I've been trying to decide whether I should get some for a while. My mom's starting to develop arthritis in her hands since there's a history of it in the women on her side of the family. Since her birthday was recently I decided I'd pick her up a pair as I know a few people who've had these marvelous little things stave off arthritis. Anyway I got her a set of smaller ones and myself a set of larger ones. They're both made of solid onyx and mine are BIG. Cue the ACDC because... I've got big balls. Oh I've got big balls. Seriously I got the big 7cm ones because I want to use them ton increase coordination and strength if possible. I know you're supposed to work up from smaller but I can do basic baoding exercises with pool balls so what the hay. Anyway I started today and my dexterity on the left is pretty bad. It got better throughout the day. I took my girlfriend with me and she needed to go shopping after so I sat waiting for her and playing with my balls. After a while though my forearms started to burrrrrrrn. My hands are pretty strong even when I'm not in the gym regularly. Chock it up to those years and years of aikido. This is entirely different though. My forearm muscles aren't used to this kind of continual full range of motion exercise. It's a lot different than grippers for example. I'm looking forward to increasing the dexterity if my left hand and strength it seems too! I'll post updates over the next little while as I keep using them. Next up... Building Indian clubs out of plastic bats and sand!
Just remember that they aren't supposed to touch when you are spinning them around. Your baoding balls that is...
Well initially they are supposed to maintain constant contact and then you work up to keeping them separate.
I hear boron supplementation can be very good for arthritis. Where did you get your shiny new balls from?
I got them from Pacific Mall here in Toronto. The small ones were $10 and the large ones $20. I love Chinese stores... No tax
Once you get comfortable with them, a great grip exercise is to use them upside down (palms down). It's pretty challenging.
I'm interested in some of these. Obviously you like yours, so they must be good. Can you tell us the details? I'll look around and try to find them for myself in the States.
Well mine are about 5cm, not the seven I posted earlier. For any real benefit you need the solid ones, not the hollow chiming ones. You can get them made from various materials such as glass, onyx, crystal, steel, copper, or other types of stone. You want to avoid glass, crystal, acrylic, and certain types of stone. It has to be solid enough that if you accidentally drop them you won't damage or break the balls that's why I'll only go with onyx or metal. You want to begin with balls you can manipulate with at least some dexterity and work on those first. For average male hands 4-5cm is good. I went with 5 because I want the weight for conditioning and the size reaches just above my level of coordination and I plan to work up to the steel balls and then the heavy copper ones. Forget all the bits about them benefiting because of stimulating acupressure meridians. Because you're circling these around each other it's basically a grip exercise which requires more dexterity, coordination, and fluid movement. You can find the chiming kind all over at flea markets and little Chinese stores but what you really want is the solid ones. If you can't find them locally they are sold online.
Yes. agree with Sketco's opinion. If you want to play yourself, it is better to buy the solid metal baoding balls. This kind of baoding ball can not be damaged easily. about size,you can buy a little larger size. 40mm size is always recommed for the beginner. but if you like bigger, you can buy 45mm or 50mm size. Also most of balls are hollow,chimming. you also can buy the big solid ball. It is more useful to exercise. any questions about baoding balls welcome to ask me.
