The Medicine Ball and a little Black History

While the medicine ball has been used in fitness and athletic training for centuries, this is the first known photograph of a medicine ball in the United States:




The gentleman in the photo is Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett. He was the first African-American on the faculty at Harvard University. He also served as the first director and curator of the Harvard College Gymnasium from the time that it was built in 1859 until his death in 1871.


The photo above was taken around 1860. Professor Hewlett has his foot on a medicine ball. He also is pictured with some dumbbells, indian clubs, and a wand. These four implements were known as "The Four Horsemen of Hand-Held Exercise Tools". The Four Horsemen, along with gymnastics and boxing, were the tools that Hewlett (and other physical educators) used to hone fine, disciplined, well-balanced young men during the "Golden Years" of physical culture in the United States.

What do I mean when I say the "Golden Years" of physical culture? Well, it was a time in the United States when the word "obese" was not commonplace, especially not in children. The average man and woman was able to accomplish everyday physical tasks and feats of strength with ease. Transfats and fast food were not invented yet. Most people regularly engaged in gymnastics, swimming, boxing, wrestling, and other sports. And Type 2 diabetes was a rarity instead of an epidemic.

Now, our "Four Horsemen" that you'll find in every gym are the treadmill, the leg press, the chest press, and the Smith machine. If you just used these four machines, you could certainly get a modest workout done, but your overall fitness level would be a far cry from the fitness levels of Prof. Hewlett's students.

Today's culture would do well to take some notes on the exercise trends and lifestyle choices of the "Golden Years". So with that in mind, and in the spirit of Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, let's take a trip into the past and examine how we can use the original "Four Horsemen" to achieve peak levels of fitness and function.

This month, it will be the medicine ball.

The medicine ball is perhaps the oldest form of strength and conditioning. Before man-made materials, one of the heaviest, most abundant, and most varying things to lift in nature were stones. More than likely, lifting and throwing stones of various size was a source of recreation and sport in pre-historic times. Persian wrestlers were documented using sand-filled medicine balls in 1000 B.C. The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, had patients throw animal skins stuffed with sand for rehabilitation and injury prevention. This medical use for the ball is why they call it a medicine ball.



Today, you can get a wide variety of medicine balls weighing from 2 to 30 pounds. Most have rubber, polyurethane, or vinyl on the outside, and are filled with different materials to give them either more or less bounce. There are also some neat medicine ball hybrids with handles or ropes attached to them that are great for some dynamic core exercises.


Medicine balls can be used for some traditional strength exercises like squats, lunges, presses, etc. Because they are easy to hold and maneuver, med balls work well for many compound exercises and functional movements. Here are a few of my favorites:

Med ball chops (above) are a great warm-up movement sequence for nearly any activity.

For anyone who needs to put things up on shelves or into overhead bins, the Med Ball Squat and Press (below) is unrivaled:

Or how about a leg exercise that also involves core rotation to engage your hip muscles and abdominals:

One of the other great qualities of a medicine ball is that it provides an unstable surface to perform some exercises on. This can help improve balance and stability for some movements, like push-ups (below):

But the most important property of a medicine ball is its ability to be thrown and caught. When you throw something, it is the ultimate expression of power. It is a combination of strength and speed, which is all important in most sports and even in simply catching yourself from falling. Similarly, when you need to catch a heavy object, there is a reflexive contraction of all your stabilizing muscles that you can not mimic voluntarily. So catching a medicine ball is also great stability training.

There are many medicine ball exercises that can be done against a wall. But if you don't have a solid wall to throw against, here is one of my favorites:

Try doing as many reps as you can in 30 seconds. It's a great cardio workout as well.

So this was just a cursory overview of one of the "Horsemen". But I hope that it opened your mind to some of the possibilities of medicine ball training.

Next month, we'll focus on another Horseman, the wand.

S.M.A.R.T. Resolutions 2010

Losing weight is a perennial All-Star when it comes to New Year's Resolutions. We see it in the gym every year as the wait time for equipment and the sign-up lists for classes get longer.

Then, for some reason, after Cupid makes his rounds in February, the gym seems back to normal. What happened?

Well, statistically, about 80% of people who make New Year's resolutions have quit by the sixth week of the year. Here's how not to become a statistic:

Develop S.M.A.R.T. goals when it comes to your health and fitness. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. While SMART is a cute acronym, I'll break it down in order of importance:

Relevant: Your goal should be appropriate for your needs, desires, and current fitness level. This means that your goal should be important and significant to your overall life. Here's an example; if you can not pick up anything weighing over 10 pounds without worrying about your back going out on you, then losing 5 pounds is an irrelevant goal. Improving your core strength and spinal stability is more relevant at this point.

Often times, we choose irrelevant fitness goals because we are swayed by the tide of popular culture. We see the models on the covers of magazines and think that being a certain size or weight is important (which very well may be the case for you).

Determining the relevance of your goal requires some soul-searching. The principle of relevance guides how you define the other four goal parameters, so think carefully about this and consult a fitness professional if you need help.

Attainable: Your goal should be something that is reasonable and within reach. While you may enjoy distance running, don't make it your goal to qualify for the 2012 Olympics if you are not already competing at an elite level. Start off with a small, attainable goal, like improving your 5K time. For weight loss or body-fat loss, consider losing 5 pounds or 1-2% body-fat. Once you reach that goal, it's time to set a new one.

What is Attainable is directly related to how much change or sacrifice you are willing to make, which is related to how Relevant your goal is. You won't lose the 5 pounds if you are not willing to give up the desserts every night. Maybe your goal should be to only have dessert twice a week instead.

Specific: This ties-in to the Attainable principle. Don't just say that you want to lose weight. Quantify it. And make sure it's a realistic number. When it comes to weight loss, half a pound to a pound and a half per week is considered safe, effective, and maintainable. For body-fat changes, 1% per month is average if your mix of diet and exercise is right.

Measurable: Make sure that you can accurately and correctly measure your goal. "To look like Britney Spears" is not a measurable goal (also it may not be Relevant or Attainable). Once you pick a measurable goal, be sure to measure correctly. Keep the conditions at the time of measurement the same each time. Have someone else (e.g. your trainer) do the measurements with you.

And make sure not to measure too often. It is not necessary to stand on the scale every day. That is equivalent to trying to improve your marathon time by running a marathon every day. Focus on the process and the little things that you must do each day to reach your goal. Only weigh yourself weekly at the most (if that is your goal).

Time-bound: Set a realistic time frame for completion of your goal, and stick to it. One of the biggest problem with New Year's resolutions is that the time frame is too long. Either your goal is to far away for you to reach it, or it's so far off that procrastination can easily set in. It's OK to keep the long-term goal and write it down, but also set short-term goals that can be attained in 1-3 months. If you've already accomplished a short-term goal by February, you'll be more likely to keep the ball rolling into the Spring.

So take some time to evaluate your goals using the S.M.A.R.T. system, and you will be successful. Write your goal down, share it with friends or family, and make yourself accountable. And at this time next year, you'll have a new goal to work on, instead of the same thing as last year.

If you have any questions about your S.M.A.R.T. goals, feel free to contact me, or consult your fitness professional. For those of you that are FD/T Personal Training clients, we will be doing assessments (including body-fat%, girth measurements, strength and endurance testing, and the Functional Movement Screen) during the first two weeks of the year.

In Health,

-Okinyi