The medicine ball skip lunge is done with a medicine ball held at the waist or chest while skipping or lunging forward and backward on the same spot. Several variations are possible. Medicine balls, or medballs, are useful alternatives to dumbbells or kettlebells for some exercises, being somewhat soft, and fitting better in two-handed exercises.
Find out more about weight training terminology and exercise description if you need background information before you try this exercise. See more exercises.
1. Medicine Ball Skip Lunges - The Exercise Movement
- Stand upright with a medicine ball at the chest in both hands.
- Skip forward and backward with split legs -- one leg thrust forward and the other thrust to the rear at the same time -- and then the reverse in a continuous motion.
- Try this without the medicine ball until you get the idea of it. See the diagram for a description of how this works.
- You can make this more challenging by leaping higher with each skip, and by squatting lower in the lunge.
- Take care not to make this exercise too demanding if you have ankle or knee-joint problems. Don't land too high on the toes. Landing on the flat of the front of the foot will take the pressure off joints to some extent.
- Do 10 exercises in a set, rest, and do a total of 3 sets.
2. Medicine Ball Skip Lunges - Points to Note
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- Impact exercises are good for building strong bones, but you need to take note of the precautions about intensity discussed above. Stop if you experience acute or chronic pain on incorporating this exercise into your program.
- Variation 1. For a less intensive version, instead of skipping forward and back, just do the skip in the air one way, either with the forward or back skip or lunge.
- Variation 2. This can be done with any version and it makes the exercise more difficult. When you skip or lunge, thrust the medball into the air above your head with each movement. If you skip forward and back this would be two thrusts of the ball overhead -- one in each movement direction.
