Mention of the medicine ball may summon a mental image of Victorian-era calisthenics as gents in handlebar moustaches and muscle shirts chest-pass vintage leather versions of heavy basketballs. But the medicine ball, after a long period of relative eclipse, has come back to be an essential component of exercise for everyone from the casual gym goer to elite football players.
Features
Medicine balls weigh from 2 to 200 lbs., with typical gyms having a vertical rack holding balls ranging from 8 to 20 lbs. They resemble a kickball or a multicolored basketball. The momentum generated by tossing and catching them, or twisting your body or making chopping motions with them in your hands, works your deep support muscles, note the authors of "Fitness for Dummies." They can be added to lunges and twists to improve balance.
History
Depictions of medicine balls appear circa 1,000 B.C. in texts by Greek physicians and drawings of Persian wrestlers, senior staff writer David Fleming notes in ESPN Magazine. The medicine ball found its way from gladiators in ancient Egypt to the U.S. Military Academy and eventually the White House of Herbert Hoover. The balls fell into obscurity in the 1950s as Universal and Nautilus machines came into vogue, but the static machines reduced the dynamic and explosive motions required for the body to toss and catch a medicine ball. Fleming writes that the U.S. fell behind the Soviet Union and East Germany in the Olympics in 1960s and 1970s as it turned toward static machines and away from medicine balls.
Exercises
College and high school strength coach Curtis Schultz, writing online for BodyBuilding.com, recommends a 10-minute medicine ball drill performed two to three times a week on nonconsecutive days. Warm up with an overhead twist, followed by upper-body drills such as the chest press throw, the side arm throw, the standing and kneeling overhead throw, the sit-up and long throw and the underhand and overhead throw. Go for three sets of eight reps.
Benefits
Athletes in the modern era, including NFL quarterback Brett Favre, baseball catcher Jason Varitek and soccer star Mia Hamm, rely heavily on medicine ball conditioning. Istvan Javorek, a Romanian former Olympic weightlifting coach, notes that the medicine ball can create greater athletic improvement. A typical medicine-ball exercise requires you to use entire muscle groups and to adapt to the erratic flight of the ball. ESPN writer Fleming describes the experience of former New Orleans Saints fullback Mike Karney, who spent 12 years working with free weights and had impressive barbell strength but not as much fluidity as he wanted on the field. After switching to medicine ball work, he broke through in terms of strength -- being able to bench-press huge 135 lb. dumbbells rather than his previous 100 lbs.
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