MACE TRAINING: Worth it or Not? 28 Day Experiment 

Honestly thought for a second this was a video about training to be maced. If Brian says being maced will make me strong I’ll do it

I started doing heavy clubs about 1.5 years ago (via Mark Wildman). got a couple cheapies from amazon to start and then got an adex adjustable (like 5 to 27.5lbs). I went with clubs cuz it seemed like you still got the rotational movement and there were LOTS of exercises possible. as you say a heavy club is stupid hard, it's a butt kicking exercise and it generally hits muscles in ways that they never really get hit. (def start light, someone said on a video once that it feels like it is pulling your joints apart, and it is kidna like that. everything else in weights is in compression (pushing on you) and most club exercises are in extension (pulling against you). it has definitely helped my shoulders a ton and as you say grip and forearm. I do the same basic exercises, every 3 days or so, slowly adding weight, reach 15 to 20 sets, and then go up in weight. People think "oh that's not much weight" and it isn't. UNTIL you start swinging it and it's dynamic (much like a kettlebell). And then understanding dawns very quickly. It can be humbling at first. Is it an end all be all device? no. but it's certainly a good tool in the toolbox. also it looks cool as f*ck when you're swinging.

They make standard bars with threaded weight pins. They’re like 40-50 bucks, take a reciprocating saw and saw one of the threaded ends off file it smooth and boom you have a mace.

Look up “the flowing Dutchman” on RU-vid if you think there isn’t much to do with a mace. That guy makes it look like a martial art. Thanks for sharing your experience 👍

Shield casts, 10-2, uppercut with lunge, grave digger to shield cast, battle lunges and combos there of. Works for me. Totally agree on helping with the shoulders. This and your sandbag workouts keep this 58 year old moving along. Another thing to try for those interested are fixed maces. I use the ones from Amazon. They have a thicker grip and as they get heavier they get longer to increase the dynamic force you are swinging. Keep up the great work, Thanks

I used vases filled with concrete from goodwill and a bamboo stick with nails in it in for a handle for a while. Now I have some wooden maces/clubs that were hand made and they're amazing. The Adex adjustable maces/clubs are very cool too. My favorite by far is the wooden ones. They're huge so they look cool and feel cool to swing and the wood also feels better in the hand than the metal.

I love my steel mace! However I totally agree with you about the adaptation, so I started swinging it around like it would be used in a real battle, but instead of just giving into momentum, I use muscle force to slow and control it. It makes it SIGNIFICANTLY harder, but also much less boring. Annihilates the core that way too😂

In between pressing exercises is where the mace really shines for me. Heavy mace swings in between sets of light presses, and light or single arm mace swings in between heavy presses. You can make the efficiency work for you by really letting yourself sink into the movement and getting a nice stretch while your at it, sort of like a rotational pullover.

Thanks for the review man, always wondered about these things. Hope all is still going well!

Happy to see you sharing your thoughts on the mace. I've used mace in my training for almost 2 years. I think you got too caught up in the pricetag for the model you got. There are fixed weight options which will be much cheaper. Sure, you won't get the benefit of being able to adjust the weight with the same mace, but these models have a larger role when in comes to movement options. Something that is not talked about in regards to mace and circular training in general is that it counterbalances linear pattern lifts. You get a lot more strenghthening on tendons and ligaments through centrifugal force which is actually pulling these parts during the movement, that's probably why your shoulders felt so much better. I think you'd benefit a lot more doing single arm stuff with a heavy club (inside circle, outside circle and shield cast) eventually moving on to mills and reverse mills. These are more strenght/size builders than mace. I tore my right labrum last year. Pratically made a full recovery just working on these.

Good for your shoulder Brian!Hope Is doing Better!thanks again for your work!

Thanks as always Big man for the info !

Great video; I had a similar experience as you. I love the honesty!

Thanks for the video your stuff is always so awesome appreciate you

This was a really helpful review thanks.

Much appreciated, Brian, I'm always looking for ways to improve shoulder mobility and overall joint stability. This sounds like something I will look into some more so thank you.

