Every year from May to September, I do a medicine ball circuit outdoors at least once a week. It’s a fantastic conditioning method that gets you in shape fast. If you want six-pack abs, add this circuit to your regimen—it works far better than a treadmill, elliptical machine, or stationary cycle. Plus, you get outside for fresh air, vitamin D, and a chance to connect with the earth.
Usually, my uncle swings by at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings, and we head to a local soccer field. We start with a dynamic warm-up, then dive into the medicine ball circuit, which includes the following six exercises:
- Kneeling sideways toss
- Standing sideways toss
- Kneeling forward toss
- Standing forward toss
- Kneeling backward toss
- Standing backward toss
Here’s how it works: I kneel down and toss a 10-pound medicine ball to one side, then sprint after it, kneel, and toss it to the other side—continuing this way for 60 seconds. Once I finish, my uncle takes his turn with an 8-pound medicine ball. We go back and forth until all six exercises are done, then walk around the field before starting again. We complete three rounds before heading to a nearby playground for chin-ups on the monkey bars. By 7:00 a.m., we’re done!
That’s how it usually goes—except for last Saturday.
It was cold. Three degrees Celsius, frost on the ground. We started the circuit, but after one round, we had to stop. Keeping the body warm wasn’t an issue—keeping our hands warm was impossible! Every time the medicine ball hit the ground, it picked up a layer of frost. It was like grabbing a block of ice.
So we cut the circuit short before frostbite set in, but we didn’t call it a day just yet. Instead, we went to my home gym and knocked out a barbell complex—and that definitely got the job done! I’ll tell you exactly what we did tomorrow.
