I wanted to apologize to all of the loyal fans who love our Thursday workout tips, I had an emergency issue come up this week that needed tending to. That being said, even if it’s late, I wanted to bring all of you a weekly tip. This week’s workout tip is… medicine balls!
That's right! (Appropriated via Creative Commons)
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the countless abdominal exercises that can be done with medicine balls (I’m equally sure many of you have tried them). But there is so much more to medicine balls! Lucky for us, you can add medicine balls to pretty much any bodyweight exercise to increase your workload. Doing pushups? Place your hands on a pair of medicine balls to increase balance, stabilizer activation and the work on your pectorals. Bodyweight squats? Quick, grab a medicine ball!
She's got the right idea (via Creative Commons)
But perhaps the best use of medicine balls is with plyometrics because of their lightweight and versatile nature. You know the padded multi-use room at the Rec Center on campus? Grab a medicine ball and throw it as hard as you can at the padded wall for 30 seconds. Rest and repeat for three sets. Try some box jumps or core exercises with the added resistance of a medicine ball and see your results skyrocket.
This is called a wood chopper— not only do you look great doing one, but your core muscles will thank you (via Creative Commons)
So next time you have a case of the old workout blues, grab a medicine ball, put on a smile and burn some calories.
Hannah
Doug Luippold
Donnie Hogan
emilywatkins
Will Anderson
Actively Austin 
Posted by Ryan Murphy on April 10, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Throw a medicine ball against a wall for 30 seconds? Sounds just like my kind of caveman exercise experience. I have always wanted to put together my own little “home gym” that did not take up much space or require me to purchase something pitched by Chuck Norris.
Good advice though on the ways medicine balls can enhance all the basics. They are certainly easier to work with than trying to do sit ups with a free weight on your chest.
Posted by John Lee on April 11, 2010 at 4:38 pm
HAHA “caveman exercise” haha nice. Another helpful workout tip to use for medicine balls is use it as a little extra weight when doing abdominal exercises such as resting your entire body weight on your butt while lifting your feet/shoulder blades off of the ground and then grabbing the medicine ball and hitting the ground to your left and right with the ball. You can really feel the burn!