Medicine Ball - I love you

In one word - Brutal but so much fun!!

I won’t lie, the medicine ball class is one of the hardest at Giorgia fitMindset. It includes: 

Three main circuits: Each circuit has 1 round of strength and 1 round of cardio

Strength round: 10 exercises with the medicine ball (ex. Squat throwing the ball, lunges while passing the ball under your legs, etc.)

Cardio round: 5 cardio intervals (30"-60") holding the ball in your hands

Grand final option:  10 core exercises with the medicine ball

The medicine ball class offers a great, balanced, and complete workout that challenges strength and coordination.  In this class there are a lot of movement combinations, such as your body moving to the left while the ball in your hands moves to the right. We really see our coordination at work during these exercises. Coordination is not automatic, it is something that you can train and improve, just as you can improve your strength. 

The benefits

The ancient Greeks used medicine balls from as far back as 3000 years ago to help patients going through post-injury stages of recovery. Nowadays, medicine balls (or weighted balls) have become popular in daily training with their ability to tone up bodies, build core strength, and improve balance.

1. Develop explosive power and build body strength

Explosive power is the ability to push out the maximum amount of force in the shortest amount of time. The more energy you can release when you tense the muscle, the stronger the force you can produce the fastest.

This explosive power relies on the body strength in specific parts and movements in which the training impacts. Any sequences that combine movements and medicine balls, like squats and ball throw altogether, will bring out these dual benefits.

2. Enhance speed, movement accuracy for physical preparedness

While preparing and warming up sections before any competitive sports, practicing with medicine balls can help athletes or players to boost their speed and the accuracy of their movements.

By reproducing some certain actions with these weighted balls, athletes or high-performing sports people can move their bodies in a versatile way, proactively react, and position their body while interacting with teammates.

3. Provide versatile, full body workouts

Medicine balls force your core muscles to engage more, regardless of the primary muscle group being targeted. This way you can get more of a full body workout, which means burning more calories and improving overall fitness. So mixing up and varying training forms will help you unlock your overall body capability.

Moreover, throwing and catching the ball alone or with others will improve hand-eye coordination, body balance, and flexibility while letting yourselves react with the moving trends of the ball.

4. Enhance socialization skill and teamwork

While most of the gym workouts can be done by yourself, practicing with these weighted balls can be done with another partner to bring more fun into the workout. Engaging another person to join will extend the variety of training exercises and increase positive mood.

Group training with a ball can involve team members rolling, bouncing, tossing or passing the ball back and forth between the team to target different muscle groups. This will help to level up their energetic feelings by playing and training at the same time.

Don’t miss our couples Valentine’s class coming in February!