Friday afternoon I went for a 15 mile run averaging race pace even with warmup and cooldown. When I returned to the gym, I was a little tight so I decided to stretch for 20 or 30 minutes before showering and continuing on my way.

While I was stretching, I saw a man doing pushups on medicine balls. First he started off with a medicine ball under each hand. Then he moved onto putting the medicine balls under his feet. Then he moved on to putting a medicine ball beneath each foot and each hand. I was chatting with him, and he said that it did not take too long to get used to doing the pushups with the four medicine balls. The real challenge, he asserted, was using one medicine ball for both feet and one medicine ball for both hands.

I did not stick around much longer, but I assume that that is what he eventually progressed to. When I left, he had two medicine balls for his hands, one for one foot, and the second foot sticking up in the air.

I had to try this. This morning, I was running very late and hit a lot of construction, so I did not actually have time to work out by the time I got to the gym. I decided to do a quick ten minute pushup workout, and to attempt to work the medicine balls in.

I really liked using them. When my hands or my feet were on the floor, I did not have a lot of trouble adjusting to using the medicine balls. It was certainly more difficult than a normal pushup, but nothing insurmountable. Shoulder presses on a bosu ball were much more difficult to get used to.

Placing a medicine ball at each point I touch the floor, however, was another story altogether. I could not get into a starting position, let alone do any pushups, when I had both hands and both feet all on medicine balls. I kept falling off of them. This will not deter me, however, from trying again later. I worked out my frustrations by doing my last set of pushups with an inverted bosu ball.