This one is going to TRASH your forearms and hands, in addition to working your back. Great for grappling, BJJ, MMA, and other martial arts.

The wide open hand position that you get from setting your hands on TOP of a slam ball means you have to engage the forearms and fingers as hard as you can to maintain your grip.

The first demo is the pull-up. This is extremely difficult and you'll need to very strong on pull-ups AND have strong hands to do it. You can do pulldowns with this setup as well, which makes it more accessible.

I'm using a 45 lb slam ball from @nordiclifting. I really like this one for this because, as you'll see in the close-up, it has "treads" on it, which gives you at least something to sort of grip onto.

This setup could still be done with a smooth ball, but the treads do help.

For setup, you can swipe left and see a still picture of it. I've got a dip belt (from @darkironfitness) clipped onto the high pulley with both ends to basically form a sling. The slam balls is soft enough that it'll sit in that cradle nicely.

If you're going to do pull-ups, set the weight stack as heavy as you can THEN put the ball into the dip belt sling...because you'll working with your bodyweight AND whatever the weight of the ball is. I have an extra post attachment for my weight stack, so I can add extra plates.

If you're going to do pulldowns (also shown in the video), set your working weight first, then put the ball into place.

Now the fun begins...

Set your hands on top of the ball, splaying your fingers out as wide as you can. Then dig them into the ball as hard as you can.

Now you're going to either do a pull-up, or a pulldown.

With setting the pulldown weight, remember to account for the weight of the ball offsetting some of the weight on the stack.

Your forearms will be the weak link on this one...this wide open hand position with the flexed wrists is just brutal on the forearms.

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