I got an adjustable wooden mace from Kensui for 60 or 70 bucks. Before that I made an adjustable club and an adjustable mace by hacksawing and filing two pieces of a spinlock 1" barbell. Onnit sells a 10 pound fixed weight steel mace for $50. A good hack is to throw a plate on a baseball bat. I used that for 3 years. For strength I prefer a heavy adjustable club to mace. Over 10 months I've doubled club reps and sets and increased load 65%. I keep a club in my truck and on my way home from work I stop at a trail, river, or beach to work out. I took a barbell to the beach once, but the club is much handier and goes regularly. Going by the basketball court at the beach so often while getting my mobility back up to snuff got me playing basketball again at 65 after 44 years off. I did get to a point where it was taking me away from my home gym, but I'm back at it now with improved shoulders. Besides basketball, the rotational strength and control from mace and club must be excellent for athletes in baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, boxing, etc Thanks for your take on this stuff.

God bless you Brian, thank you for all you do

I’ve been subscribed for years and always recommend you and Alan Thrall to anyone who asks about fitness , I hope you keep your spirits up it’s really important to me

I teach steel clubs and steel maces, it’s an endless amount of variations to use it. The primary is the swings but can be used movements

Brian you always produce real, honest and actionable content - thank you. One note: you mention how much better your shoulders feel from regular mace/club work, but then question its value as your skill level increase makes it easier. These sorts of movements have saved me from double shoulder replacements at 65 - isn’t that reason enough to continue to keep it in your program?

I was taught by Rik Brown and please don’t think you can’t do much with it. Mark Wildman has over 100 videos on mace exercises. One workout I do is 30 minutes in length and doing each exercise for a minute before moving on to the next without putting the mace down. Mace training for many people is about movement patterns but also strength and conditioning. The mace can target all muscle groups if you know what movements to do and as you get better you can go up in weight. Cardio or strength and conditioning you can do it with a mace. Anyone looking to build or start a home gym having several maces maybe is all you need without purchasing racks, weights, bench etc. I’m glad you had a go at it Brian.

There's a big variety of different mace/club flows and stuff that you can get into. Look at the flowing Dutchman on RU-vid I feel like he's a cool mace guy. It's huge in India.

I absolutely love using steel clubs and maces, especially for active recovery

Love the mace as a warmup before my pull days. 5-10m warm up of 10-2's to open the shoulder then the full send on the twirls. Bad shoulders and mobility, it's helped my dead hang tremendously. I've also done them as a warmup or squats doing the overhead chop. Start with 2 hands, mace is behind you with the ball on your lower back, as you squat down, you chop forward. Start position, standing, mace behind, ball on your lower back. End position is low squat with the mace extended infront pointing straight up.

I made one with a one inch pipe and some old one inch hole plates for next to nothing. I also use other diameter pipes loaded with sand. This is a wrestlers training tool which is why I use it and it does seem to heal shoulders up. I use it at the end of push day.

Appreciate the honest review. I use a sledge hammer for these movements. Not everyday, even every week. Just when I feel like changing things up or need shoulder recovery. You can buy several sledge hammers for the cost of one of these.

I agree with your take on the mace. I have had one for years that I got when my shoulders were bothering me. I have practice swings and different movements and doing a consistent swing does help with my shoulders however, that is the only thing I have found. I’ve tried different movements and really the swings are the best and they do get boring after a while, but I keep it around because if I ever have shoulder problems, it really is the only thing that fixes it.

Wife and I love the ones we have, they get used mostly for hammer throw warmups though.

I think that was a fair review. I use maces, kettlebells and recently sandbags and I mainly use the mace for recovery work on an “off day” or for a quick warm up following mark Wildman’s 4 minute morning routine and building on inside/outside circles. It’s a great functional piece of kit and will compliment your overall workouts but i wouldn’t look at it for an overall piece of training. There are people who do mace flows and have magical ways spinning it around and using it in very dynamic ways which may hit more muscle groups, but this is very specialist and requires totally different training altogether. And price point, that’s a fair point, mine didn’t cost that much, though these days you can buy adjustable ones (even more dear). I’d recommend getting one, but know that this isn’t a replacement to your existing training, but a compliment and especially good for your overall shoulder health.

This seems really cool, and quite a few commenters have mentioned shoulder benefits. I have/had a partial labrum tear, weak RCs, impingement, and AC joint arthritis. Tons of face pulls & PT band work have helped me strengthen my RCs (and possibly healed the tear). But I'm curious if this will help w/ impingement & arthritis as those seem to be more skeletal issues.

Love the mace is getting popular. Been using it for years HIGHLY RECOMMEND

This is some crazy simulation stuff. I started taking mace training seriously a few weeks ago and BAM here we go.

