Medicine Ball Horizontal Smash

The Medicine Ball Horizontal Smash targets your core and upper body strength. You perform this exercise by smashing a medicine ball horizontally against a wall or a solid surface.

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the medicine ball with both hands.
  2. Engage your core and rotate your torso to one side.
  3. Forcefully swing the ball across your body towards the wall, using your core and arms.
  4. Catch the ball on the rebound and repeat on the opposite side.

How to perform the Medicine Ball Horizontal Smash

  1. Set up. Set up in a stable, balanced starting position appropriate for the Medicine Ball Horizontal Smash using your medicine ball.
  2. Brace and execute. Brace your core, control the descent, and move through a full pain-free range of motion while emphasizing your pectoralis major.
  3. Reset. Reverse the movement under control and reset between repetitions, keeping your form crisp on every rep.

Coaching cues

  • Move with intent — every rep should feel deliberate, not rushed.
  • Drive force through your pectoralis major rather than momentum.
  • Keep your breathing steady: exhale on the hard part, inhale on the reset.

Common mistakes

  • Using too much weight and losing positional control.
  • Cutting the range of motion short and missing the target muscle.
  • Letting your spine round or hyperextend instead of staying neutral.

Detailed cues, common mistakes, and demonstration video are available in the Fitly app.

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