If you want to improve your functional fitness, you can't go wrong with a medicine ball.
Medicine ball exercises are generally full-body, compound moves that combine cardiovascular work with strength training. Often, you'll be twisting, turning and bending while holding your medicine ball, which means you'll be recruiting multiple muscle groups at once.
I recently purchased a basic 17.5lb ball and started doing medicine ball slams, which are great for cardiovascular health because they require full body engagement, speed and explosive power.
Here’s what I discovered after incorporating the move into my workouts for a month.
My upper body strength increased dramatically
As part of my medicine ball training, I did slams and wall throws, throwing the ball up at the wall and catching it in a deep squat. These exercises use a huge range of movement and recruit lots of different muslces, including the deltoids (shoulders), lats (upper back), triceps (arms), as well as the hamstrings, glutes and abdominals.
Within a month I had noticed a significant improvement in my upper body strength, and I felt my core was getting stronger, too.
My co-ordination improved
Slamming a medicine ball against a wall requires you to activate an entire chain of muscles in your legs, trunk and arms, which develops intermuscular coordination. Explosive, high-intensity movements like ball slams and catches also require eye-hand co-ordination, which is good for agility and reaction time. Over the month I definitely noticed an improvement in how fast I was at catching the ball, and I also dropped it less.
I felt less stressed
It may seem obvious, but slamming a medicine ball into the floor is very therapeutic! In fact I would say it’s on the same level as boxing for relieving stress and giving you a good hit of mood-boosting endorphins. I highly recommend that anyone in a bad mood picks up a medicine ball and lets rip.
My lower back pain disappeared
Medicine ball training is a brilliant way to strengthen the core muscles and when they are strong, your posture and balance improve. I definitely noticed this after a month, and my lower back niggles from sitting at my desk weren’t as bad as usual. This is another reason why I’m going to carry on using medicine balls in my regular training.
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