Making your own gym equipment : DIY Balls

Scott Andrew Birdposted by Scott Andrew Bird | February 25, 2008


This month, Run To Win and Straight to the Bar will be looking at the many possibilities when it comes to home-made training equipment. This week, I'll be taking a look at several great conditioning tools - DIY Balls.

Ever tried making your own medicine balls? Stress balls? Juggling balls? Here are a few of my favourites.


Slammable Medicine Balls

These have been made many, many times; the first one I saw was Jim's over at Lean and Hungry Fitness. Jim has the details on the technique, but here's the short version :

There are other combinations of filling that are sometimes used, but this one works well.


Tornado Ball

A while ago Paul Chek and Bryan Walsh wrote about the idea of a Tornado Ball, which is really just a Medicine Ball and a short cord. Once you've made the Medicine Ball above, grab an old bag or hessian sack and try this (video via the Diesel Crew).



Fitness Anywhere Video

Stress Balls (or Egg substitutes for grip training)

Recently the Organic Health blog noted two of the common ways * to construct a stress ball. These methods are both simple to alter slightly in order to provide a slightly more solid ball; ready for use in your hand health work. Just think of it in the same way as IronMind's Egg.

* there is actually one small change I'd make. With the balloon technique, just pour the cornstarch into a plastic bottle; stretch the mouth of the balloon over the bottle's opening and invert the two. Much faster, and there's less chance of covering the floor with cornstarch.


Juggling Balls

Once you've got the technique down for the Stress Balls, you'll have no problem with this. The major difference? The filling (use rice instead of cornstarch). The Surfing Scientist has the details.


Final thought on Making your own Balls

Naturally, there are many more types of conditioning equipment that can be made using similar techniques. No matter what your training goals, there's a way to build something that helps move toward them. Enjoy.



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