It is becoming increasingly popular these days to forego the trip to the gym and get a solid workout at home. People are becoming more educated in the use of bodyweight and small weighted products to get a total body workout. I am all for it and do it quite often myself. I can get as good of a workout at home with very little equipment as I do in a gym. On numerous occasions, my wife and I have gone out in our yard and created a workout circuit using stairs, walls and our inclined driveway. It’s a great workout and the neighbors get some entertainment.

When someone asks me what they should have at home for workout purposes, there are a few items I always recommend. One item I think everyone should have in their home gym is a weighted medicine ball. When I use the term “home gym,” I’m obviously not referring to some lavish, celebrity style fitness room. A home gym only needs to be an area that can accommodate you moving around and a few small pieces of equipment. The medicine ball has been around for a long time (by long time I mean the ancient Greeks were using weighted balls for exercise!), but people tend to forget how practical it is and how much you can actually do with it. The freedom of movement allows for an endless variation of exercises providing you with a full upper and lower body workout. Before writing this blog, I decided to sit down and write down as many exercises as I could think of using a medicine ball. Without much thought or hesitation, I had 50 exercises written down and had to stop because I knew I could go on for a while. Examples of some of these exercises are: sit-up ball throws, squat jump ball throw, lunging ball chops etc. Check out this short video on the medicine ball and some exercises you can do with it.

 

The are so many benefits to these type of free range motions you can perform. It is beneficial for speed, strength and conditioning, power and overall health. When using a medicine ball for training, you should be focused on several things. You will have multiple moving parts of your body during a majority of your exercises so it is important you concentrate on movement coordination. Furthermore, you should strive to move the medicine ball as fast as humanly possible. Neuromuscular Efficiency and power output is enhanced by this type of explosive training.

All you have to do now is decide which medicine ball type and weight is right for you. There are many different types that RAGE offers so it is really about personal preference. My advice is if you have a gym membership, head over there and try out a few of the medicine balls and see which type and weight suits your needs the best. Check out our selection at http://wwww.american-gymnast.com/shop/Medicine-balls-C176.aspx and go from there. If you need advice on types of exercises or any of the products, please feel free to email me at brad@american-gymnast.com. Be on the watch for a future blog containing a comprehensive list of medicine ball exercise that I like.