Equipment spotlight: steel mace

The Steel Mace was originally used as a handheld medieval weapon, to cause and inflict brutal damage on an opponent on the opposing side of the battlefield. Now, however maces can be used in our training to help boost our joint health, our strength and our hand eye coordination. Once a weapon used for warfare, now the mace is a weapon used for strength, healing and conditioning.

We love a good mace here at Gravity Fitness, as the steel mace embodies everything we are all about; alternative functional health and fitness. Using a mace can massively assist with unilateral or bilateral training i.e. training one side of the body or both. This can be a huge advantage when trying to correct any imbalances on one side of the body. Also when training across both sides of the body, we can focus on the mind to muscle connection along with coordination, to really build the focus we need to push ourselves further upon our training journey.

Our steel maces come in varying weights allowing you to push yourself as far as you can! As a recommendation, always start out a little lighter than you think you will need, especially if you want to work on your shoulder mobility and perform any mace flows. This way you can focus on learning the patterns, as well as the holding of the mace itself, needed to master mace flow work. The weights we have our 4kg, 6kg, 8kg, 10kg and 12kg, all crafted in steel with a matte black finish and a textured surface to ensure a solid grip through your movements. I would recommend the 4kg or 6kg for shoulder work to begin with, and for any lower/weighted work I’d start at 8kg or 10kg.

Once you have chosen your weapon, you need to learn to wield it! Any mace flow is going to be fantastic for your rotator cuff health. You can find a whole bunch online, from multiple sources. Always start slowly and patiently, master the coordination and the expected movements before starting to speed up the flow or to add weight to it! Mace Cossacks are a fantastic lower body strength and mobility move, allowing you to take the weight down over that one side securely and safely. Also a mace row from a boat pose will help strengthen your core an obliques massively. We can also work our upper body push movements with a mace. I personally love the mace shoulder press, as you can help with any shoulder strength imbalances, and use the weight with different bias in relation to your grip. For example, you can have the weight in front of, beside or behind the hand holding the mace. You can also choose to hold the weight further away from the body to add difficulty.

Also, this side might go unfounded by a lot of other places, but here at Gravity Fitness, we like to embody the respect any functional practice deserves. Make sure you pay respect to the mace first. If you take care of the steel mace, it will take care of you as well. When it comes to training, making sure we pay respect to our training tools, as well as treating them well, will ensure they have the longest possible lifetime as well!

This video from Gravity Fitness will take you through all things steel mace, and help you get to grips with how a mace handles! Outside of working on any flows and swings, you can use this quick workout to work on your full body strength with a mace:

-Mace Cossack Squats x 8 each side
-Mace Rows from seated boat position x 8 each side
-Mace Shoulder Press – switching positions of where the weight rests x 8 each position on each side
Repeat x 4 or as time allows

Tag us on socials @gravity.fitness to show us your steel mace flows, and what else you’re working on with a steel mace. Let us know if you have any questions, or if we can offer you any tips. And remember, just keep swinging!