![]() ![]() With free weights and machines, your options for training your core to twist, and resist twisting, are limited.īut medicine balls allow for natural rotational motions that can help define your midsection as well as prevent injury to the lower back.īut what about the Olympic lifts? Don’t snatches and cleans and their many variants build power and athleticism like nothing else?įor most athletes, particularly young ones and novices, learning the Olympic lifts requires so much time to learn proper technique that many coaches don’t bother with them anymore. Using a ball, you can project power in every plane of motion-front to back, side to side, and in rotation. The foundational movements like squats, deadlifts and bench press are great for building strength but are limited by their single plane of movement and ability to transfer power throughout the whole body.” “That’s not necessarily found in other strength training exercises. “There is a freedom of movement with many dynamic medicine ball exercises that replicates the movement found in many sports,” says Doug Fioranelli, a strength coach and owner of Rise Above Performance Training in Belmont, Calif. If I just swing, I don’t really know how hard I swung it.īut if I connect and see how far the ball goes, I do.” When you use a medicine ball, you can gauge your power by how far you can launch it. “It’s the difference between taking a practice swing with a bat and actually hitting a baseball. It works the same way plyometric exercises like jumps do for the lower body.įurthermore, Pogue says the med ball gives you instant feedback on your power. ![]() Your nervous system will fire your muscles harder, which translates to harder punches, faster baseball bat swings and pitches, and a more powerful bench press too. Because you can throw the ball, you don’t have to worry about slowing it down for safety. “The medicine ball teaches you to let go,” says Sam Pogue, creator of the Be Less Un-Fit Program ( ). That means you never really maximize your ability to explode as much as possible. Even though you’re training your body to move the bar faster, your muscles still have to decelerate the movement at the top of the lift to prevent injury to your shoulders and elbows, not to mention to prevent the bar from flying out of your hands. Imagine doing a bench press with light weight and pushing the bar as fast as you can. ![]() Lifting barbells and dumbbells builds strength, which lays the foundation for power, but according to the American College of Sports Medicine, it doesn’t develop explosivity as well as medicine ball training does. Medicine balls are mainly used for throwing and catching drills, which build explosivity and the ability to absorb and redirect force-all of which are crucial to athletes. Typically, dead balls have a softer exterior of stitched material, which makes them a good all-purpose option that tends to be more durable. In contrast, “dead balls don’t bounce,” says Williams. Laura Williams, manager of the online health and fitness community, calls them “live and dead balls-which I know sounds like some sort of dirty joke.”īalls with a hard shell and air inside will rebound when you throw them into a wall or the floor, making them helpful for exercises in which you want the ball to return to your hands quickly (such as med ball slams on the floor). Some balls come with a rope attached so you can swing them.ĭetails aside, medicine balls break down into two categories-ones that bounce on impact and ones that don’t. More traditional medicine balls have a tacky surface but newfangled models may offer grips that make them easier to simulate dumbbell and kettlebell exercises. The shell can be made from many materials, including nylon, vinyl, leather, dense rubber, or polyurethane, and the insides are often stuffed with sand, gel, or just inflated with air. It can come in small sizes (like a softball) or larger ones, resembling a volleyball or beach ball. Not to be confused with the oversized, inflatable stability (or Swiss) ball, the medicine ball is a solid sphere that usually ranges in weight from one to 50 pounds. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |