Who is Steel Mace training for? You've possibly clocked eyes on someone swinging about a rod of steel with a heavy ball on the end and either instantly wanted to get involved or dismissed it as a gimmick. The The Steel Mace aka Macebell aka Gada is a fantastic tool when used on the correct path. Pretty much everyone can make use of Macebell training but you probably want to know if it's suited for you!?
Health and fitness can be improved in many ways, shapes and forms. No one way is ultimately better than another. The Steel Mace makes use of unconventional training methods with an uneven weight distribution to challenge the mind and body with a tool deriving from an ancient historical weapon. The increasing popularity is bringing this engaging new alternative fitness method into the spotlight. Joe Defranco owner and founder of Defranco's gym, voted one of the top 10 best gyms in America uses and advises the Steel Mace for his athletes. Simply, it's full body, physically effective, mentally stimulating, cost efficient and fun. Now find someone who would not benefit from that!
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Athletes
The obvious application suits athletes looking to improve sport performance or anyone else wanting to increase performance in their chosen field or activity. The mace is a full body conditioning tool that can take you through slow meditative recovery to utterly brutal workouts becoming favoured by Mixed Martial artists. Power lifting athletes even use a mace to mobilise shoulder joints in a warm up showing just how versatile it can be for a single tool. If your sport requires your sense of proprieoception, that is, knowing where your limbs are in space and time without seeing where they are, take hockey and dodge ball as two examples where your eyes are on a target but your body is moving of it's own accord....macebells is hands down the best non-specific training out there.
If You Age
We are all battling time. There's no way around it, we have have to make use of what is available and if we don't, we lose it. As we all approach older age, the priorities move away from looking buff and more towards staying independent and functional. Why wait until your 3rd hip replacement to struggle through and learn new movements whilst dealing with managing a new hip joint, infection avoidance and hospital check ups? The fitter you are now, the better body control you'll have in later life to catch a fall before it gets serious, before the impact that requires surgery. No matter your age you can get started with low impact mace workouts to improve your quality of life.
You're Human
Man, Woman, Tall, Short, Fat, Thin. The Macebell can be adapted to you and cares not for your chosen gender, titles or sexual preference. The human body responds to movement and resistance. The Steel Mace provides both in ample magnitude. There's even emerging Steel Mace Yoga which looks like a blend of Tai Chi, Yoga and a Haka with a medieval club! The point being, the mace can match nearly every flavour of workout there is.
Martial Arts Advocates
Plenty of martial arts practitioners utilise clubbells already to improve conditioning, coordination, power, endurance and wrist control. The mace amps this up by connecting both hands where needed and adding greater leverage. It also allows for body tension, for example, whilst performing a movement you can 'bend' the bar to engage various additional muscle groups at the same times as performing the intended target exercise. After all, the mace discipline is derived from ancient Indian Hindu wrestling training so could be considered a martial art itself.
Somewhat Capricious
Those that get bored with 'pick-it-up put-it-down' conventional weight training or chop and change workout styles may well enjoy the mace, especially flow. The variety of flow work is incredible. Make your own or learn someones elses. Each time you learn a new movement, you don't just unlock a single door, a single skill, you unlock a corridor full of yet more doors, more skills to unlock. The hydra of exercise will keep you entertained and engaged as new transitions become possible, new methods available. You'll struggle to get bored with the countless combinations. After all, the best workout in the world is the one you do again!
Averse To Running
You don't run. You don't like the one foot in front plod or the impact or safety, weather, cardio bunnies hogging the rolling roads or lack sufficient routes. A Macebell can give you an awesome cardio workout not matter if you go for complex, flow or even competition. Multiple muscles are at work at any one time creating demand on your metabolic system. Increase the intensity and pace of a flow to hit higher heart rate zones or dial it down for Long Slow Distance (LSD) replication. Plus, no need for high-viz windbreakers, rock solid sports bras or eye wateringly expensive shoes.
