A guide to Mace Training and it's Benefits:
What is mace training?:
Modern day mace training stems from the ancient practices used for thousands of years to create battle ready warriors. It involves wielding a long heavy bar where the weight is concentrated at one end, far from the users hands, and performing a variety of dynamic movements, specifically designed to recruit the entire body and teach it to move as one powerful unit.
What are the benefits of mace training?:
Ways to use the mace?:
Traditional swinging movements:
The most unique and iconic way to use a mace is to "swing" it. The two traditional movements, which are now known as 360s and 10-2s, involve holding the mace upright in front of ones body, casting the mace out over one shoulder, letting it swing behind the back, then pulling it over the opposite shoulder and catching it in front again. These movements can be performed with a heavy mace emphasizing strength and power generation for a low number of reps, or performed for many reps over a longer duration emphasizing endurance, cardiovascular performance and conditioning. When performed correctly these movements should recruit the entire body:
Classic 360 10-2 Single Arm 10-2
Flow:
As the mace has evolved and has been adopted into modern training practices, further ways of moving with the mace have been developed; this includes "flow", where a variety of different movements are chained together in a way which naturally creates smooth transitions between movements. These movements can include:
- Swings of different patterns; both in front and behind the body, single arm swings, and choked swings
- Mace flips, throws and tosses
- Traveling; using steps and lunges timed with the mace to move the body and mace together over a distance.
- Poses; controlled movement into specific isometric positions with the mace, for example, Archer Pose, Warrior Stance, Horse Stance or Skandasana.
Mace flow emphasizes the coordination of the body and mace through a large range of different movements with a focus on control, elegance and proprioception. Whilst typically performed with a lighter weight mace, flow can still be incredibly stimulating, for the mind as well as the body, as new movement patterns are learnt, and integrated into memorised routines, or seamlessly blended into creative free flow sessions. Flow is a fun and engaging way to express creativity and beauty through movement while also getting a killer workout!
Here is an example of a basic flow routine with elements of different swing patterns, a mace flip and some level changes:
Functional Strength Workouts:
One of my personal favourite things about the mace is how versatile it is in terms of the movements you can perform with it. A mace is similar to a kettlebell where a lot of the training stimulus comes from not just fighting the weight against gravity (like in most conventional western strength training), but also from accelerating and decelerating the weight. The mace also the added benefit that training stimulus can be modified by simply repositioning where the handle is held, in order to alter the leverage the weight has over ones body. A mace can not just be swung in various directions but also cleaned, pressed, curled, squatted, hinged and lunged with in different planes and directions, as well as used to perform 100s of different twisting and striking movement variations, creativity is king here, the most famous being the classic uppercut:
These movements can be performed in isolation or paired with a swing (for example; RH360 into lateral lunge - LH360 into lateral lunge) for simple reps and sets. Or, my personal favourite is to design and memorise complexes of 3-5 movements that provide sufficient stimulus for each movement at the same given weight and can be mirrored as a left hand and right hand version then perform these complexes for rounds or as an EMOM workout.
Here are a couple of examples:
These complexes differ from flow in that focus is put on strength in a fewer number of more basic movement patterns, using a heavier mace, rather than the more creative "dance like" nature of flow where focus is on the precision, creativity, variety and the elegance of the movements.
Why an adjustable mace from Magic Macebells?:
An adjustable weight mace is an absolute game changer when compared to fixed weight maces. Whether you are just starting out or are a veteran mace training expert; you are going to want to explore a variety of movements and styles of training which will require different weights, and also progress to heavier weights as you become stronger.
If you are using fixed weight maces you will need to continually invest in further maces to progress, until you will have quickly spent 100s on a fleet of maces which are now taking up half your space, and the poor 3kg you started out with rarely gets touched!
With a single adjustable weight mace and a handful of weight plates (which are inexpensive and widely available) you can have a mace of any weight you can imagine with a quick and simple, tool-less adjustment. This allows you to spend far less money and space on your mace training whilst also smoothly progress without the large jumps in weight with limited fixed weight maces.
Loading system: 1 inch standard plates Loading system: 2 inch Olympic plates
Click HERE to see the full comparison between the 2 systems.
By investing into a single adjustable mace handle from Magic Macebells you are getting an heirloom item which will last you a lifetime and you will never out grow. You will naturally be drawn to use something that feels that looks and feels so beautiful, and that is exactly what Magic Macebells aims to provide. Every Magic Macebells mace is made from full high quality stainless steel, or a combination of stainless steel and traditional Sapele hardwood.
- High-quality stainless steel provides a ZERO maintenance finish, unlike those regular steel equivalents which go rusty in no time.
- Weight capacity up to 50kg
- Quick and easy, tool-less, weight adjustments
- Models compatible with standard 1inch/25/28/30mm weight plates or 2inch Olympic weight plates