[Garreth]

I am going to buy a Medicine Ball. How do I know what weight I will need?

Initially I will be doing slams but will extend it most likely.

[Chet]

You thought about making your own mate?

[Garreth]

Chet, on Dec 30 2007, 07:34 PM, said:

You thought about making your own mate?

Too much effort and time

[nickyhusky]

Chet, on Dec 30 2007, 07:34 PM, said:

You thought about making your own mate?

How on earth do you do that??? Just buy one, Traps! i don't know what weight tho, sorry.

[Garreth]

Basketball, sand and duct tape

[FK Pimp]

How does that hold up for doing wall ball etc? I would have thought the duct tape would become pretty slippery when pishin' with sweat?

[chrisap]

Garreth - traprunner, on Dec 31 2007, 07:37 PM, said:

Basketball, sand and duct tape

Just finished doing this myself....Usually duct tape can do anything, but I'm not sure how long this will hold out for, and it's bloody heavy!

[Chet]

Hehe...let us know how you get on with it

[chrisap]

Chet, on Mar 18 2008, 02:49 PM, said:

Hehe...let us know how you get on with it

I swear most of the weight comes from the duct tape! 3 x 50m rolls...Wilkinsons is good for that kind of stuff!

[Andy]

I used just basket ball, sand and shoe goo - no duct tape. One of the 9 kg ones split on friday in one of the classes i took. I reckon making your own lkike this would be o.k. for wall ball and chest passes between each and as no duct tape you don't have to worry about slipping. Slamming hard on the ground seems to be too high impact if there is no duct tape.

Weight wise it depends on what you want to use it for. If it's for really explosive movements while still hoding the ball or for explosive movements like throwing long distances then you don't need really heavy. 2, 3, 4 kg would be sufficient i reckon. Need to stay away from fatigue if working for power so if it's too heavy you'll fatigue too soon. Stuff like wall ball/slams then you could go heavy. Really depends what you are looking to gain - strength, power, endurance.

Cheers

Andy

[chrisap]

Andy, on Mar 18 2008, 03:21 PM, said:

I used just basket ball, sand and shoe goo - no duct tape. One of the 9 kg ones split on friday in one of the classes i took. I reckon making your own lkike this would be o.k. for wall ball and chest passes between each and as no duct tape you don't have to worry about slipping. Slamming hard on the ground seems to be too high impact if there is no duct tape.

Weight wise it depends on what you want to use it for. If it's for really explosive movements while still hoding the ball or for explosive movements like throwing long distances then you don't need really heavy. 2, 3, 4 kg would be sufficient i reckon. Need to stay away from fatigue if working for power so if it's too heavy you'll fatigue too soon. Stuff like wall ball/slams then you could go heavy. Really depends what you are looking to gain - strength, power, endurance.

Cheers

Andy

I was only planning to use mine for slams, hence the overzealous use of the ubiquitous duck tape

[FK Pimp]

did you completely cover the ball with tape?
i have heard of some people securing the sand in the ball and then covering with something (textile) for grip and then taping that in place.

[chrisap]

Chris Barclay, on Mar 18 2008, 03:28 PM, said:

did you completely cover the ball with tape?
i have heard of some people securing the sand in the ball and then covering with something (textile) for grip and then taping that in place.

I basically had a complete nightmare to begin with because the adhesive I used was crap, so my first slam meant sand was flowing...I was going to wrap it in a towel or something and then tape it, but instead I just taped the hell out of it. It will most likely break haha.

[FK Pimp]

I have a bag of sand in the garage waiting for a cheapo b/ball to be stuck into.
I bought a cheapo rugby ball thinking it would work quite well with the odd shape etc but didn't count on the ball inside a ball situation. Having second thoughts about it now.

[chrisap]

Chris Barclay, on Mar 18 2008, 03:54 PM, said:

I have a bag of sand in the garage waiting for a cheapo b/ball to be stuck into.
I bought a cheapo rugby ball thinking it would work quite well with the odd shape etc but didn't count on the ball inside a ball situation. Having second thoughts about it now.

Oh yeah, I took that for granted at first too. Eventually picked up a basketball from Argos, £6 or something. Had some sand kicking around. With the duct tape it has probably come to about £11 in all. I was going to buy a 10kg med ball on ebay, that came to around £30 I think, but it would have been bouncy as hell and I just want it for the slams really.

[Brian@strengthpowerspeed]

The size of med ball depends on what you want to do with it, and how conditioned you are to training with one.

If you're after doing the dynamic, high velocity med ball drills, then you need to start light, very light. Say 4 or 6lbs. I know that sounds like nothing, but if you want to move the ball quickly, then you'll need to start light and work up slowly. On the other hand, if you're after a strength workout, start in the 10-12 lbs range for a normal bloke. Increase the weight, reduce the ball speed. Have a look on the Dynamax site, they've got downloadable PDFs showing how to do lots of different med ball exercises (bottom of the page). http://www.medicineb....com/index.html

If you're thinking about doing partner drills (high velocity) throwing and catching, then you'll want to invest in a soft ball, or someone's going to get injured. Wall balls are best done with a soft ball too. I have a double D handled 9Kg one, and it once landed on my collar bone, I thought it was going to break the bone. Luckily it didn't, but it did scare me, and that is easily done with slippery hands.



Hope my 2 penny's worth helped.


brian
brian@strengthpowerspeed.co.uk

[Kenny]

Hi there

Davie from CrossfitCS gave me the link to this site and I've a couple of questions about home-made medicine balls. I'm looking to make a medicine ball for wall ball and another for slamming. Firstly, has anyone ever used a leather football for making one as I have 3 spare in the garage? Secondly, how good is shoe-goo or could I get away with using the glue that comes with the tyre repair kit? Finally, any hints/tips in general about making your own.

Like the site by the way, very informative.

Cheers
Kenny

[Chet]

Hi Kenny,

Cheers.

Will leave the med ball tips to those experienced in such matters - but hi and welcome to FK.UK mate

[marcus clarke]

tried making my own with sand, a basketball and tape. Lasted 2 mins and split. I then bought a 20lb ball (yellow) that you can slam, but i also use it for wall balls. Got it from the states, total cost around $100. For crossfit, normal ball used for the workouts is 20lbs.

[Franz29]

I used a regulation leather soccer ball for my slam ball. It's smaller than a B-Ball so better for gripping and slamming down.
I cut out the inner bladder and replaced it with sand contained in doubled up zip loc bags. I then taped up around the incision with duct tape. Haven't had any spillages yet.

I also have a B-Ball version which is used for Wall-Ball stuff. That has no inner bladder so instead of a large incision I just made a small hole and filled it directly using a funnel. The hole is small enough that I could use a tyre repair kit to plug it, then glue and tape over it to secure the sand. Again, no problems so far and it has been dropped a fair few times.