Best Medicine Ball For a Home Gym (Strength Coach Picks 2024)

I’ve used quite a few brands of medicine balls over 20 years of working as a strength and conditioning coach in collegiate weight rooms.

However, I’ve never really done a side-by-side comparison of all the top medicine balls… until now.

On Cyber Monday I purchased 10 different medicine balls – different brands and different styles. Dynamax, Rogue, Titan, Perform Better and more. Soft Shell Wall Balls, Rubber Medicine Balls and a couple of Slam Balls too.

I compared every ball based on look, price and shipping. Then, I slammed each ball over 500 times so I could compare performance and durability.

Note: Every Wall Ball is going to advise you that it is not meant to be slammed on the ground. However, for the purposes of this review to test the durability of each ball I slammed them on the ground – a lot. And, to be quite honest, I’m going to slam them anyway so I wanted to see how they performed.

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Why Trust My Reviews? I’ve spent 20 years as a collegiate sports performance coach and have been lifting personally even longer. I’ve bought and used equipment for both 14,000 square foot weight rooms and for my own garage gym. Finally, I only review products I’ve personally tested.

Soft Shell Medicine Balls aka Wall Balls

I’m going to start with the Wall Balls first because, in my opinion, they’re the most versatile and the best overall option if you’re only going to have one type of medicine ball for your home gym.

Pros

The ball is packed crazy full. It feels as solid as the rubber medicine balls.

Because it’s packed so tightly, the bounce you get on the ball is amazing. When I slam it off the ground it pops back up to my waist every time. This made it awesome to roll right through a set of slams.

The seams are sewn toward the inside of the ball. This makes the surface smooth which I appreciated the more I used it.

Its durability so far has been amazing. It’s still looking and performing the same as the day it came out of the box.

Cons

My only real grievance with the Perform Better Med Ball is the shipping cost. Including the “temporary fee” that was added to my order, the total to ship my ball was $16.

This brought the total cost of the ball to around $100. This still puts the total cost around the middle of the pack for the wall balls, but it was the most I paid for shipping for any ball.

Overall, the all black look of the PB Extreme ball is solid. However, the 20 Pound lettering on the ball is a little too big in my opinion and it throws off the look of the ball. Maybe that’s being too nitpicky, but it drops it down just a notch in my opinion.

Final Verdict

The PB Extreme has been my favorite ball.

The bounce it gives is ridiculously good and consistent. It’s been a tank thus far from a durability standpoint and it’s priced very competitively.

Once I’m completely done testing all the balls (I’m going to keep using them all evenly until at least one of them completely gives up), this will be the ball I stick with.

See my full PB Extreme Med Ball Review here.

Pros

I’m going to admit my personal bias toward Dynamax medicine balls right up front. You have to understand that to me, Dynamax is the OG medicine ball. They’re the first medicine balls I became familiar with when I started coaching at the University of Tennessee and they’ve been in every weight room I’ve worked in since.

They’re extremely durable. I’ve seen Dynamax balls get absolutely abused in weight rooms. Do they tear up occasionally? Sure. But, considering the amount of wear and tear they’re able to withstand with hundreds of athletes day in and day out I have to imagine my personal ball will last me a long time.

I also like the rebound you get off the floor with them. I don’t know if it’s the material used or the way it’s packed, but Dynamax balls seem to have a nice bounce to them. Just enough to make them easy to grab right into the next rep.

Because Dynamax has been around forever and built an amazing reputation, you can purchase them through multiple outlets. They can be bought from Amazon, Rogue and Perform Better. I suggest doing a quick check to find the best price.

Cons

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you said, “Coach, black and grey really doesn’t make a great-looking medicine ball” I would understand.

However, my personal belief is that this was very intentional to make them easily able to integrate into any college weight room. It didn’t matter what your school colors were (or more importantly your rivals), the Dynamax ball fit in with no issues.

Final Verdict

In my opinion, the only real downside to this ball compared to all the others is the price. At almost $130, it was the most expensive ball that I tested (about even with the Rogue Wall Ball).

But, as the old adage goes, “You get what you pay for.” In this instance, that phrase holds very true. Dynamax has been making medicine balls for a long time and they seem to have pretty much perfected it.

From a performance standpoint, I think the PB Extreme and the Dynamax medicine balls were hands down the two best I tested. The only edge is that the PB Extreme cost me about $30 less than the Dynamax.

My full review of the Dynamax Medicine Ball

Pros

The Rep Fitness is my favorite looking medicine ball. Most wall balls are made with synthetic leather and most wall balls look like they’re made with synthetic leather.

Rep Fitness’s wall ball is also made with synthetic leather, but it actually looks more like a canvas material. That, combined with a great black and blue color scheme and it’s a great-looking medicine ball.

