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Med Balls
For All Unlike other types of equipment, medicine ball training provides children and teenagers with the opportunity to strengthen their bodies through dynamic movements that require balance and coordination. Not only are medicine balls inexpensive and safe to use, but medicine ball training is fun! Furthermore, body weight exercises such as pull-ups may be too challenging for some youth who are sedentary or overweight. Since medicine balls come in a variety of shapes and sizes, all participants can start at safe levels and gradually progress as needed. Medicine balls can be used by personal trainers as part of individualized workout sessions or by teachers and coaches in a group setting with a large number of people exercise simultaneously. Unlike weight machines that train individual muscles or muscle groups, medicine ball exercises train the body to function as a unit instead of separate parts. For example, when you swing a baseball bat you donít think about each individual muscle, but rather all the muscles involved in creating a fluid swing. It is the creation of so-called ëfunctionalí movements that mimic natural body positions and movement speeds that occur in daily life and game situations that make medicine ball training so valuable. Medicine ball training also requires participants to use their mind as well as their body. Some medicine ball exercises are complex and require children to think about what they are doing and how they are moving. Medicine ball exercises can be cognitively stimulating and can result in real learning through task oriented approaches that enable youth to discover the answer by achieving a task on their own. For example, performing a lunging movement while moving a medicine ball in different positions causes the body to reach outside of its ëinner balance zone.í Through a constant interplay of imbalance and balance, a movement such as a medicine ball walk can aid the body in controlling its center of gravity. How far can a child walk and still maintain dynamic balance if she adds rotational and diagonal medicine ball movements? Each child creates the answer to this task on their own, thus learning the movement forever. With a few medicine balls of different weight and sizes and a little creativity, conditioning programs can be designed for beginners as well as elite athletes. For more information about medicine ball training, check out www.medballforall.com.
Medicine ball training can be used as a stand-alone conditioning program as part of an after-school program or incorporated into a physical education class. Regardless of how it is used, the following basic principles are fundamental to the development of medicine ball training programs for youth. These training principles can be easily remembered as the P.R.O.S., progression, regularity, overload and specificity. P is for progression. In order to continually make gains in strength, power and local muscular endurance, youth must gradually and progressively place greater demands on their body. This does not mean that heavier medicine balls need to be used every workout, but overtime the exercise session should become more challenging by increasing the weight of the ball or altering the number of sets and repetitions. Changing other program variables such as the choice of exercise, speed of movement or distance between training partners (or the wall) is also important. For example, progressing from a traditional push-up exercise on the floor to a push-up with both hands on a leather medicine ball can add a new and challenging dimension to a training program. R is for regularity. Medicine ball exercises should be performed at least twice per week on nonconsecutive days. While training once per week might maintain muscle strength, a training frequency of two to four times per week per is recommended to optimize gains in muscular performance. We suggest alternating training days with periods of active rest to allow for adequate recovery between training sessions and reduce the likelihood of overtraining. Adequate recovery between exercise sessions is vital for maximizing training-induced adaptations. Depending on individual goals, exercise tolerance, movement quality and time available for training, the frequency can be increased. If an individual strength trains on two consecutive days, different muscle groups should be trained each day to avoid overtraining. O is for overload. This age-old principle means that the demands placed on the musculoskeletal system must be greater than that to which it is normally accustomed. So the medicine balls should be challenging, but not so heavy that repetitions, training speed and exercise technique are sacrificed. S is for specificity. This common-sense principle refers to the distinct adaptations that take place as a result of a training program. Simply stated, if youth only perform medicine ball exercises for their upper body their lower body wonít get stronger. Furthermore, the adaptations that take place in a muscle or muscle group will be as simple or as complex as the stress placed on them. For example, since sports require multi-joint and multi-planar movements (e.g., frontal, sagittal and transverse planes), it seems prudent for young athletes to perform complex medicine ball exercises that closely mimic the movements of their sport. The specificity principle can also be applied to the design of medicine ball training programs for individuals who want to enhance their abilities to perform activities of daily life that also require multi-joint and multi-planar movements. For more information about medicine ball training, check out www.medballforall.com Medicine balls are weighted vinyl, polyurethane, or leather balls that are portable, easy to store and come in a rainbow of colors, shapes, and sizes (from the size of a baseball to a basketball). Some medicine balls have a textured surface or handle for easier gripping and others are inflatable and bounce. Leather balls do not bounce but can be used as a base to stand on for balance training. While adult athletes may use 8 to 12 lb medicine balls for medicine ball training, children and teenagers should begin with 2 pound balls and gradually progress as strength and exercise technique improve. Remember that the weight of the medicine ball is always less than the weight youth use on weight machines and free weights. Remember, the quality of the movement is far more important than the weight of the ball. By using medicine balls of different weights and sizes, you can develop a total conditioning program consisting of throwing, catching and rotational movements. In our programs, we use color-coded balls so the instructors and participants can easily keep track of the loads they are using. Obviously, it is desirable to have medicine balls of different weights and sizes to accommodate the needs and abilities of all participants. Also, you will need smaller and lighter balls for one-arm exercises. For more information about medicine ball training, check out www.medballforall.com
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