Medicine balls have been used in this sport for over a century because they are the perfect training tool for the unique demands of boxing.
Medicine ball exercises require a lot of twisting, pushing, pulling, and throwing motions that are very similar to the movements required in the ring. For instance, shifting your weight to throw a medicine ball involves many of the same muscles as when shifting your weight to deliver or slip a punch.
Exercising with medicine balls not only allows you to imitate realistic boxing moves, the added weight also enhances all the demands of training and the benefits of each movement. When you use a medicine ball to enhance natural body weight exercises, your body adapts to greater workloads on both your muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance. Getting hit with or punching a medicine ball helps build resiliency and conditions your body to withstand constant impact.
Medicine Balls are available in a variety of weights so that you can execute sport-specific moments to best replicate what your body needs to prepare for a fight. A six- or eight-pound ball, for instance, is ideal for one armed tosses. It allows you to pay strict attention to your throwing technique, which is almost exactly like delivering a punch. Pushing off the ground, turning your knee, your hips, and following through by rolling your shoulder over while extending your arm as you follow through are the exact same mechanics as throwing a punch. Practicing this technique with the extra weight will strengthen the muscles required for the movement and make it easier to perform a similar motion without the extra pounds.
Other sizes, like a 10lb medicine ball, are fantastic for conditioning the larger muscles used in the ring. Catching it strengthens your back, which contributes largely to your punching power. Doing squats or simply moving around the ring with a 10lb medicine ball helps condition your leg muscles, ankles, and calves. Leg strength is crucial to moving around the ring, in and out of range, during a fight.
In addition to all of that, studies have shown that throwing things helps develop the frontal lobe of the brain, which oversees attention and concentration. When you incorporate throwing a medicine ball into your routine, you are improving your focus on the delivery of punches.
There are so many benefits and direct applications to boxing, that’s why it has endured the test of time.
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