The material is also rather grippy. Where some of the balls felt pretty slick at first, the Rep Fitness ball had a great feel and grip straight out of the box.

From a performance standpoint, it wasn’t the best at anything, but it wasn’t bad at anything either. It’s a very well-rounded (no pun intended) med ball.

The price is very competitive. When you consider Amazon’s free shipping the ball cost me under $100 in total. That’s better than any of the other top-performing balls I tested.

Cons

The Rep Fitness ball held its shape much longer than some of the other low-cost budget-friendly balls, but it has started to lose its shape a little. Not bad, it’s still very usable and still has a bit of a bounce to it, but you can notice it starting to break down just a bit.

Final Verdict

The Rep Fitness ball is a solid value. Price-wise it was lower than the PB Extreme, Dynamax and Rogue but it also has started to lose its shape before those three as well.

If you don’t plan on beating the crap out of your ball (maybe combo it with a Slam Ball), it can be well worth the buy in my opinion (if for nothing else than purely based on the look which was my favorite of the whole group).

However, if you want the best performance and durability I would still lean toward the PB Extreme and Dynamax.

Pros

The all-black look of the Rogue Medicine Ball is sharp.

The Rogue Wall Ball and the Rogue Rubber Medicine Ball were the second to arrive, behind only the Dynamax ball that came with Amazon Prime shipping.

From a durability standpoint, it’s been one of the best balls of the entire group. I’ve slammed each of these balls over 600 times at the time I’m writing this and the Rogue ball still looks great and has held its shape well.

Cons

Almost $37 for shipping for three medicine balls feels a little steep. Especially when the Rogue balls are already some of the most expensive out of all the medicine balls I tested.

For an extra $37 dollars I could have potentially bought a whole extra medicine ball. To their credit though, they did arrive fast. And, if you can catch one of their ‘3 Ships Free’ deals it can be a gamechanger.

The seams on the Rogue ball are more outward than inward. They can help a bit with finding grip on the ball, but overall I really wasn’t a fan of the seams not being smooth.

This ball didn’t have the same bounce from the floor as compared to the PB Extreme and the Dynamax.

Final Verdict

Overall, it’s a really good medicine ball. It has a good look and has been very durable. As a Wall Ball, it does an excellent job.

However, it was also one of the most expensive balls and I simply think there are other balls that are overall a better value.

Pros

Price. At under $60 plus free shipping from Amazon it was one of the most budget-friendly med balls I tested.

It has a good look. All black with white lettering is super clean and the stitching along the front is tight.

Cons

ProSource balls have a very dead bounce. You barely get any rebound off the floor when doing slams. Makes it hard to get into a rhythm.

This ball was one of the first to start losing its shape. Whatever is inside the ball to create its shape wore down pretty quickly.

Final Verdict

I understand the appeal of the ProsourceFit Med Ball. It’s a good looking medicine ball at a hard-to-beat price.

However, for me, it just started to break down too quickly. I would much prefer to spend a little extra money and get a ball that is going to last me much, much longer.

Pros

One of my favorite things about Titan Fitness is that they ship everything for free. I bought a squat rack from Titan. Shipped free. Both medicine balls I bought for this review? Shipped free.

Did it take a little longer for the medicine balls to arrive? Sure. But, if you don’t mind being a bit patient, it’s worth the wait.

This was the cheapest of all the wall balls that I bought and tested (especially when factoring in the free shipping). Less than half the cost of a few of the more expensive medicine balls.

Cons

Titan’s shipping isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Yes, everything ships for free, but the 11 days it took for them to show up was a full week later than any other medicine ball. If you need your medicine ball in a hurry you’re going to have a problem.

Depending on what weight of medicine ball you get, each comes with its own color scheme. Unfortunately, the brown and black color scheme of the 20-pound wall ball was my least favorite, but since I was buying all 20-pound balls for this review it was the one I ended up with.

I was disappointed by how poorly the ball kept its shape. It immediately warped and became lop-sided on pretty much the first set of throws. No other ball had this issue straight out of the box.

It was also the first ball to start to lose a bit of stuffing coming out of the holes of the main stitching across the front of the ball.

Final Verdict

I love Titan as a company and I think they make some awesome products. I have a Titan T3 Rack that has been one of the best purchases in my entire gym.

However, this medicine ball just doesn’t hold up compared to the others.

Rubber Medicine Balls

Rubber Medicine Balls are generally more budget-friendly than their softer wall ball counterparts.

Some people mistakenly think that these types of medicine balls cannot “break”, but I have seen more than a few rubber balls crack wide open like a coconut.

Finally, they’re going to give way more of a bounce than the other types of medicine balls which can be a good or bad thing depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Pros

The look. It’s very minimalistic. All black with small white lettering and a cool geometric design.

