The Best Workouts for Throwing a Shot

Shot put is a strength event in track and field. Strengthening upper body, lower body and core muscles while maintaining speed in the shot put ring is crucial to increasing throw distance. Both the glide and spin technique use the same muscle groups, so the same workouts improve athletic performance.

  1. Upper Body

    • Upper-body muscles aid in the push and launch of the shot put into the field. Upper-body exercises to improve strength and performance include bench press, pushups, bicep curls and tricep extensions. Fine tuning smaller muscle groups between major muscle groups involves altering traditional exercises. For instance, perform incline and decline bench presses to hit the upper and lower pectoral muscles.

    Core Muscles

    • The core includes abdominal and back muscles. Trunk twists, situps, bent-over rows and squats strengthen core muscles. When the shot putter reaches the toe board, a twist of the trunk and simultaneous push from lower-body muscles creates the power needed to throw farther. Core muscles must be strong to maintain form at this point in the throw.

    Lower Body

    • Shot putters appear to throw solely with the arms, but lower-body muscles play an important part in gaining distance. Power is transferred from the lower body through the core to the arms, often propelling the shot putter 180 degrees at the point of release. Lower-body exercises for shot put include squats, leg presses, leg extensions and hamstring curls. Balancing lower-body muscle strength helps prevent muscle injuries, so shot putters should work calf muscles and shin muscles along with major muscle groups.

    Speed Drills

    • An important element of shot putting is speed. Whether moving from the back to the front of the circle using the glide technique or around the circle using the spin technique, more speed equates to more power and a longer throw. Speed drills include jogging the straightaways and sprinting curves or sprinting the straightaways and jogging the curves on the track.

    Combined Workouts

    • Combined strength and speed drills work multiple muscle groups while improving speed. With a medicine ball weighing between 12 and 20 lbs. in hand, throwers jump up a flight of stairs one step at a time. This exercise increases the explosive power of the lower body while increasing leg speed for the shot put launch.