Medicine ball

Medicine balls

Sportswomen during an exercise with medicine balls at the German University for Physical Culture in Leipzig, 1953

A medicine ball is a ball made of thick leather or rubber material that weighs between 0.8 and 10 kilograms .

In general, the medicine ball has a diameter of 30 to 35 centimeters and a weight between one and five kilograms, although there are also significantly heavier and slightly lighter versions. It is designed as a full ball , which means that it is not inflated with air like many other balls.

The name "medicine ball" comes from the United States , where this type of ball was first used as "medicine for the body", since almost all of the muscles are strengthened when throwing and catching. The invention is attributed to William Muldoon (1853-1933), a New York City police officer who went to boxing and wrestling tournaments under the name Iron Duke . The ball soon found its way into therapeutic gymnastics as a piece of sports equipment . The medicine ball is filled with wild hair or granulated cork. "A high-quality medicine ball has reindeer hair in its stomach."

The nudist pioneer and sports writer Hans Surén is said to have brought the first medicine ball to Germany from a British captivity in 1917 . Carl Diem claimed to have introduced the medicine ball in the United States and then in Germany in 1913.

literature

Hans Surén : Surén gymnastics with medicine balls (in pictures and keywords) . Dieck & Co., Stuttgart 1925, DNB 577970534 .
Klaus Oltmanns: One for all: the medicine ball. Fitness for the whole body . Phlippka-Verlag, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-89417-191-9 .
Stefan Schurr: Functional medicine ball training. Basics & exercise catalog . Books on Demand , Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-8391-6682-6 .
Richard Reich: Dumbbell in a leather coat . In: NZZ Folio . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich December 2005 ( online for NZZ / NZZ Folio subscribers ).

Web links

Wiktionary: medicine ball - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Günter Herkel: The history of the medicine ball - one ball for many cases. (mp3 audio, 21.4 MB, 23:22 minutes) In: Deutschlandfunk-Kultur broadcast “Nachspiel”. September 1, 2013 (also as a pdf file, 112 kB).; accessed on March 25, 2020

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c medicine balls. In: paradisi.de. OC Projects, accessed October 27, 2013 .

↑ Jürgen Hotz (Ed.): The Brockhaus Sport . Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-7653-2976-0 .

^ Günter Herkel: The history of the medicine ball - a ball for many cases. (pdf, 112 kB) In: Deutschlandfunk-Kultur broadcast “Nachspiel”. September 1, 2013, p. 6 , accessed on March 25, 2020 .

^ Carl Diem : The playground teacher and his training . In: Leaves for public health and national strength . tape 2 , no. 14 . Book and Newspaper Printing Union , Berlin 1932, DNB 013443399 , p. 36 .

[paradisi-1] medicine balls. In: paradisi.de. OC Projects, accessed October 27, 2013 .

[2] Jürgen Hotz (Ed.): The Brockhaus Sport . Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-7653-2976-0 .

[3] Günter Herkel: The history of the medicine ball - a ball for many cases. (pdf, 112 kB) In: Deutschlandfunk-Kultur broadcast “Nachspiel”. September 1, 2013, p. 6 , accessed on March 25, 2020 .