Training as an athlete is all about improving performance. An essential component of this is tailoring training to be as sport specific as possible. Training with medicine balls, dead balls and wall balls is an excellent method for improving sport-related movements in a fashion more specific than dumbbell or barbell work.
Why the Different Types
Medicine balls are the original weighted ball, which will
bounce to an extent and have some give when hit / squeezed (the name comes from
Socrates prescribing weight balls to be used as exercise for medicinal purposes
in case you were wondering). These are suitable for general use; they can be
dropped but are not designed with being forcefully thrown repeatedly into walls
or floors in mind.
Dead balls are filled with iron sand rather than air, and
are designed to come to a dead stop when thrown. This makes them ideal to throw
at surfaces without worrying about the ball bouncing back and hitting you or
nearby people. Due to the sand design, you will notice they can shift in your
hands when held and may not resemble a ball used in sport as closely.
Wall balls are much larger and softer, and are designed to
be thrown against (not at) a wall; commonly for Crossfit. The idea is they are
easier to catch and handle than standard medicine or dead balls; the trade-off
being they are not as suited for high impact use.
What Does the Research Say?
Ignjatovic, Markovic & Radovanovic (2012) trained 11 x
young female European Handball for 12 weeks using a medicine ball-based
training program, in addition to their regular handball training (the control
group exclusively performed their regular training). After 12 weeks the
training group were found to have significantly improved their medicine ball
throws in both seated and standing positions, bench press and shoulder press
when using 30% and 50% of their 1RM. Both groups improved their 1RM with no
significant difference between groups.
This would indicate that medicine ball training is more
applicable to developing power than strength, and that “when incorporated into
a regular training session, can provide greater sport-specific training
improvements” compared to traditional team-based practice.
Raeder, Fernandez-Fernandez & Ferrauti (2015) compared a
group of female handball players with/without a 6 week medicine ball training
program, and tested for differences in throwing velocity, throwing precision
and shoulder rotator strength (both groups performed a shoulder injury
prevention program using elastic tubes and regular handball throwing training
as well). The medicine ball training group were found to have significantly
improved their throwing velocity and shoulder rotator strength compared to the
control group but not throwing precision.
This would support the use of medicine ball training to
improve sport specific skills where power is required, and contributes to the
de-bunking of the myth that weight training will impact an athlete’s skill
level.
Szymanski, Szymanski, Bradford & Schade (2007) compared
two groups of high school baseball players; both performing a full-body
resistance training program and baseball practice with one group performing
additional rotational and full-body medicine ball exercises for 12 weeks. The
researchers found that the medicine ball group had significantly greater
improvement in rotational strength and a medicine ball-specific test known as
“medicine ball hitter’s throw” or “sequential hip-torso-arm rotational
strength”. Both groups improved without difference to each other in 3RM barbell
squat and bench press.
The researchers concluded that additional medicine ball training “provided greater sport-specific training improvements in torso rotational and sequential hip-torso-arm rotation strength for high school baseball players”.
Summary
For strength athletes and bodybuilders, medicine balls have limited capacity to improve maximal strength or muscle hypertrophy. However, for athletes training specific movements integral to their sport, medicine balls (and dead and wall balls) are a useful tool for making training more sport specific, and thus more effective; particularly in terms of developing power.
References
1. Ignjatovic, A.M., Markoivc, Z.M., & Radovanovic, D.S. (2012) Effects of 12-week medicine ball training on muscle strength and power in young female handball players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research; 26(8):2166-73
2. Raeder, C., Fernandez-Fernandez, J., Ferrauti, A. (2015) Effects of six weeks of medicine Ball Training on Throwing Velocity, Throwing Precision, and Isokinetic Strength of Shoulder Rotators in Female Handball Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research; 29(7):1904-14
3. Szymanski, D., Szymanski, J.M., Bradford, T. J., Schade, R.L. (2007) Effect of twelve weeks of medicine ball training on high school baseball players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research; 21(3):894-901