Medicine ball training is one of the best ways to improve overall strength, power, speed, rotational strength, and to burn calories efficiently while producing high levels of athleticism. Medicine ball movements incorporate many large muscle groups which promotes calorie burn and allows the body to move as a unit.
As a strength coach and personal trainer, I use medicine ball training almost every day with my training groups. Implementing this type of training helps all of my clients improve their overall fitness.
Medicine ball training is a staple of our training programs because I believe that athletic movement is one of the best ways to get fit and also have fun. Clients are able to perform complex movements that will test their physical limits (safely of course).
When training with medicine balls you improve your core strength, develop full body strength with movements such as throws, squats and lunges, and you can have some fun and release stress at the same time.
Here are five great medicine ball training exercises:
1. Torso Rotations: Sitting on the ground with your feet up, you lean back and rotate the ball side to side, lightly tapping on the floor. This exercise trains your entire core and develops serious lower back strength.
2. Medicine Ball Wall Throws: Stand several feet away from a solid wall in an athletic stance. Tighten your core and press the ball aggressively from your chest onto the wall, catch and repeat as fast as you can. This movement trains the entire upper body and improves power and stamina.
3. Medicine Ball Squat & Press: Hold the medicine ball at your chest, drop into a deep squat and drive through your heels as you press the ball overhead. This exercise trains your lower body, core and upper body. This is a great movement to improve overall strength, athleticism, and burn fat and calories.
4. Overhead Throw: Drop into a half squat and hold the ball between your knees. Extend your hips forcefully and scoop the ball overhead, letting go at the top of the movement. This is a great exercise to develop lower body power, core strength, and triple extension action.
5. V Up Crunches: Hold a medicine ball with your arms and legs extended lying on your back. Crunch up to meet your limbs in the middle and slowly lower as close to the ground as you can. Contract your abdominal region and exhale at the top of the movement. This is a great core exercise that trains the entire abdominal muscle.
Medicine ball training is a great way to improve overall strength, core strength and stability, athletic movement, stamina, and to burn fat. People often think that this type of training should be restricted to abdominal work, but as you can see there are many full body movements that can help improve your fitness. In order to see results and learn proper technique and safety, sign up with a qualified personal trainer that can help you implement this type of work into your programs. Exercises such as throws, rotations, and even lunges should be supervised and corrected in order to gain the highest benefit.
Author Resource:
Personal trainer Callie Durbrow promotes fat loss, strength and increasing overall fitness with small group training based on athletic movements. For more information please visit http://www.durbrowpeformance.com
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