure from the wall should be gentle, smooth, and precise. “It’s very important that the ball stays close to your body as you catch it and that your chest stays lifted throughout,” said Bergstrom.
Once your form is perfect, you can increase the weight, reps, or target height to make the move even more challenging. “Eight sets of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest is a great way to challenge your [endurance] in only four total minutes of work,” said Bergstrom.
Note: You might be surprised by how many reps you can do if you set your mind to it. Just remember to never do so many reps that you lose good, safe form.
How To Do It
Bergstrom recommended starting with three sets of 10-15 reps, with 30-60 seconds of rest between rounds.
Here’s how to do one rep:
- Stand arm’s length away from the wall with your feet hip-width apart and toes pointed out a little, like you’re going to do a squat.
- Pick up the ball and hold it at chest height with your elbows tight to your sides.
- Brace your stomach and back muscles and engage your core as you squeeze your hands into the ball. This will get your upper body and shoulders ready to work.
- Drop your butt back and down to lower into a squat while keeping your chest up and the ball pressed just under your rib cage.
- Sit back into your heels and get as deep into the squat as possible. Keep your chest up so the weighted ball isn’t pulling you forward onto your toes.
- Drive through your heels and explode out of the bottom of the squat. Throw the ball toward a spot about eight to 10 feet up the wall at the same time.
- Catch the ball on the rebound with your arms overhead. Immediately lower back down into your squat, keeping the ball at your chest.
Tip: If you want to modify the exercise, drop to a lighter weight, or only toss the ball six or seven feet up the wall. “You can also opt for a soft-shell medicine ball instead, which is easier to grip, toss, and catch than a traditional medicine ball, which is firmer,” said Bergstrom.
Most people can do wall balls, including those with arthritis, chronic pain, diabetes, or heart disease. A wall ball workout may even improve these conditions by promoting endurance and strength. If you’re new to exercise, make sure to do wall balls safely and build up intensity slowly.
You might need to avoid wall balls if you have arthritis that causes painful, swollen knee joints. Let these joints rest and return to wall balls once the swelling subsides. The most important thing is to listen to your body. Talk to a healthcare provider if pain or swelling doesn’t subside.
Wall balls are a simple, highly effective exercise popularized by CrossFit. All you need is a weighted ball, such as a medicine ball, and a wall. You can increase or lower the intensity of the workout by choosing a heavier or lighter ball.
If you do wall balls consistently over a long period, it can tone your glutes and arms and strengthen your core. If you have arthritis that makes certain exercises like wall balls painful, talk to a healthcare provider about creating a workout plan that better suits you.
