Dynamax Medicine Ball Review (2024)
I’ve been a college sports performance coach for 20 years and have used hundreds of medicine balls over that course of time. This includes all different brands and styles.
Recently, I decided to do my own side-by-side comparison. So, I bought 10 different medicine balls. Some are med balls that I’ve used before and I added in a few more popular medicine balls to try out.
The Dynamax Medicine Ball was one of those ten and (spoiler alert) it ended up being one of my favorites of the whole group.
Click Here to see my complete review of all 10 medicine balls.
In this review, I’ll break down everything you need to know about the Dynamax ball so you can make an educated decision about whether it’s a good fit for your own gym.
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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.
Dynamax Medicine Ball
Price: C – I paid $127.19 on Amazon
Shipping: A+ (Free with Amazon Prime. Arrived in 2 Days.)
Look: B
Performance: A+
Durability: A+
Overall: A
Details
This Dynamax ball is what most people now refer to as a Wall Ball. This type of ball has been made extremely popular by CrossFit. Wall Balls, the exercise, shows up in many of their workouts and is essentially doing a squat and then throwing the medicine ball up to a target on the wall.
They have a larger diameter (this ball has a 14″ diameter) and are relatively soft, at least compared to rubber medicine balls and slam balls.
Most manufacturers will state that this type of ball is not meant to be slammed. However, in my experience, a high-quality soft shell medicine ball can take quite a bit of punishment before busting apart. The key is to find a high-quality ball that allows you to do any exercise you want, including slams, and will still hold up long term.
Dynamax has been making medicine balls for over 30 years and medicine balls is their full-time specialty. I don’t think I’ve worked in a college weight room where we didn’t have Dynamax balls.
This style of Dynamax med ball comes in weights ranging from 4 pounds to 30 pounds, but they also have different styles with different weights and diameters.
What I Liked
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, that’s with hundreds of athletes throwing and slamming them on a daily basis.
Considering the amount of wear and tear they’re able to withstand with that much use day in and day out I have to imagine my personal ball will last me a long, 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 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.
They do make them in different colors though. On Amazon, there are 5 different color schemes to choose from in addition to the Black and Grey.
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.
But, if you want to go with a tried and true battle-tested high-quality medicine ball you can never go wrong with buying yourself a Dynamax Med Ball.