Workouts with weapons: why you should wield a steel mace

January 19, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

Jaded from strength training?

Same weights? Same gym? Same barbaric faces twisting into agonal smasms while their mugs turn maroon?

Fear not. ’cause I know what’s missing here. Something equally barbaric – but better:

That’s right. A warrior weapon you spend your workout wielding around.

Meet the steel mace. The new, lopsided prop you want to add next on your fat sucking bucket list. (Right after Barre, Muay Thai, and Tabata.) After coming across an article on this today, I thought three things immediately. The first was: It’d be fun to buy two – and then do kali stick fighting with ’em. The second: Nevermind. ’cause the steel mace’s $40… which is exactly what my foam roller cost me… which is funny ’cause I’ll need the latter after using the former. And the third?

This moment where Mr. Maceman knights himself with a weighted lollipop wand made my day:

But, however funny this thing looks sans the porcupine parts coming outta it, it’s still pretty badazz.

Why?

Well, I mention needing my foam roller later for good reason.

Because, according to those who’ve tried this primal practice, the “gains” are many: things like grip strength improve, shoulders strengthen, you condition your ticker, and – to top it all off – you get a full body workout. Also, if you’re looking to better your rotational core strength, this’ll do it for sure. Not just ’cause of that cross body swinging you see going on – but also because it’s uneven, which means your core’s gotta kick into high gear to counteract the awkward object’s weight distribution as you do so. As I read this, I couldn’t help but think how helpful that’d be for the Muay Thai moves I keep effing up on account of my wimpy muscled middle I desperately need to work on.

And that, actually, is another plus you’ll get from the mace workout: it’s dynamic.

While years of curls or shoving around heavy metal circles suspended bilaterally on iron bars might leave you looking like you’ve had softballs implanted in your upper limbs… it’s less effective for some of your other active hobbies than stuff like this kettlebell on a stick we’re checking out today. In fact, per Mark Sisson, of marksdailyapple, it’s – as he calls it – a “crescendo of isolation exercises” happening:

“…the shoulders pushing, the lats and biceps pulling, with the constant backdrop of a tense, active core and hands. At the end of a mace workout, you’ll feel the individual muscles crying out in pain, almost as if you had worked out each one individually. And you have, but with a real purpose. You’ll have all the superficial benefits of the beach body exercises with some actual fitness results to back them up.”

So, sure. I’m convinced it’s worthwhile. But will I ever actually access my savage side? Give this thing a try?

Maybe if I can find a class for it in my area. (Don’t wanna pull anything via improper form.)

And maybe if they add some spikes to the kettle end of mine.

(Now: return to that earlier image, mentally supplant the smooth mace with this’ne, and tell me the win level doesn’t rise significantly…)