Written by Sam Coleman | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
How do I use a steel mace?
How can I incorporate mace training into my fitness program?
Two questions we get often…and we’ve got answers.
In this article, we are going to provide you with other resources we’ve written and filmed to help you learn how to use a steel mace.
Then we will go over 11 different ways that you can incorporate steel maces into your training program so you can improve your overall fitness level and sports performance FAST.
How to use a steel mace?
If you have a steel mace, or you are considering to buy one, but you don’t know how to use it, we have a ton of good resources for you to follow. There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to steel mace training, but if you follow our instructions, you will be swinging it like a pro in no time.
We put the following resources in order, so you know where to start:
1. Mace Basics
Make sure you go through this entire article and learn everything in order - it will teach you how to hold the mace, starting positions, hand switches, 360 & 10 to 2 practice movements and progressions, basic exercises, and how to build complexes.
2. 5 Steel Mace Workout Methods
This post will teach you how to create and program steel mace workouts.
3. The 16 Best Steel Mace Exercises
This will expand your range of mace exercises.
Start by learning all of the above then you can create your own workouts.
More Steel Mace Workouts:
- Full Body Mace Workout for Beginners
- Intermediate Mace Workout
- Advanced Mace Workout
- Steel Mace Game of Thrones Workout
With everything above, you will not only learn how to use the mace properly, but you will also be able to help others, like your training partner, on how to use steel maces as well.
If you want an all-in-one e-guide, our extensive 84-page steel mace training guide has everything above plus much more. Our Steel Mace Training e-Guide was made for trainers, but it is also great for anyone who is a steel mace enthusiast looking to become an expert mace swinger.
Now, that we know how to use a steel mace, we can implement maces into our training in various ways. Steel mace training isn’t just about doing full body workouts with only steel maces. There are so many ways that you can use the steel mace to improve your all-around daily life, fitness and sports performance.
So, let’s go through all the ways in which we use the steel mace. We will also provide resources that we’ve made where relevant so you can go into the topic in more depth.
12 Ways to Use a Steel Mace
1. HIIT Workout
Just like a kettlebell, steel maces are great for HIIT workouts. Perform an HIIT workout with a steel mace a few times a week or do a mace HIIT session after your current workout programming.
One of our favorite HIIT sessions with a steel mace is a Tire Slam HIIT Workout.
Related: Benefits of tire slams and 7 reasons why a steel mace is the best tool for the job
2. Part of an Unconventional Workout
If you are into unconventional training, mix steel maces into your kettlebell, battle rope, and sandbag workouts. Steel mace exercises are the epitome of unconventional and functional training.
Related: Top 7 unconventional training tools to boost sports performance
3. Alongside Conventional Training
Use the steel mace as a supplemental tool for your conventional strength training workouts. You can use the mace to create a superset. For example, do a set of squats then superset it with a set of steel mace switch squats. You can also use the mace in-between sets to keep your heart rate up. Do 360s or other steel mace exercises after you complete a set and/or before switching to your next exercise.
Related: What muscles are worked during mace 360s?
Related: Chest and Back Workout - Supersets with a Steel Mace
4. Warm Up
Use lightweight steel maces to warm up your shoulders before heavy lifting on strength training days or before swinging heavy kettlebells. Lighter steel maces are great for warming up and preventing injury.
5. Mobility
The steel mace is a good fitness tool for developing normalcy in the mobility of your shoulder joint. When performing 360s, you will be loosening up your joints and priming them for an awkward position you may put them in. These swinging exercises will also work your elbow and wrist joints. This is especially useful for sports like MMA, Baseball, Football, and other high impact sports and activities. Furthermore, if you know what you are doing with a macebell, you can work on the mobility of your hips through isometric holds and floor movements.
Related: Top 3 shoulder mobility tools
6. Killer Core Tool
Use a steel mace to train your core. The steel mace is one of the best tools for your core as essentially every mace exercise targets your core due to the nature of the mace design. The weight the steel mace is offset, so when you perform exercises, you need to use your core to stabilize your body to keep upright.
Moreover, there are some great steel mace core exercises that will kill your core AND the steel mace is great for targeting the transverse plane (rotational and anti-rotational), which is super important for overall core strength.
