Steel Mace
Macebell / Gada
The Steel Mace otherwise known as a Macebell or Gada is an unevenly weighted bar with origins leading back to Indian wrestlers. The modern exercises focus primarily on single sided movements, great for functional fitness, sports performance and martial arts.
A fantastic health and fitness tool, Steel Mace training does the obvious of improving your fitness, helping with weight management and has its cardiovascular benefits. However, Steel Mace training also helps with posture, balance, proprioception, coordination, confidence, mental wellbeing, grip strength and skill development!
Take a look at who cen benefit from Steel Mace Functional Training by reading our blog post "Who is Steel Mace Training For?"
What does Steel Mace Training do?
Grip Strength
Every movement with the Steel Mace requires you to have a firm grip. The whole session trains your wrists in some way. Be it from resisting momentum, creating momentum or catching the flips and tosses.
All the Cardio
The adaptability of Steel Mace means, that with the right workout plan, you can transition through every heart rate (HR) zone in a single session. Conversely, you can easily keep your HR in the fat burning zone or smash some aerobic work. Such are the options a single mace can provide to you.
Strong Shoulders
Exploring the full range of motion in your shoulders, the Steel Mace strengthens some of the weakest and most often injured areas of the body. Developing a resilience using the signature movement the '360' that is common in near all sessions.
Core stability
In Steel Mace workouts you are never square on to the force you need to apply. The unilateral work is always placing an uneven or twisting force on your body. To combat that force your core kicks in to hold you firm. Like grip strength, the whole sessions is training your abs, obliques and spinal muscles.
Confidence Training
Wielding a length of metal based on a weapon designed to bludgeon armoured warriors is inherently scary. With the right control, you will push your comfort zones. To do this you will develop self confidence, beleif and worth. Especially for the flips and catches, you will learn to overcome the small amounts of uncertainty.
Functional
As much as we are supposed to do, life rarely lets us utilise our muscles in straight and balanced ways. Steel Mace training doesn't either. The unilateral loading recruits more muscles for stabilisation not normally worked in conventional training.
A New Skill
Pick a weight up, put it down and repeat. Steel Mace is not that. Steel Mace requires coordination, spatial awareness and skill development to choreograph movements and flows. The mace trains your mind as much as your body.
It looks Awesome
At the end of the day the Steel Mace is based on a weapon and should always be handled with care and respect. However, there's a reason we like an action hero and martial arts masters. They just look cool. Likewise, mace training feels empowering and in the right settings a bit barbaric.
So far we are the only qualified and insured Steel Mace functional training providers in Norfolk! With the majority of classes and courses being held at the Watton Sports Centre.
