0495-0498 Medballs with handles

The medicine ball boasts ancient origins and is one of the best-known and most popular pieces of equipment because of its great versatility, due to the wide range of weights and construction solutions available. In fact, our production is characterised by no less than five models, with weights ranging from two to one hundred kilograms.

It is therefore suitable for athletic training, fitness, and functional rehabilitation, and being a heavy ball can be used in almost all overloaded exercises, especially dynamic ones. The medicine ball is also training because it must be grasped, i.e. it is necessary to grip it in the hands with strength and coordination appropriate to the weight, characteristics of the ball and type of exercise.

It is therefore not only an overload, but an overload that is not grippable, difficult to grasp and not very ergonomic. The latter characteristic is one of the most important training qualities of the medicine ball, but also one of its limitations. There may in fact be exercises for which a more ergonomic, grippable grip, such as a handle, is preferable. This is why the line of Medicine Balls with Handles (also called Double Grip Medicine Ball or Medicine Ball with Handles) was created, where the handles are made from the structure of the ball itself.

The implement remains a medicine ball, it loses the characteristic of being able to bounce smoothly, it can still be grasped two-handed like a normal medicine ball but, thanks to the handles, it can be firmly gripped by squeezing and, importantly, it can be used one-handed. From a training point of view, this possibility, one-handed training in the manner of a kettlebell or for performing rowing-type exercises, is one of the main features of the equipment.

Another feature, closely related to grip, is the possibility of obtaining high levels of performance in power training, with particular reference to the speed component: so-called explosive strength. In order to train explosive strength (the ability of our neuromuscular system to express maximum force in the shortest possible time), extremely dynamic exercises capable of achieving the highest possible combination of strength and speed are required. In this, medicine balls with handles are particularly suitable for complex exercises designed for the relevant sports.

Medicine balls with handles, are also useful for isometric work, static work to develop strength and endurance, in which the muscles involved are made to deliver insufficient force (tension) to produce movement of bone heads. Moreover, an implement that can be gripped and used in an extremely dynamic manner stimulates the athlete in terms of grip, neuromuscular circuits, refining sensitivity, proprioception, coordination, and motor skills.

The latter is particularly popular in combat sports and can be considered emblematic of the potential of the Double Grip Medicine Ball. It is certainly a complex exercise, intended for all those athletes seeking to train explosive strength at the highest level. In the start-up phase, maniacal attention to grip is required in order to preserve the health of the hand and wrist. The thumb must be placed in such a way as to obviate the pressure that could be created on the scaphoid, the upper edge of the medicine ball handle must coincide with the lower edge of the hand. Consequently, the thumb will be free to exert pressure above the index finger so that the grip is firm.

Having grasped the ball, the athlete must assume the Plank position. It is important to remember that the Plank is an exercise with maximum activation of the core and this will allow for an optimal start of the Push Up. The Push Up should be performed by partially adducting and rotating the shoulder blades. Great back, buttocks, abdominals and quadriceps contracted. The aim of the Push Up is to train the anterior chain of the upper limbs, predominantly the pectoralis, but due to the posture assumed and the instability of the medicine ball, the exercise will be global.

Finally, in order for it to be effectively training for explosive strength, it should be performed by expressing an eccentric phase so explosive that it results in a small 'flight phase' in which the medicine ball will impact on the athlete's chest and then violently return to the ground and the athlete again in a plank position.