Weighted exercise ball

Abstract

A weighted exercise ball including a weighted, filled core and a plurality of fronds, fringes, or strips radiating from the core. The fringes allow for superior grippability of the ball, which is ideal for training or rehabilitating elderly or injured persons who may not otherwise be able to grip a typical exercise ball or medicine ball. In a preferred embodiment, the weighted core is filled with sand and the fringes extend between two and six inches away from the core.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is: 
     
         1 . An exercise ball comprising:
 a flexible, hollow central core;   a weighted filling located within said central core;   a plurality of flexible, durable fringes radiating away from said central core, said fringes configured to be gripped; and   wherein said fringes have a length between one and six inches in length.   
     
     
         2 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein the outer ends of at least some of the fringes include enlargements. 
     
     
         3 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein the surfaces of said fringes have frictioning characteristics. 
     
     
         4 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein said fringes comprise the same material as said central core. 
     
     
         5 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein said fringes are sewn into said central core. 
     
     
         6 . The exercise ball of  claim 5 , wherein said fringes comprise a material selected from the list comprising: leather, burlap, cloth, rubber, and plastic. 
     
     
         7 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein said weighted filling comprises a material selected from the list comprising: sand, water, rubber pellets, plastic pellets, metallic pellets and cloth filling. 
     
     
         8 . The exercise ball of  claim 1 , wherein said fringes comprise strips of material permanently affixed to said central core. 
     
     
         9 . An exercise ball comprising:
 a flexible, hollow central core;   a weighted filling located within said central core;   plural, elongate, floppy, tiny-diameter, elastomeric fringes, each having a cross-sectional dimension which is extremely small in relation to its length, said fringes radiating in plural angularly offset planes in a dense, bushy configuration from said core to form a generally spherical object, with the fringes being sufficiently dense and floppy that a large plurality thereof tend to thread their way between adjacent fingers of a user's hand upon contact of the filaments with the hand during an exercise routine; and   wherein said fringes have a length between one and six inches in length.   
     
     
         10 . The exercise ball of  claim 9 , wherein the outer ends of at least some of the fringes include enlargements. 
     
     
         11 . The exercise ball of  claim 9 , wherein the surfaces of said fringes have frictioning characteristics. 
     
     
         12 . The exercise ball of  claim 9 , wherein said fringes comprise the same material as said central core. 
     
     
         13 . The exercise ball of  claim 9 , wherein said fringes are sewn into said central core. 
     
     
         14 . The exercise ball of  claim 13 , wherein said fringes comprise a material selected from the list comprising: leather, burlap, cloth, rubber, and plastic. 
     
     
         15 . The exercise ball of  claim 9 , wherein said weighted filling comprises a material selected from the list comprising: sand, water, rubber pellets, plastic pellets, metallic pellets and cloth filling.