Introduce a Medicine Ball into your Exercise Routine
The medicine ball is an ideal tool to strengthen different muscles and alter your workout routine. In fact, it’s an alternative to dumbbell exercises because of its versatility, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity. We’ll show you how you can introduce a medicine ball into your exercise routine.
Undeniably, introducing a medicine ball into your strength training is the perfect way to burn calories. If you want to strengthen your body and burn fat at home without expensive equipment, a medicine ball can be an excellent option.
Its versatility and usefulness lie in the fact that there are many exercises that you can perform with a medicine ball to make each of your muscles stronger. Moreover, it’s excellent for adding extra resistance to your cardio workouts, even allowing you to burn more calories and develop endurance.
Benefits of introducing a medicine ball into your routine
Training with a medicine ball offers many benefits. Up next, we’ll point out which are the most prominent:
- Training with a medicine ball is versatile and fun.
- It allows you to execute different movements and many exercises.
- With this instrument, you can gain strength in a safe way.
- You can train for power, using the appropriate weight for a particular number of sets and repetitions.
- It allows you to improve the strength you can generate in a particular area.
- The medicine ball is an excellent way to exercise any part of the body, be it the upper, lower, or midsections.
- This training is suitable for all ages, fitness levels, and sizes.
- Instead of isolating certain muscle groups, you can train many different muscles at the same time.
Introduce a medicine ball into your exercise routine
1. Wall ball
You may need a light medicine ball to perform this first exercise. To start, you should keep your feet shoulder-width apart and perform a squat while holding the ball in front of your chest.
Then, extend your knees and throw the ball against the wall as high as you can. When you catch the ball, lean back to return to the squat position and restart the exercise.
2. Introduce a medicine ball into your exercise routine: abdominal floor
To carry out this exercise, you must lie on the floor, supporting your weight on your back. To proceed, flex your legs at a 90-degree angle and hold the medicine ball above your body.
Keeping your legs firm, bring them up and try to touch the medicine ball with your toes. Return to your starting position to perform another repetition. Do 5 reps initially and increase to a total of 10 repetitions progressively.
3. Standing ab exercises
To work out your abs with the medicine ball, we propose this exercise in which you start off standing with both feet apart. Your weight should be supported on your right leg while you extend your left leg backward.
To continue, it’s necessary to lift the ball over your head and lean forward slightly. Next, thrust the left knee towards your chest while bringing the ball to your chest as well. Do this as fast as you can and change sides every 40 seconds.
4. Throwing the ball while doing a burpee
To carry out this exercise, you must stand with your feet slightly farther apart than your shoulder width, holding the ball in front of your chest. Then, throw the ball upwards, catch it, and set it on the ground.
Next, place your palms on the ground, right next to each side of the ball and jump in order to extend your feet back to execute a burpee. As you raise your feet to your chest to stand up, take the ball and repeat the sequence of throwing the ball and doing the burpee.
By listing only a few exercises, it’s clear that the medicine ball is an excellent tool to introduce into your routine. In any case, don’t forget that maintaining your posture is particularly important to achieve good technique and prevent injuries. What are you waiting for? Start doing the medicine ball exercises we’ve shown you.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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Earp, J. E., & Kraemer, W. J. (2010). Medicine ball training implications for rotational power sports. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 32(4), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0b013e3181e92911