The Medicine Ball Pull Through exercise is a great core exercise to add into your program to develop strength in the rotary muscles of the center and trunk region of the body. Performing this exercise will not only be a strong exercise for the core, but is a great exercise for the arms, shoulders, glutes and some lower body stabilizer muscles of the hips knees and ankles.
When performing this exercise, ensure to press your supporting arm into the ground to utilize your shoulders and arms to stabilize your spine so that your spine stays rigid as you pull the medicine ball across the mid line of your body (like demonstrated in the example). Pushing your supporting arm into actively into the ground will activate the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blade (the pecs, traps and other muscles of scapular stabilization) and also activate the triceps muscles as well to ensure that your arm is a actively stabilized position.
In addition, it is important to make sure that the crest of your hips are square to the ground and tucking them toward your rib cage. This is what we call a posterior pelvic tilt. To achieve this, make sure that your ribs are inline with the crests of your hips, your spine is in a neutral position, and you are utilizing your glutes to stabilize your hips. Another great queue to ensure that your spine remains in a natural and braces position is to keep your core engaged by depressing the rip cage toward the belly button. It is also important to ensure that the back of your head is inline with the back of your body and your forehead and parallel to the ground.
To modify this exercise, you can perform it from your knees as opposed to having your legs fully extended.
A contraindication to this exercise would include an individual who has wrist problems such as carpal tunnel, previously broken wrists or a wrist/hand injury that might put a strain on the wrist while posting out in the prone push up position for this exercise. To modify this exercise due to wrist trouble, you can utilize push up stands or Yoga blocks to brace your put the hand in a more comfortable position. If nothing else helps the wrist for this position, it might be a good idea to omit this exercise from your program.
Start with 4 repetitions and move up to 6,8 and possibly 10!
This core exercise is a great compliment to any sort of program in which you do not have a core exercise in the prone position. In addition, you will be training muscular endurance of the muscles surrounding the spine, which is a critical component toward decreasing the likelihood of lower back pain and injuries occurring.