It has a good predictable bounce and hasn’t really shown any signs of wear thus far.

The price is solid. $50 is much less than the higher-quality wall balls that I tested (even when you include shipping costs).

Cons

Came out of the box covered in some kind of grease or oil. Like, a lot.

Did it wear off? Yes. Was it an issue going forward? No. But, it definitely wasn’t pleasant.

Unless this was a rare issue with my ball, be prepared to clean it off immediately after opening.

Final Verdict

If you need a budget-friendly medicine ball, this is the one I recommend.

Why?

At $50, it’s a great price for a great looking medicine that has performed exceptionally well for me so far.

In my experience testing all of these medicine balls, the budget-friendly wall balls just didn’t hold up from a performance and durability standpoint.

By going with this Rogue Hard Rubber Ball, you can still get a really good quality medicine ball at a much lower price point.

My full review of the Rogue Rubber Medicine Ball

Pros

If you need a medicine ball and you need one now, then this Fitness Gear med ball can be a good option if you have a Dick’s Sporting Goods nearby.

Ball has a good, reliable bounce.

Cons

It’s been ‘so far so good’ with this Fitness Gear medicine ball, but the air pump nozzle on the ball keeps protruding out and making me nervous that I’m about to lose it at any minute.

This ball has also been much more prone to scuffs than the Rogue ball.

Final Verdict

If you need a medicine ball today and you have a Dick’s Sporting Goods nearby, this ball can be a good option.

I like the look and durability of the Rogue Ball better out of the two hard rubber balls that I tested out.

Slam Balls

I want to reiterate that, technically, soft shell wall balls are not really meant to be slammed and every manufacturer will state that. If you choose to slam them anyway (which I do) then they may tear up quicker than expected.

Slam Balls, however? Slam away.

If you have the budget for it, I would recommend getting two medicine balls. A versatile ball for wall balls and most of your throws and a Slam Ball just for slams. This will allow you to get the most out of your workouts and your equipment.

Pros

The all-black look is sharp. There is a thin strip that has the Titan name on it, but overall the design is very sleek and minimal.

The price is amazing. It’s almost a third of what the other slam ball cost me. Actually, when you consider Titan’s free shipping it pretty much was a third of the total price.

Cons

The ball has a large diameter, at least compared to the Echo ball. I don’t mind the size of the ball, but because it’s larger the sand on the inside shifts around a good bit because it doesn’t fill up in the interior of the ball.

So, when you slam the ball, as you start bringing your arms down the sand will shift toward the front of the ball away from the body. Not the end of the world, but its not optimal in my opinion.

Titan’s shipping was free, but the two med balls I bought did take (by far) the longest to show up. If you’re a patient person and/or not in a rush to get your ball, then this isn’t really much of a con at all and therefore the “free” part of the shipping is even better.

Final Verdict

Slam Balls don’t have the level of versatility that a wall ball or rubber ball has. I wouldn’t throw this ball against a wall for example.

But, if you want to get a second medicine ball just for slams to take a lot of the pounding and wear and tear off of your primary medicine ball, this Titan Slam Ball is a great option.

It’s a great price and has shown so far to be extremely durable. And, as the name suggests, is literally built to be slammed.

Pros

It’s much smaller in diameter than the Titan Slam Ball. Makes it easy to throw and the sand seems to fill almost the entire space inside the ball so it doesn’t shift around as you’re working with it.

Good looking ball. Bonus if bright red fits in your gym color scheme.

Has been a tank so far from a durability standpoint. Absolutely no signs of wear and tear after 600 slams.

Cons

The price. This slam ball was one of the most expensive medicine balls I bought out of the entire group.

Final Verdict

I’m really enjoying this Rogue Echo Slam Ball. The ball looks great and has performed excellently thus far.

My only issue is the price. It’s over twice as much as the other slam ball I bought. Do I like it better? Yes, I do. Do I like it twice as much? That I’m still not totally sure about.

See my complete Rogue Echo Slam Ball review

Final Thoughts

Let me try to sum up my final thoughts after slamming medicine balls a couple of thousand times over the last few months.

The top two medicine balls, in my opinion, were clearly the PB Extreme Ball and the Dynamax Med Ball. In terms of look and especially performance and durability, these two definitely separated themselves from the pack.

The Rogue and Rep Fitness Wall Balls were both solid but did have some issues that kept them out of the top group.

The ProsourceFit and Titan Wall Balls were the two cheapest out of the group, but unfortunately, that showed.

The Rogue Rubber Medicine Ball is my top choice for someone who needs a versatile medicine ball option for a more budget-friendly price.

Finally, if you have the budget I would highly suggest grabbing a Titan Slam Ball to use exclusively for your slams. This will take a lot of wear and tear off your primary med ball and make both balls last much longer.

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