DIY Slam Ball

A Slam Ball is a great addition to your gym equipment arsenal that gives you a workout one can’t typically get with traditional gym equipment.

One of the first things that struck me about these weighted objects is the are not cheap!  I’ve seen 20 lb. slam balls going for as much as $50.  It’s no wonder you can find so many DIY postings for creating your own.  However when researching these DIY products, I discovered that most of them resulted in a weighted ball nothing like the slam balls you can buy in s store.  I too have made the duct tape covered, sand filled basket ball, but to me, those aren’t slam balls, they are medicine balls.  A slam ball needs to have the rubbery texture for grip, and they need to give with the weight and absorb the force of hitting the ground… when slammed they shouldn’t bounce.  

They also need to be extremely durable.  The medicine balls (you can see my DIY on those here) I have made are very tough and strong and can definitely handle being dropped to the ground.  But sustained slamming the ground with force?  Probably not.  Not to mention they do bounce a bit too.

As you will see from my videos attached to this article, there is a part 1 and 2 in me trying to make the ultimate DIY Slam Ball.  Part 1, sadly ended in failure, however I chose to share the process because there were some good take aways, and learning from mistakes is a good thing, right?  However, if you want to just watch the video on the successful approach, just scroll down to "Part 2" to see my process of creating an Awesome DIY Slam Ball!

PART 1

 

When researching I came across a video of someone who made a slam ball out of a rubber kick ball. (You can read his blog and see his video at http://www.garagegymreviews.com/diyslamball/).  Brilliant I thought!  Finally an approach that isn’t the typical duct taped basketball and one that has more of the feel of an actual slam ball.  

So I went to work.  Part of my process for all my DIY projects is to make something as inexpensive as possible.  After all, the whole point is to make all your own gym equipment at a fraction of the price.  So the first thing I did was find the cheapest rubber kick ball I could find.  I ended up finding a 13 inch diameter ball on Amazon for about 4 bucks!  Sweet!  Sand, what I was using to weight the ball, is only about 5 bucks for 50 pounds, so I was going to be able to make something well under market price of a slam ball you buy in the stores.  Or so I thought…

When I got my ball, I made a small “X” incision in it.  I then, to give it more support, added some liners to it by stuffing two garbage bags into the hole.  Then I added the sand using a funnel.  This is a time consuming process, and the liners slowed it down even more.  It required a lot of jiggling and shaking to get the sand in the ball.

Sadly, buying that cheap ball, then making the “X” incision rather than a round hole, and then all the shaking and jiggling was a bad combination of events.  All that caused a big tear in the ball.  And because of the coating on the ball, or the type of rubber, tape and glue wouldn’t stick well to the surface.   I had a little success repairing the whole with super glue, but then when putting the ball to work, it split open after about 5 or 6 slams.  Things just weren’t going well.  However the one bright spot was that the liners did their job.  Not one spec of sand spilled from the ball.  So that part was good, but over all, this was a big fat fail.  The moral of the story, don’t go cheap with the ball.  Buy something thick, tough and strong.

PART 2

So back to the drawing board.  During my search for a stronger ball I came across an anti-burst exercise ball.  Of course!  Why hasn’t anyone thought of this earlier?!  These things are built to be strong.  The one I ended up getting was anti-burst and rated to withstand 2000 pounds of pressure.  And it was only $15… yes, more than the kick ball, but still a lot less than a slam ball.  I ended up going with a 55 cm ball (generally you see these in the 75 and 65 cm sizes).  Turns out 55 cm was more than enough to hold 65 lbs of sand.  A 45 cm ball would have probably been perfect… that size is a little harder to find in stores, on-line it wasn’t too much trouble.

Turns out, using a exercise ball is also a much easier process.  Since they have a removable plug there is no cutting holes in balls or patching of said holes required.  I ended up rigging up a system where I attached a funnel to the inflation hose that came with the exercise ball and then plugged that into the inflation hole on the ball.  Once you do that, all you need is time… it’s a small hole and it takes a long time to get all that sand through it.  Two hours and forty-five minutes to be exact.  Once I got all that 65 pounds of sand into the ball, I just put the plug back in, and I was done!  So simple!  Like I said, I can’t believe I haven’t found anyone else who has done this.

I’ve been using my slam ball for a few weeks now, and there hasn’t been any issues with it.  Other than it not being exactly round, it’s great.  I think if I got a smaller ball or added more sand it would be more ball shaped.  But the nice thing about this one is that I can easily add more sand to it as I get stronger… there’s plenty of room to grow.

So in short… I would recommend the exercise ball way to go.  Super easy, and it only cost a little over $21 to make a 65 pound ball.  If you have come across any ways to improve on either of the processes, I’d love to hear about them… feel free to share in the comment section.  

Good luck and happy exercising!

Supply List:
Anti Burst Exercise Ball: https://amzn.to/47qPJmC
Failed Rubber Kick Ball (if for some reason you still want it): https://amzn.to/46aKaaP (great for kids, bad for slam balls!)