take your medicine

mai tai · Nov 7, 2006

who knows some good workouts with a medicine ball.

slipthejab · Nov 7, 2006

I've got a bunch of them - many of them coming from Ross Enamait at www.rossboxing.com - even with just one of his books you'd have enough med ball workouts to last you all year.

I will continue to post some of them in this thread - but first here's something I came across recently that you'll find of interest:

Medicine ball training workouts:
Does medicine ball training really work?

Medicine ball training is becoming increasingly popular with athletes. Volleyball players throw and catch medicine balls (heavy balls weighing from two to 15 pounds) to upgrade their spiking ability, basketball players use the balls to improve their passing and rebounding capacities, baseball players toss medicine balls to improve their throwing speed, and all-around athletes cavort with the balls in hopes of enhancing their 'core strength' (muscle strength in the hips, abdomen, and back).

Although medicine balls are definitely in vogue, a pretty important question hasn't been answered: do the damned things really work? To answer that question, scientists at Southern Cross University in Australia recently signed up 24 junior development baseball players for an eight-week training program. During the eight weeks, eight of the athletes engaged in medicine ball workouts, while eight others took part in conventional strength-training sessions and eight additional athletes served as controls.

The medicine ball training took place twice a week and consisted of explosive two-hand chest passes and top-effort, two-hand overhead throws using a three-kilogram (6.6-pound) medicine ball. All throws were preceded by a counter-movement (moving the arms back in the opposite direction of the throwing motion) to ensure that an explosive stretch-shorten ('plyometric') action was utilized. To increase upper-body effort, the feet were held in place for each throw, and players attempted a maximum effort on each throw. For the first four weeks, there were three sets of eight repetitions for each throw per workout, with three-minute rests between sets; during the final four weeks, there were three sets of 10 reps.

The weight-training group also worked out twice a week, utilising barbell bench press and barbell pullover exercises. For the first four weeks, weight trainers completed three sets of eight- to 10-repetition max (RM) exercise per workout for both the bench presses and barbell pullovers (in other words, they used weights which could be lifted only eight to 10 times per set). For the final four weeks, they employed three sets of six- to eight-RM for each exercise. All weights were lifted in a slow, controlled manner - not explosively. Medicine-ball, weight-trained, and control athletes all participated in their regular baseball workouts during the eight-week period. After eight weeks, all athletes were tested for maximal baseball throwing velocity and bench-press strength.

Weight training proved to be far superior to medicine ball workouts, both in terms of bench-press power and throwing speed. Weight-trained athletes upgraded their baseball throwing velocity by 4.1 per cent, while medicine-ball men enhanced throwing by a statistically insignificant 1.6 percent. Control individuals also failed to improve their throwing.

Likewise, bench-press strength advanced by 23 per cent for the weight-trained athletes but inched upward by just 9 per cent for medicine-ball tossers. Again, control people failed to improve at all.

Up-to-date athletic trainers and athletes like medicine ball training because it appears to be more specific to their preferred athletic activity than conventional weight training (throwing a medicine ball is more like throwing a baseball or basketball than is lifting a heavy weight, and it's hard to imagine why lifting a weight would improve the skill factor associated with throwing). Baseball teams at all levels of competition use medicine balls in their training programmes.

However, although medicine ball workouts are more specific, they also involve the use of lower weights, compared to traditional strength-training exertions. Most athletes throw with medicine balls which weigh no more than nine or 10 pounds, while considerably heavier weights are used during strength training. It appears that the use of higher weight may outweigh the benefits of specificity of training in this case. Maximum limb velocity appears to be a function of rate of force development and overall force output, both of which are enhanced rather dramatically through the use of fairly heavy weights.

As the researchers concluded, perhaps the overload on the muscles when accelerating a three-kilogram medicine ball is not enough to induce a training adaptation . '
(Baseball Throwing Velocity: A Comparison of Medicine Ball Training and Weight Training,' Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 8(3), pp. 198-203, 1994)
Click to expand...

Here are some links that contain workouts and or single exercises that you can work into your overal training:

http://www.performbetter.com/catalog/matriarch/OnePiecePage.asp_Q_PageID_E_33_A_PageName_E_Training2

Here's an eight page PDF file that contains med ball exercises. Download it and print it out:
http://www.performbetter.com/catalog/assets/Exercisesheets/PDF/MedBall Handout.pdf

Here is an interesting article that shows the difference in results between weight training and med-ball training:

Medicine balls are a great way to improve your speed and agility and so is weight training. It appears that the use of higher weight may outweigh the benefits of specificity of training in this case. Learn why!