Especially if you use your hips to perform a basic uppercut to throw the handle of the mace into the air so that the ball drops behind you, while being grounded into the floor you can actually make it a full body exercise. I like to do a lot of it in a horse stance as well

Every time I go into a hardware shop and see a sledgehammer, I consider buying it to use like a mace. I'm having some minor rotator cuff issues in my right shoulder just now, so I think you've convinced me to go for it.

I started doing swings behind the back as a finisher after sledgehammer tire work with a 20 lb sledge. After a while I wanted to try going heavier, so I made a 50 lb mace that is plate loadable, and I will say swinging a 65 lb mace is absolutely brutal. For me it really hits my triceps hard

It makes my shoulders feel good and it improved my grip strength quite a bit.

the mace has more moves than i think you found. it is a flow tool , so continuous movement is key and not just linear movement

I got a cheap, small "standard" barbell. I might try this with that

I had a shoulder issue for almost a year and decided to try using a mace. It was gone within a week. It's insane how fast and well it worked

It's a super easy thing to DIY too. Just carve a piece of a hardwood branch into a stock that's thicker in the end and slide the normal bb weights (including the weight stopper thingy) onto it. Has been working great for me and I've used like 45 pounds on it for all kinds of movements for years

What’s up, Brian! I have the shoulderok and love it. I don’t have much experience with mace work but the combination of the longer implement and the ability to adjust the load works great. I hope it helps with overhead stability during circus DB training. Just a few questions for you: 1) I’m about to buy a circus DB to train strongman in my garage gym. After researching, I’d like to buy from MB Powercenter. My strict OHP PR is only 170 lbs currently at 200 lbs. BW. So my issue is, while I’d like to buy the 12” CDB, it weights 99# empty. The 10” weighs 70#. Considering that I’d like to compete in my first SM meet next year at HGC ‘25, I hear most SM meets use 12” CDBs and not 10” for the men’s division. Would you recommend that I buy the smaller but more manageable 10”, or the heavier but potentially appropriate-sized 12”? Love your channel and looking forward to running your Strongman Powerbuilder program a few times before competing. Thanks, Brian!

Hey Brian, check out the Onnit Quad Mace. It's about 150-160. Weighs 25lbs but has a long, wooden handle that's nice and thick. The weight distribution changes things considerably over a steel mace, and the thicker handle really hits your grip like a bastard. It's one of my favorite things to do as part of my shoulder warmups.

I have a 5kg (11lb) fixed weight mace. I find it is a good weight for the therapeutic/health benefits of a mace without the expense of the adjustable ones. Another affordable adjustable one is the wooden Kensui mace. Apparently it feels a bit different though because it's wood.

I wanted to add mace training to my training after watching "The Flowing Dutchman" for a while. The mace I got is a Strength Shop EU, I got the 6kg one, costed 60€. But if you have a sledgehammer, use that or even better, if you're handy or would like to take on a craft project, make your own; whether it be concrete and a bar or carving wood like the Indian ones. Personally, I didn't see all too much benefit overall, as I use kettlebells on my off days after rucking. But it's nice to mix it up and for 60 bucks it's honestly not a big deal. If it was $300 like what you got, yeah no way I'ld get that.

Brian have you tried 3 pump or Navy SEAL etc kind of burpees that 'Iron Wolf' promotes on his youtube channel? This guy has ways of making burpees kick the shit out of you man, you would probably love the variations he uses so you can get some more juice out of burpees.

I’ve been doing Indian club swinging for a few years now after not being able to bench press for a year due to shoulder pain. Shoulders have never felt so good at 53

i have a loadable mace from Titan and love it. I think it was around $80.

Use mace training for warming up and keeping shoulders happy and healthy. Also use them to train forearms using the offset load.

Recently discovered the Kensui Adjusta Mace for about $70. Made of wood. Haven’t tried it but since I was considering making my own out of threaded pipes/fittings for about $50.. 🤷‍♂️

The pricing is absolutely insane. I bought a proper sledge hammer which I think was at most 30$. Best piece of excessive equipment I own, and I can use it for hitting a tire.

