Despite a superficial resemblance to each other, you use medicine balls and exercise balls to develop different aspects of fitness. Large, air-inflated exercise balls are used for stability and core training, and smaller, weight-filled medicine balls are usually used for strength training or power-and-speed training, although they do have some very limited stability-training applications as well.
Exercise Balls: Description
Exercise balls, also called Swiss balls, yoga balls, stability balls or balance balls, come packaged as a deflated balloon made of tough plastic. You inflate the ball with a small air pump. The resulting air-filled sphere has a maximum user-weight limit, usually listed on the ball's packaging and on the ball itself that applies not just to your body weight but to any additional weights -- such as weight plates or medicine balls -- you use while on the exercise ball. Note that most exercise balls are meant to bear only static loads. Exercise balls will burst if punctured, so look for burst-proof balls that are specially treated to deflate slowly instead of exploding suddenly.
Exercise Balls: Applications
In a very few cases, you can use the exercise ball as a weight, such as passing it from your feet to your hands and back again while you lie face-up on the floor. But you'll more frequently use the exercise ball as a base for stability exercises, such as push-ups, strength-training exercises like the chest press, or one of the most effective all-around abdominal exercises, the exercise-ball crunch. The ball's constant instability forces your abdominal, back, hip and shoulder muscles to work constantly at balancing your body, plus any weights that you might be lifting.
Medicine Balls: Description
Medicine balls are weighted spheres with a sturdy leather, rubber or nylon shell. Medicine balls typically range from 1 to 30 lbs. and may be as small as a baseball or larger than a basketball. Size usually corresponds directly to weight. Rarely, you may encounter medicine balls with built-in handles or attached straps that allow you to perform a wider variety of exercises than a typical medicine ball. For power training, the medicine balls should be heavy enough to slow your motion but not so heavy that you lose control or use improper form. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends using smaller, lighter balls for speed training.
Medicine Ball: Applications
You can do push-ups with one hand on a medicine ball to introduce the element of instability, much as you would do with an exercise ball. But the medicine ball is more commonly used for speed training or power training, which is a combination of strength and speed. The medicine ball's shape and tough construction makes it ideal for throwing exercises, which allow you to perform the entire exercise movement without having to slow the ball down at the end for safety reasons. Obviously, using a ball you can keep under control and making sure you have proper technique, along with a clear path for the ball to travel, is critical. You can also hold the medicine ball statically as a weight during exercises such as crunches, or pass it hand-to-hand to a partner, as with seated-partner trunk rotations.
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