Medicine Ball Workouts

Medicine ball workouts are great for general fitness, boosting endurance, upper body strength and power, plus they can help you burn fat and lose weight. Here are 5 ways to use medicine balls beyond ab work and chest work.

Use the medicine ball for a quick full body workout.
Group 3 full body exercises together such as medicine ball squat with over head press, stability ball pullover crunches, and lunges with med ball twists. Perform 10-15 sets of each back to back then rest and repeat two more times for 15 minutes of quick circuit training.

Use the medicine ball to increase heart rate and burn more calories.
Take your regular workouts and add some ball throws, ball passes, or ball plyometrics. You will elevate your heart rate quickly and your body will work harder to keep up. This increases endurance faster, burns more calories, boost fatloss, and improves coordination and agility.

Use a medicine ball to help you stretch.
If you're doing really tough strength workouts and you're stretching at the end to prevent injuries and soreness (very smart of you) then you can sub one or two strength exercises for 2 dynamic medicine ball moves that work on both strength and flexibility. Try the transverse reach or the Russian twist on stability ball to lengthen hamstrings, lower back, chest, and upper back.

Use the medicine ball as a weight.
Medicine balls with handles can be used for triceps extensions, bent-over rows, bicep curls, overhead presses, front raises and so much more. It's slightly different than using a dumbbell and the change will cause your body to work a bit harder and burn more calories. Check out the ketlebell fatloss workout for examples.

Use the medicine ball for aligning the body.
A light medicine ball or one with handles can be used to open up the chest, create length in the lower back, or to release tight spots in areas that are hard to reach with foam rollers or restorative devices. Try slow tempo pullovers on a stability ball, stiff-leg toe touches, or decline crunches with low back resting on ball.

Choose a ball that weighs 4-10 lb. and choose between a sand filled ball, a hard air filled ball, or an air filled ball with handle: