By RealJock Staff

This exercise provided courtesy of Mike Clausen, founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006.

Benefits
A medicine ball scoop toss engages your core to stabilize against a strong throwing motion, which itself targets your shoulders. Be sure to throw from your shoulders and not your back.

Muscles Worked
Shoulders (front deltoids), Core

Starting Position
Stand upright facing a wall at a distance of five or six feet. Stand with your feet shoulder distance apart and a medicine ball held down in front of your upper legs, with palms facing in toward each other (see Photo 1).

Exercise

1. From the starting position, keep both arms straight and, using a powerful scooping motion, throw the ball up and forward, bouncing it off the wall. Use your center to stabilize your body against the throwing motion. Be sure to keep your arms extended so that you use your shoulders and not arms or back to throw the ball (see Photos 2 and 3).
2. When the ball rebounds of the wall, catch the ball in both hands as it returns and use your front deltoids, in the front of your shoulder, to control the downward push of the ball and lower it back to the starting position, maintaining your stability again through your abs (see Photos 4 and 5).

About Mike Clausen: Clausen is the founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006. He has been actively involved in sports and weightlifting since high school, and continues to use that knowledge when training his clients. Clausen is both A.C.E. and N.A.S.M. certified and has been training clients professionally for six years. He enjoys making his clients stronger, both physically and mentally, giving them the tools to create an efficient body and to do things they thought were not possible.