Director of the Harvard College Gymnasium ca. 1860, with a medicine ball and other equipmentHippocrates is said to have stuffed animal skins for patients to toss for medicinal purposes.4 Similar large balls were used in Persia in 1705. The term “medicine ball” dates back to at least 1876, in American Gymnasia and Academic Record, by Robert Jenkins Roberts Jr. The first known photograph of a medicine ball in the United States was taken in 1866 and shows Harvard athletic instructor Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett surrounded by his equipment.56
History
Director of the Harvard College Gymnasium ca. 1860, with a medicine ball and other equipmentHippocrates is said to have stuffed animal skins for patients to toss for medicinal purposes.4 Similar large balls were used in Persia in 1705. The term “medicine ball” dates back to at least 1876, in American Gymnasia and Academic Record, by Robert Jenkins Roberts Jr. The first known photograph of a medicine ball in the United States was taken in 1866 and shows Harvard athletic instructor Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett surrounded by his equipment.56