If you have stepped onto an advanced training floor, you may be familiar with medicine balls. These simple round free weight objects are part of the regular toolbox for a whole lot of trainers, whether they are serving athletes, body builders or a general population. That’s partly because of the versatility of the medicine ball. So what can you do with these?

Here’s one interesting activity that trainers recommend for some clients. It represents one of the simplest, but still challenging, options, and something that, true to its name, mimics some of the nearly obsolete movements that humans practiced routinely before all of our labor saving machines.

This one’s called the Wood-chopper. The user stands, holding the medicine ball. Then, he or she steadily lowers the ball down to a position between his or her legs, with the back extended, then bringing the ball back up above the head. This is one repetition of the activity. Easy, right?

Like other medicine ball activities, the wood-chopper is progressive, with the weight and set numbers variable, to help with incremental strength training. And, like a lot of other medicine ball training, it’s based on the idea that the ball adds a resistance element to the body’s own natural resistance, to enable more power-loaded movements. Some call this idea “plyometrics”, others just talk about using the ball as a handy counterweight to the body in a number of poses for working different muscle groups.

You can see plyometrics and similar ideas at work in all kinds of medicine ball exercises. In a routine called an “Extension” or “Squat to Press”, the user stands with the medicine ball held close to the chest. Then, he or she squats, (loading the resistance of the ball into a compacted space), then stands, while extending the ball up over his or her head. That fluid movement shows how the medicine ball creates a long arc of motion that works various muscle groups well.

Similarly, in other exercises like crunches and situps, users can bring the same medicine ball work to a prostrate or kneeling position. In looking at some instructional charts for medicine ball work, you can see how these tools work the limbs, and also the core, the stabilizing muscles around the spinal column, and many more important muscles that create better body responses to all kinds of demands, from wood-cutting to the particular stresses or pro sports or professional work like firefighting drills. So, if you need to do some holistic work on creating a power fitness schedule, take a look at medicine balls as part of a tool kit for future strength training, and you may find these natural feeling exercises are just what you need to develop your regimen over time!