More Steel Mace Core Resources:
- 17 killer steel mace core exercises
- The best abdominal exercise equipment you never heard of - the steel mace (we know you've heard of it, but find out why it's the best in more detail).
7. Transverse Plane
Use the steel mace to train the transverse plane of motion. In our opinion, steel maces (and resistance bands) are the best training tools for training the transverse plane. If you don’t know the importance of the transverse plane, then you must read this: Transverse Plane Exercises using a Steel Mace.
The transverse plane of motion is one of three planes of motions and if you want to kick ass at life, it’s a MUST that you train in the transverse plane. We strongly emphasize this as many people are neglecting transverse exercises in their training program, and there are so many benefits to gain by training rotationally and anti-rotationally.
8. Ultimate shoulder gains
For ultimate shoulder gains, nothing touches the steel mace. Just as the steel mace works your core by nature of design, it also works your shoulders like no other. Think about warriors that constantly swung a sword, their shoulders must have been super powerful as they were constantly being worked. A mace is like a sword on steroids when it comes to how much it weighs.
If you want shoulders that pop, use your steel mace every day in some fashion and you will build shoulder boulders in no time.
Related: 20-minute steel mace shoulder workout
9. Grip and Forearm Strengthening
Again, just as the steel mace works the core and shoulders like it’s nobody's business, it also works grip and forearm strength like crazy. In fact, we are confident when we say this is by far the best fitness tool for grip strength. You will build massive and strong forearms using a steel mace.
More Steel Mace Grip Strength Resources:
- 17 grip and wrist strength exercises using a steel mace
- 5 benefits of grip training and the 3 types of grip
10. Balance and coordination training - Body Awareness
Because the mace’s weight is offset and it trains your core stability big time, it will improve your balance and coordination tenfold. It’s very similar to unilateral training. There are tons of mace exercises that specifically work on balance and coordination.
As you are swinging the mace around, you need to have full body awareness to maintain balance and coordination. This is called kinesthetic training. So, use the steel mace to boost your balance and coordination by performing exercises in a split stance, staggered stance, and do movements like walking 360s and uppercut lunges.
11. Complexes & Flows
Create tough complexes and mace flows. Flowing with the mace offers many benefits, like body awareness, muscular endurance, metabolic conditioning, and so on. Furthermore, it is meditative (even though it’ll kick your ass) and it is holistic, offering a sense of spirituality...and/or brings out the primal warrior nature that’s in all of us.
Related: 6 Steel Mace Complex Workouts
When you really get comfortable with the mace, you can learn how to do complex “Steel Mace Flows”: How to flow with a steel mace.
12. Physical Therapy
A lightweight steel mace is fantastic for physical therapy purposes, just like Indian Clubs are. It’s not just us that says this, there are professional chiropractors recommending steel maces to patients these days. We even collaborate with Palmer College of Chiropractic - West Campus. They are teaching their students how to help patients rehab and prehab by using a steel mace.
Here is a blog post by Michael Richer (Chiropractor) on how to use a steel mace to strengthen the rotator cuff: 5 rotator cuff exercises to bulletproof your shoulders using a steel mace.
As you can see, the steel mace has a lot of uses and offers a lot of benefits, but it’s by far the best for grip, shoulder, and core strength AND for training in the transverse plane and working on body awareness.
If you want to read more about the benefits of steel mace training, check out our Top 9 benefits of steel mace training.
After reading all this, you might be asking yourself, is this a gimmick, DOES THE MACE ACTUALLY WORK? Mace Training Results.
Read that if you have any doubt, we have real-life results from real life people. The steel mace is far from a gimmick, it is a time tested ancient training tool. It’s stuck around for a reason and it's blowing up in the West as people are realizing how beneficial steel mace training is. Especially pro trainers who work with athletes. These influential people are helping the mace reach the masses. They use it because it works.
We guarantee that the steel mace will be just as popular as the kettlebell within the next couple of years. We are firsthand seeing the boom and rise of the steel mace in the western world. With all the benefits and uses the steel mace provides, we couldn’t be happier to be a part of this growth in fitness. People are realizing it’s not just about big muscles, being athletic and having real-world strength is crucial, looking good is the byproduct. The steel mace isn’t going anywhere, we are 100% sure of that.
Want to buy a steel mace?
More Steel Mace Resources:
Sam Coleman
Author