Rogue Froning vs standard medicine ball

This is a comparison of the Rogue Rich Froning medicine ball and the Rogue standard medicine ball including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details.

Overview and review of the Rogue Standard medicine ball

This is an overview of the Rogue Standard medicine balls including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details.

Overview of the Rogue medicine balls

Price $65 - $123

The Rogue medicine balls are available in 11 different configurations ranging from 4lb to 30lb. They have a double stitch and also provide extra padding to be forgiving on the user for throws and catches. This medicine ball is designed and manufactured in the USA which sets it apart from other medicine balls that are usually made in China. The available weights for this medicine ball are:

4lb
6lb
8lb
10lb
12lb
14lb
16lb
18lb
20lb
25lb
30lb

This is a solid medicine ball with a wide range of options that is not too expensive to outfit your facility. The only downside is that they are only available in black, except for the special editions that rogue branded for different athletes.

Pros of the Rogue standard medicine ball

The pros of the Rogue standard medicine ball are:

Good value for money
American made
Padded

Rogue took the Dynamax design and cut out the fat to make these medicine balls a bit more affordable. This is what they do with many products without compromising on the quality. For the money you pay you to get a great medicine ball that is made in the United States. Especially if you are government-funded, you might want to take care that the products you buy are not made in China when it can be avoided. The padding works for any type of throws and catches.

Cons of the Rogue standard medicine ball

The cons of the Rogue standard medicine ball are:

Limited color range
Bounce
Finish

Just like any company that has a product, not at its core, so Rogue does fall a little short against the market leader, Dynamax. What Rogue does best is the industrial-scale work of metal. Dynamax has been doing this longer for sewing medicine balls together. Compared to Dynamax rogue offers a limited range in colors, if you exclude the Froning and Leblanc version of the balls. The finish is also slightly inferior to Dynamax. That being said, they also come in at a lower price, which makes it way more attractive to buy them in bulk. Granted, you have to like black to buy a lot of these.

Alternatives to the Rogue standard medicine balls

Alternatives to the Rogue standard medicine balls are:

Athlete branded Rogue medicine balls
Dynamax medicine balls
Rogue Slam balls

The athlete branded medicine balls are available in 14lbs and 20lbs. The Froning design comes in Balck and red, while the Leblanc design comes in white and blue. This gives the setup a little extra pop and should've especially interesting for individuals who equip their home gym.

The Dynamax medicine balls are the gold standard for medicine balls in the current market. They provide the best finish and the most color options for you to customize. The disadvantage is that they also cost the most.

Rogue Slam balls are a good alternative if you will mainly slam your medicine balls and not throw and catch them often. In this case, slam balls will not hit you in the face and are also cheaper to buy.

Conclusion for the Rogue Standard medicine balls

The Rogue standard medicine balls are well balanced between price and quality. If you need a lot of medicine balls for your gym and want good quality you can save a couple of hundred dollars on these compared to the Dynamax balls. Individuals might want to look at the branded rogue balls or get an individual Dynamax stitched up. If you are a university or football club that wants their own colors at a huge scale, Dynamax is probably the better provider.

Overview and review of the Rogue Froning medicine ball

This is an overview of the Rogue Froning medicine ball including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details.

Overview of Rogue Froning Series medicine ball

Price: $110

The Rich Froning series medball is an interpretation of the Rogue Standard medicine balls in Black and red. It is only available in 20lbs and comes with the same specs as the standard black balls from Rogue. These are a nice addition to your gym if you want to tip your hatto the CrossFit legend or just like the colors red and black. The specifications of this medicine ball are:

Part of the Rich Froning Signature Series
Made in Columbus, Ohio
Weight: 20LB
Diameter: 14”
Coated Vinyl Shell – moisture and scuff resistant
Soft Shell safe to use at high speeds, but strong enough to maintain stable shape
Double-stitched paracord threading on seams
Color: Red with Black and White Branding (Rogue and Froning logos)

A nice Christmas present for anyone who already owns a home gym and no medicine balls.

Pros of the Rich Froning medicine ball

The pros of the Rich Froning medicine balls are:

Red and black color scheme instead of black
Double-stitched

This is a nice little customization on the standard medicine ball to get a pop of color into your gym. The standard Rogue medicine balls only come in black. That is not for everyone, especially if it is off-brand for your gym or the color scheme in your home gym.

Cons of the Rich Froning medicine ball

The cons of the Rich Froning medicine balls are:

Only available as 20LB
Higher cost than standard ball

These balls are $5 dearer than the standard ball of the same size. This can make a difference if you are trying to outfit multiple gyms and buy somewhere between 20 - 100 medicine balls. For your home gym, it will probably be more a question of personal taste rather than pricing.

Alternatives to the Rich Froning medicine ball

The alternatives to the Rich Froning medicine ball are:

The standard for most CrossFit WODs for males is a 20lb medicine ball. For females, this drops to 14lb. If you like the color blue and want to equip yourself with an inspiring medicine ball you can get the Camille Le blanc version of the medicine ball which comes in 14 lb instead of the 20lb the Froning version has.

Dynamax is the market leader in the US for medicine balls. While Rogue at first resold these medicine balls they went on to produce their own brand to maximize profit margins on low price tag equipment produced in masses. There is not a big difference between the two. Still, if pressed, I would always go for the product that is core for the company. The core competency of Rogue is to work with Steel to build first-class racks and barbells. Dynamax focuses on perfecting the stitch on their medicine balls.

The standard Rogue medicine ball is a good alternative to Dynamax if you want to buy a lot of medicine balls and do not care that much about the design. If you like black, you can save some money on bulk buy compared to Dynamax balls the same size.

Slam balls are a great, cheap alternative to medicine balls. If your medicine balls are used 90% of the time to be thrown on the ground, save yourself some money and yourself/or clients some injuries. These balls are cheaper to make and do not bounce back from the floor to hit you in the face. If your training is more about throwing against walls or to each other, stick with the classic medicine ball.

Conclusion for the Rich Froning medicine ball

This is the right medicine ball for the dedicated CrossFit individual with great ambitions or the one's around him who want to give something nice. Anyone who buy in bulk is probably better off to either trade up in quality by buying Dynamax or compromising in price and getting a lot of Rogue standard medicine balls.