Power Ball Exercises for Shoulder Strength
The Power Ball is a little-known gym accessory that’s starting to gain more attention for its use in physiotherapy. Basically, it’s a small sphere, about the size of a tennis ball that uses certain principals of physics to help you work on your muscles. In this article, we’ll look at the different exercises for shoulder strength.
Since this accessory is not widely known, we aren’t expecting you to know what it is. The Power Ball is essentially a small ball that has a gyroscope inside of it. Thus, when you exercise with it, the gyroscope spins in the opposite direction, causing some resistance against your movements.
This is how it works: you must make the internal gyroscope spin with an increasing speed. As it speeds up you will hear a high pitched sound from inside.
Some manufacturers guarantee that this spinning motion can cause a 16-kilogram resistance against your movements. Thus, it’s a good tool for building shoulder strength, and also in other parts of the body.
What are they good for?
These tools are good to exercise the muscles in the body in a practical and simple way. Its practicality is evident due to its size, we can take it anywhere. However, it’s especially good to work out these muscle groups:
- Hands (wrist and fingers)
- Forearms
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Shoulders
Other of its benefits is its ability to offer great resistance to your movements, making our muscles stronger and more defined. Although it does take some time to get used to the exercises with the Power Ball, once you get the hang of it, you won’t want to stop!
Meanwhile, it can also improve our sports performance, as it helps to prevent injuries. By strengthening certain muscle groups that you usually don’t target, you will avoid injuries. Among the most common injuries it prevents are carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow.
Power Ball exercises for shoulder strength
Here are some of the most effective Power Ball exercises for arm and shoulder strength.
Exercise for shoulder strength number 1
Stretch your arm out to one side and make a circular motion. It’s almost like drawing a small circle without bending your elbow or wrist, only moving from the shoulder while holding the Power Ball in your hand.
This exercise is optimal for shoulder strength but also works on the cervical region and upper back.
With this exercise, you can increase the speed and the difficulty. We recommend you increase the difficulty gradually.
You must pay close attention to the signs your body gives you and regulate the effort accordingly. Thus, the Power Ball exercises for shoulder strength are so good, they allow you to work mostly against yourself and avoid injuries.
Exercise for shoulder strength number 2
This Power Ball exercise for shoulder strength is great for working on shoulder extensors. Thus, this one is especially important in sports such as tennis.
It’s quite simple, begin by making the gyroscope spin, with your arm down and relaxed, and the hands at hip level. As you make the Power Ball spin faster, start rising the arm backward. You should feel your shoulder work against the resistance.
However, this isn’t a maximum effort exercise. You don’t have to raise your arm too much, only to take the wrist line above the glutes. However, do this movement progressively and carefully.
Exercise for shoulder strength number 3
The goal of this exercise is to strengthen the external rotators and the deltoids. To do this, start spinning the Power Ball with your arms flexed at a 90-degree angle and your hands facing forward. Then, as the difficulty increases take your arm to the outside without moving your elbow.
Exercise for shoulder strength number 4
This last exercise consists of starting each series with a relaxed arm. As you start to spin the Power Ball bring the arm upward in front of you, always keeping the arm extended.
You should end the exercise with your arm extended and the Power Ball spinning above the head. After holding this pose for a few seconds, slowly return to the starting position.
And so, as far as the duration of these exercises for shoulder strength, you should separate the difficulty by week. In the first week, start out with 3 series of 30 seconds with a 1-minute rest, and only exercising every other day. The following week, do the same but every day.
In the third week, change to 3 series of 60 seconds with a 1-minute rest every other day. And finally, the last week, do the same as the third week but every day. This gradual increasing difficulty will help you prevent injuries and helps you become familiar with the correct technique.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Salillas, L. G., Vela, A. M. L., & Medina, J. Á. (2014). Preventión de las tendinopatías en el deporte. Archivos de Medicina Del Deporte. Archivos de Medicina del Deporte. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2015.05.023