Need To Get A Grip
Rock climbers to police officers, if you want a novel way to train your grip and wrist strength. Hanging onto a length of steel with velocity for a length of time and controlling its trajectory is going to give you real world forearm domination. For instance, rock climbers struggle to ascend a route without impressive grip strength. Baseball players need the ability to effectively swing a bat and hang on, to control the bat's arc. Even resistance weight training exercises such as pull-ups, bicep curls, deadlifts, and rows, all require grip strength. Mace isn't the only way to enhance grip but it crosses over with many other forms of training at the same time for a bonus.
Have Zero Endurance
Light movements over a long period of time is measured in terms of endurance. Applications include: actions at work (especially for labour intensive jobs), playtime with the kids moving all over the place to chase those small but fast feet down, sports (see athletes above), soldiers needing readiness for everything, even those small but evocative bedroom antics movements. Having endurance in one movement is good e.g. running but having endurance in all 3 planes of motion just packs a punch into real life you would struggle to match elsewhere. The go to "360" exercise demands activation of your upper traps, obliques, triceps, forearms, abdominals, glutes and quads.
Artists
What are people that use mace to exercise called? Many in the discipline refer to each other as mace artists. Much like dance, with a Steel Mace in hand you have the freedom to move in patterns you can truly feel and express. You can move in hard, robotic, powerful stances or ebb and roll with the momentum and motion. Yet another reason why Steel Mace has a flavour for every taste.
Primal warrior
Look into Steel Mace training and it's not long before you begin to see a high affinity with Norse mythology and vikings. Mainly because the tool is based on a weapon designed for brutal bludgeoning of an opponent in combat. Partly that fantasy and medieval themes are largely being romanticised by the media in TV shows like Game of Thrones, Vikings and Netflix's Castlevania. If you have that inner aggression to let out though, the mace is a great way to channel that energy into something that works for your body and mind without committing any illegal acts. Not to mention it does wonders for busting stress and boosting confidence being able to unleash a flare of that rage furnace.
Want To Build Natural Resilience
Steel Mace lends itself to functional training, that is, multiple joint multiple planar movement similar to real life. Training for your life gives you a resistance to fatigue and stresses on par if not better than other training methods as so much crosses over into your world that makes stuff easier. Something the mace excels with is creating shoulder girdle movement. With the shoulder joint being one of the least stable due to being one of the most mobile, it's the muscles, ligaments and tendons that keep the upper arm and scapula where they are meant to be. Ever had a shoulder injury and it just puts a stopper on everything....driving, sleeping, upper body exercise even lower body exercise. Basic exercises like push ups, dips and pull ups become near impossible. When you swing a mace with the proper form through a full range of motion, you can increase the strength of the muscles and connective tissue surrounding the shoulder joint while simultaneously increasing your shoulder flexibility. Not only this but your core is forced to work overtime leading to Improved posture therefore bringing better resilience to injury and daily pressures.
Savvy Savers
One tool! One fitness tool can do so so much. For the cost of one month's gym membership you have a diverse fitness regime at your disposal for life and takes up no more space than a folded umbrella. Need a short sharp workout? smash in a mace complex HIIT session. Want longer endurance training? Make a flow. Fancy something powerful? Rep out some single hand 10-to-2's for time. One tool can train a vast variety of muscle groups as pretty much every mace exercise is a functional compound movement working multiple joints and stability at once. Making a Macebell a relatively inexpensive powerhouse of time efficient training.
Summary
Who is Steel Mace Training for? Well it seems nearly everyone. Young, old, male, female or none-disclosed the mace doesn't care so long as you get started. Where the mace shines beyond some other alternative training methods like battle ropes and kettlebells is for athletes looking for something sport specific, martial artists looking to develop conditioning and people looking to avoid recurring shoulder injuries. A cheap tool for what it offers you'll feel as mighty as Thor looking forward to seeing what skills and endurance you can develop in the next session.
Learn more and get involved with our Steel Mace training by visiting our website here.
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