Today we’re discussing all the benefits of utilizing medicine balls in your workout, and no, we don’t mean the cold-curing Starbucks drink. We’re talking about those huge, weighted balls that you usually see being thrown up against a wall or at the ground.
The medicine ball is a total-body fitness accessory that will give you a good physical workout which will effectively train and strengthen all of your muscle groups.
A word of warning: we recommend starting with the right weight to suit your level of physical activity and gradually increasing the weight as you progress
1. Gain Power:
The medicine ball is perfect for developing power and explosiveness. Plyometric exercises (rapid muscle contractions preceded by a stretch) help you to store up the energy that will be released when you tense the muscle. When adding weights, this increases the energy that will be released. Using your medicine ball as a projectile which will increase the power of your throws, which will lead to overall increase muscle strength,. You can do other exercises like squats combined with throwing a medicine ball alone (you vs a wall) or in pairs (you vs a partner) and have the benefit of this same added power.
2. Develop Coordination and Balance:
These fitness balls are also a must-have accessory if you want to improve your coordination and balance. You could vary most exercises by using the medicine ball to throw you off- balance (when twisting your chest to work your obliques, for example). Doing exercises when off-balance helps to work deeper muscles, the ones that are vital to maintaining good posture. The result will be that you can exercise safely (better core stability, stronger back), as well as feeling the benefits in your everyday life. By using a medicine ball, you will be able to do movements that work an entire chain of muscles. This will develop your intermuscular coordination, build up your abs and lower back muscles, and burn more calories through using more muscle mass.
3. Enhance speed, movement accuracy for physical preparedness
Adding medicine balls while preparing and warming up muscle groups before any competitive sports can help athletes or players to boost their speed and the accuracy of their movements.
By reproducing most of their normal prep activities with these weighted balls, professional athletes or high-performing regular sports enthusiasts can learn to move their bodies in a more versatile and challenging way. This then allows them to react to teammates more quickly and move their own bodies with greater precision and agility.
4. Provide versatile, full body workouts:
Regardless of your fitness level, medicine balls force your core muscles to engage more, regardless of the primary muscle group being targeted. They offer more of a full body workout, which means burning more calories and improving overall fitness and physique. So mixing up and varying training forms will help you unlock your overall body capability.
Moreover, throwing and catching the ball will improve body balance, hand-eye coordination, and flexibility while you react and catch the moving ball.
We’ve included a medicine ball workout video to incorporate into your daily workout routine!
