Get Strong, Be Awesome with the Steel Mace!

Are you ready to spice up your workouts?

Are you ready for a new tool to shred fat, build strength, and improve your strength and posture?

You're in luck!

Today I want to talk about one of our new, cool, up-and-coming tools in the gym: THE STEEL MACE!

The mace is a fun, empowering and unconventional tool that is new to DSC. 

The best thing about it is anyone can use it.

Whether you are a beginner in the gym or someone who has been working out for years, the mace is so versatile and can add variety into anyone's workout.

Now let's talk about the strengths and benefits of why we are loving the mace at DSC. 

First off: it is easy to handle and use! 

The technique to use it has a small learning curve and can be picked up quickly with a little practice. 

Mastering the use of the mace creates some awesome awareness of our bodies, constantly checking our mindfulness and reminding us to move intentionally. 

You see, the mace has an offset load on one side so it forces you to find the center point and balance when holding it. 

This means for you will be able to feel and control certain parts of your body that you probably never knew you had access to before! 

This leads into the next great benefit of the mace, which is increasing our resistance to injury. 

The mace challenges us and forces us to move correctly which helps strengthen some of the most important movements and postures we encounter in our everyday training and life. 

This will lead to reevaluating how we are actually moving and help us to reduce injuries and improve our strength. 

The mace can actually help improve our performance in so many different activities. 

For example, with a baseball or golf player it is great to help with your rotational strength and power to improve your performance swinging, throwing or swinging. 

Or take a general population adult who is looking to improve his/her grip strength and perform a better chin up or a man or women completely new to strength training to build in some variety as a cardio or strength tool and learn to control his/her movements. 

You really have endless opportunities at your fingertips! 

As I talked about above, the mace is great to supplement with your normal training for two big reasons: 

1. It adds so much variety which can help with falling into a rut or getting bored by keeping things fun 

2. It can help strengthen both your technique and your strength with conventional exercises. 

When it comes to actually setting up and using the mace, it's quick to learn and just requires some practice.

So let's get into your technique and set-up!

1. Starting Position

Neutral wrists, hips tucked underneath, abs tight, and and tall posture.

2. Hand Position

Cue is under/over with your hands; (First hand is always referenced to the hand that is closest to the head or ball of the mace).

3. Activation

Pulling and crushing of the mace while using it. Create tension! 

Before we actually get into our 5 favorite exercises, I want to talk safety. 

The mace is an awesome tool but like everything else has some guidelines and rules to help you have the best experience. 

First is spacial awareness. 

Know who and what is around you so you and others can stay safe without getting hit. 

Lastly, when switching from one side to another side, we want to always have control of the mace, not letting the head get free from our hands. 

Therefore when switching hands, we always want to bring our hands all the way to the top and control the head in our prayer position as seen below. 

After we have that under control under our chin, we then can slide the opposite hand down and smoothly transition. 

Remember it's not just you that we are worried about, it's your friends walking around you so safety first is key!

Now it's time to get started using THE MACE!

Here are our 5 FAVORITE mace exercises!

Enjoy! 

1| Squat Switch

Key Points:

•     Start in Horizontal Middle, Under/Over Grip
•     “Pull” or “Crush” the Mace
•     Squat and Transition into your Prayer Position, and continue to alternate

2| Lateral Lunge Switch

Key Points:

•     Start in Under/ Over Grip
•     Mace should line up with straight leg, Lunge out to one side
•     Come back to prayer and alternate to the other side
  
  

3| High Hinge Row

Key Points:

•     Set up in an Over/Over Grip, Head of the mace out to the side
•     RDL and Hold to bottom staying braced
•     Row in together, and extend arm closest to the head of the mace

4| Alternating Reverse Lunge Switch

Key Points:

•     Set up in a Under/Over Grip
•     Bring the leg back that is opposite the head of the mace
•     Continue to lunge the opposite leg back then coming up to prayer in transition as you alternate sides

5| Paddle Swing

Key Points:

•     Set up in a wide Over/Over Grip, rotate so head of the mace is pointed back
•     Come to a cross body position so the mace is at a 45 degree angle across your chest
•     Finish by upper cutting the mace into a rotated top position. You want both knuckles pointed up towards the ceiling