Is Throwing A Heavy Ball Good Medicine?

Research Finding

'Medicine ball' training is becoming increasingly popular with athletes. Volleyball players throw and catch medicine balls (heavy balls weighing from two to 15 pounds) to upgrade their spiking ability, basketball players use the balls to improve their passing and rebounding capacities, baseball players toss medicine balls to improve their throwing speed, and all-around athletes cavort with the balls in hopes of enhancing their 'core strength' (muscle strength in the hips, abdomen, and back).

Although medicine balls are definitely in vogue, an important question still has not been answered: do the damned things really work? To answer that question, scientists at Southern Cross University in Australia recently signed up 24 junior development baseball players for an eight-week training program. During the eight weeks, eight of the athletes engaged in medicine-ball workouts, while eight others took part in conventional strength-training sessions and eight additional athletes served as controls.

The medicine-ball training took place twice a week and consisted of explosive two-hand chest passes and top-effort, two-hand overhead throws using a three-kilogram (6.6-pound) medicine ball. All throws were preceded by a counter-movement (moving the arms back in the opposite direction of the throwing motion) to ensure that an explosive stretch-shorten ('plyometric') action was utilized.

To increase upper-body effort, the feet were held in place for each throw, and players attempted a maximum effort on each throw. For the first four weeks, there were three sets of eight repetitions for each throw per workout, with three-minute rests between sets; during the final four weeks, there were three sets of 10 reps.

The weight-training group also worked out twice a week, utilizing barbell bench press and barbell pullover exercises. For the first four weeks, weight trainers completed three sets of eight- to 10-repetition max (RM) exercise per workout for both the bench presses and barbell pullovers (in other words, they used weights which could be lifted only eight to 10 times per set). For the final four weeks, they employed three sets of six- to eight-RM for each exercise. Determine your 1-rep max, click here!

The Results

All weights were lifted in a slow, controlled manner - not explosively. Medicine-ball, weight-trained, and control athletes all participated in their regular baseball workouts during the eight-week period. After eight weeks, all athletes were tested for maximal baseball throwing velocity and bench-press strength.

Weight training proved to be far superior to medicine-ball workouts, both in terms of bench-press power and throwing speed. Weight-trained athletes upgraded their baseball throwing velocity by 4.1 per cent, while medicine-ball men enhanced throwing by a statistically insignificant 1.6 percent. Control individuals also failed to improve their throwing.

Likewise, bench-press strength advanced by 23 % for the weight-trained athletes but inched upward by just 9 per cent for medicine-ball tossers. Again, control people failed to improve at all.

Up-to-date athletic trainers and athletes like medicine-ball training because it appears to be more specific to their preferred athletic activity than conventional weight training (throwing a medicine ball is more like throwing a baseball or basketball than is lifting a heavy weight, and it's hard to imagine why lifting a weight would improve the skill factor associated with throwing). Baseball teams at all levels of competition use medicine balls in their training programs.

However, although medicine-ball workouts are more specific, they also involve the use of lower weights, compared to traditional strength-training exertions. Most athletes throw with medicine balls which weigh no more than nine or 10 pounds, while considerably heavier weights are used during strength training. It appears that the use of higher weight may outweigh the benefits of specificity of training in this case. Maximum limb velocity appears to be a function of rate of force development and overall force output, both of which are enhanced rather dramatically through the use of fairly heavy weights.

As the researchers concluded, perhaps the overload on the muscles when accelerating a three-kilogram medicine ball is not enough to induce a training adaptation.

References
Baseball Throwing Velocity: A Comparison of Medicine Ball Training and Weight Training,' Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 8(3), pp. 198-203, 1994.
Click to expand...

source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/softball9.htm

Here's another article from the same site - this one has good animations of the exercises - so it's better to view it on their page:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin11.htm

Got balls?!
Again - same site - this breaks down what is available out there in terms of variety for med-balls:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa46.htm

A circuit plyometrics article that have med-balls used a lot in it:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rudy5.htm

Jeez - what was I thinking?! I should have put this one at the top of the page - by none other than Ross Enamait:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing5.htm

NaughtyKnight · Nov 10, 2006

Going to have to second Slip.

Ross has some GREAT workouts for the medicine ball that are very effective training for ma.

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take your medicine

mai tai Valued Member

slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

NaughtyKnight Has yellow fever!

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take your medicine

mai tai Valued Member

slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

NaughtyKnight Has yellow fever!

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