Written by Sam Coleman | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Steel Mace Training: Mindfulness Meditation and Mental Health Benefits
The steel mace is more than just a fantastic fitness tool for losing fat, improving balance and coordination, and building powerful core stability, rotational power, and grip strength. It is also a way to meditate through movement, become part of a tight-knit community, and ultimately, improve mental health.
How the Steel Mace Improves Mental Health
Depression, anxiety, and chronic stress issues are pervasive, and dare we say, entrenched, in our society. People are becoming more disconnected from their bodies, as they become more connected with their phones and other devices. This is very unfortunate as these same devices offer us a lot of benefits too.
So, the only way to manage this is to have a healthy balance…or else, these serious mental health conditions can truly consume us.
One of the best ways to combat mental health issues is exercise and mediation.
Exercise helps to stop and prevent depression and anxiety as it releases those feel-good endorphins and other natural brain chemicals that enhance your sense of well-being.
As for mediation, it is shown to help people better manage their negative feelings and emotions.
Steel Mace Training - Integrative and Holistic Mind-Body Practice
Steel mace training, like Yoga, is an integrative and holistic mind-body practice that is becoming increasingly popular in the United States and Europe.
Fitness enthusiasts quickly recognized the benefits of mace training for the body, and they are now reaping the rewards…
What a lot of people didn’t expect was the benefits it would have on their minds too.
Mace training offers the perfect combination of physical and psychological well-being as it involves intense physical activity in an essentially meditative-like state.
The steel mace is a quintessential training tool to help people destress and reconnect the mind and body…
As the mind and body become one, the body gets stronger, and so does the mind.
Physical and Mental Health Benefits all in one? Yes, please! The ultimate win-win.
Steel Mace Meditation
Steel Mace Training is similar to mediation in that while you are practicing, you have one single focus, your movement (being in the moment). All the thoughts of work, relationship, and money fade away.
It’s not like traditional bodybuilding where you go through movements that you’ve done time and time again, mindlessly pushing yourself for “gains”, while likely thinking about the same stresses that you do all day in-between sets.
With steel mace flows, complexes, and swings, you are constantly moving. It requires complete focus to accomplish the workout or sequence. Moreover, it feels almost primal in nature, and as a speciality tool, it fully engages both mind and body.
“When you ‘flow’ with a steel mace, your mind is only focused on the movement. Everything else fades away, clearing the mind of stress and peripheral desires. It is a way to refresh and reset the mind; a way to reconnect your mind to your body.” - Sam Coleman, Founder of SET FOR SET
It truly induces bliss, just as meditation does. What’s more, steel mace training can immensely help your meditation practices, as the ability to narrow your focus for extended periods of time makes it easier to release yourself to a place of emptiness when the motion stops…
Mindfulness
Although the steel mace brings your focus to one thing, that “one thing” isn’t necessarily singular. It combines movement, breathing, and creativity. So, your one focus is being in the moment. This is what people call MINDFULNESS.
The result?
Incredible improvements in stress, depression, anxiety, and positivity levels.
It even helps with sleep, chronic pain, attention and loneliness.
Steel Mace Flow: A Form of Art…In Motion
Once you gain experience with steel mace training, this mindfulness leads to movements/sequences/FLOWS that are like a form of movement-art.
You are showing creativity and expressing yourself through movement. It’s like dancing or tai chi, among other performing art forms, in that the movement has aesthetic value, even symbolic value. It is mesmerizing to those around you. It is art…
Of course, it is also an incredible and exhausting workout (again, a crucial factor for improving the mind).
And as we all know, creating art (and sharing it with the world) can be so powerful for the mind. It’s a major self-esteem booster and stress reducer.
Moreover, learning new skills, lets you know you are capable. Nothing helps mental health like a feeling of accomplishment. And even more importantly, it is proven that when you learn new skills, neurons in your brain are stimulated and more neural pathways are created. Electrical impulses travel quicker across your pathways, which enhances brain function (and also decreasing the chance of dementia)…
Now, you may be thinking, “I’m worried people will judge my movements and skill level”…
This leads us to our next reason why the steel mace is such a powerful tool - the outstandingly supportive, tight-knit, non-judgmental mace community and culture.
Steel Mace Community & Culture
The steel mace community is arguably the most close-knit and supportive fitness community ever. As soon as you get yourself a mace, you will be welcomed like family. The support from the IG community is amazing. Even if you are just beginning, sharing your mace practice and your experience will be appreciated. People show love. They give advice, respect, love. There is no snobbery in the steel mace community. We hope this never changes because right now it’s truly amazing how supportive everyone is. People are so happy to see others immersing themselves in the same activity they do.
Steel mace training is like a form of art. Thanks to its design, and the style of training, the steel mace lends itself to immense creativity with movements, exercises and flows. The vast majority of people experiment with their mace, coming up with new moves. New movements (as long as you aren’t promoting something unsafe) will be appreciated and even replicated by others.
All in all, if people want to, they can become part of the mace community by simply showing their face. The warm welcome may come in comments, likes, DMs, attempts to meet up to workout, etc. And as we all know, support and friendship (online or not), is one of the most important aspects of a healthy mind.
Note: It’s one thing to become consumed in social media, it’s another to be active and share yourself and your voice in your free time. Don’t be shy. Again, people are extremely welcoming, especially when they see you wielding a mace.
Go check out #steelmace and see for yourself.
Moreover, it’s not just about the IG community. You can definitely find other people mace training in your area who will love to hear from you and train with you.
See our list for “steel mace training near you”.
Movement Medicine For The Mind and Body
All in all, we truly believe in the steel mace’s ability to improve mental health. From fighting depression, anxiety and stress to improving positivity and making new friends, the steel mace offers benefits that extend far beyond just the physical body.
It’s not just us that feel this way. Reach out to the steel mace community and see what they have to say.
How Scott Viala uses the Steel Mace to reconnect, recenter and destress
9 Steel Mace Training Review from the Steel Mace Community
Don’t have a steel mace? Get a Steel Mace Now. Use code ‘SteelMaceMedicine’ for 15% OFF.
Once you have a mace, use this extensive mace training pdf guide to learn the basics of mace training. It will take you from beginner to skilled mace user with a perfect 360 and 10-to-2. Then, from there, you can learn how to flow with a steel mace.
We wish we could offer all of this for free, but we do need to earn a living. Nevertheless, this business is something we are truly passionate about, and we couldn’t be happier and thankful for all our customers who support our business.
For those who use the mace, let us and readers of this post know your thoughts on how the steel mace affects the mind and body in the comments below!
Sam Coleman
Author