Medicine Ball slams and "inexperienced" trainers.

Medicine Ball Slams - What a great, intense exercise for your clients! I consider these to be a bit more of an intermediate/advanced exercise depending on the weight of the ball and repetitions per set.

Many of you who follow the BodyRefinery Facebook page and/or Twitter site know that we have been having problems with our medicine balls. Dynamax is the brand we started out with and had the ball no more than a week before signs of destruction started. However, it wasn't until almost a year later and miles and miles of Gorilla Tape that the ball finally split to an unrepairable manner. I then ordered a medicine ball from Everlast only to have it 'never-last'. It died 1 day after only a couple of client's usage. I just received my new Dynamax medicine ball this past Monday and back to slams we went. However, I noticed on the first day some 'filling' leaking out of the seams. I decided to finally do some research on exactly what these balls are made for and what their warranty covers. I was unaware until this week that Dynamax had their own website: www.medicineballs.com. I have always ordered from: www.performbetter.com. Nowhere on perform betters website are there any warnings or limitations for the usage of Dynamax medicine balls. On the Dynamax website however, there is this:

"The product seams will not hold up to (and the warranty does not cover) what some inexperienced trainers refer to as "Ball Slams". (I added the bold and italics to 'inexperienced'.)

EXCUSE ME?! Inexperienced?! I have been a professional, certified, personal trainer for over 15 years now! Plus, I know many of you, top qualified, very experienced trainers are utilizing medicine ball slams as an exercise in routines for yourself and your clients. Also, on the very site - www.performbetter.com - where Dynamax sells there medicine balls, there are top trainers in our field demonstrating this very exercise - see Mike Boyle's video.

Dynamax, are you calling all of us 'inexperienced' or just a few of us?

Ok, let's calm down a moment. I'm not here to tarnish or damage a quality name like Dynamax but merely just bring attention to a mistake in wording that needs to be corrected on their website. I, Michael Luongo, will continue to use their products and order from them. Actually, I recommend that you do as well. However, I am modifying how I do my medicine ball slams (video to follow). Dynamax, I would have much more respect for you as a company if you would just simply list your products limitations and not let insecurity about your own product allow you to write disparaging comments about trainers doing an exercise that your product is not made to handle. I still think you make a great product! Here is some wording you can use on your site instead of the childish wording currently displayed. It's an example I've written for you. Feel free to use it on your website. (This is for free - I shall not charge you for any copyright issues - I'm writing this for you). "Please note: our medicine balls are not made to withstand any overhead slams. Many trainers refer to this exercise as 'Medicine Ball Slams'. This exercise voids our warranty altogether. However, you may add a soft mat underneath your slams to help protect and extend the life of your ball. This still is not covered under our warranty."

Thank you, Michael Luongo