You can do a fair few things with a mace. Gravediggers, shovel lifts, 10 to 2, 360s, single arm, hand over hand, etc. You should also bring your hands to navel level to start and to the nape of the neck when swinging

Iron sheik had something similar to that.. also hammer throws use a chain with weights at the end

a 3/4 in stick of black threaded pipe with a few split rings or other pipe fittings with smaller lengths of pipe (nipples) should work to make one at home for cheap. i made a tib bar for less than 40$ out of 7-3/4 X 6inch nipples and 3-3/4 "Tees" and 2-3/4 shoulder nipples. tib bar retail 175$ at the time 1 inch bore plates fit well but i had to sand the paint off to get my plates to fit on there. 1.5 inch pipe should hold the 2" bore plates tightly as well

I just use sledgehammers. I find I can modulate the intensity just fine by choking up on the handle (and I do that to warm up the movement). I mostly use it for light mobility work in the shoulders and hitting the less straight forward ranges if motion in my wrists, which helps keep them feeling healthy. I can't see paying $300 for a mace. Heaviest sledgehammer at the hardware store? Definitely worth it.

You should try heavy clubs. They're far more versatile. A club plus a dumbbell replaces a kettlebell and you can do a lot more exercises than you can with a kettlebell.

i cut the collar off 1 side of a cheap 1" standard barbell and a few inches off the other, use both screw clips to hold weights.

I was literally just thinking about your channel the other day as I haven’t followed you for a while, and I just started implementing mace training about a month ago myself. Weird.

Guess ill stick to kettlebell shoulder halos with SquatU's banded rotator complex for shoulder prehab.

My prediction before video starts is that it's worth it because that would be on brand for Brian

Honestly, the shoulder mobility alone is very appealing to me. I'm a Powerlifter and a Capoeirista, so I need very strong and healthy shoulders. Edit: Damn, if *Brian Alsruhe* says 9 kilo (20lbs) is a challenge, that's quite the statement.

Persian meels, I made my own. I use 10 lb, and 16 lb sledgehammers for a mace.

I ordered a mace from Titan fitness for $80. Started using it for my warm ups and in place of plate Halos and I’ve noticed my shoulder and bicep pain has gone down.

I have to disagree with the mace not being very versatile. 360s, 10&2s, uppercut lunges, barbarian squats, dynamic curls, pullovers and grave diggers just to name a few exercises.

I just cut the end off of a 1" threaded chrome bar to make my mace. I can then thread on as much weight as I want (as long as that's less than 13 1" threaded plates).

From my understanding using a club is better than a mace due to the variety of training and the weight distribution. Ckmaceworks has a cadi club and it’s awesome. Mark wildman has a good bit of training variety for clubs too. If you’re good at mace then you’re good at mace. But if you’re good at clubs then you can also be good at mace.

I have a baseball bat at home that I can just slip a regular 2" weight plate on and it just catches and sticks near the top when the bat gets too thick for the plate and works really well

For 1 handed club work, a big pipe wrench works quite well.

Adjustable maces are super expensive, but I got a normal 8kg mace (20ish pounds) for around 60€. I use it maybe once or twice per week towards the end of my workouts, and I basically only train Mace 360's. I think it's worth it for that purpose.

Just as I thought. There are a lot things, like this that seem like a good idea but where would I put them in? Would I squat less, deadlift less, bench press less to add this? I have 4.5 hours a week for strength and about two hours a week for cardio. I don't see where I could add kettle bells, maces, or sandbags to my training. I squat, bench, OH Press, Chinup, Barbell Row, and do dips for strength. For cardio I run stairs, do sprints, and do sled work. Subbing in something else I think would be sub optimal unless I need to do it for recovery from an injury or to acquire a skill. For most folks stick to the big compounds for maximum return unless you have a lot of free time to go gym and for recovery.

how about switching the grip up?

Since i had cancer being hodgkins lymphoma. Infected lymph nodes were on the left side. Im in remission for years but my left side dosent grow n develope as fast as my right. This wasnt the case before cancer have you ever herd of this

Word of warning: I actually hurt my shoulder doing this. I'm not saying this to deter anyone. I absolutely loved the learning process. But do push your boundaries intelligently.

I have an old York barbell set I could probably make one of those out of. the bar is only about 4 feet long i could put the plates only on one end and swing it around, hmmmmmmm! at any rate anything that improves shoulder health is a good thing!

Do these really work any differently than plate or kettlebell halos?

I feel like if you did a light KB/plate halo or something but made sure you went deep around the back of your head you'd get similar shoulder benefits. Could be wrong though.

Aluminum baseball bat holds an olympic plate and collar. Just another idea for a cheap mace set up

The Shoulder Rok has super aggressive knurling for swinging around - rips up my thumb webbing real bad

I love my shoulder rok. I have the tactical and bought the regular one for my brother and the gym a few years back.

😎

Jeez. I made mine with some galvanized pipe and standard plates. $300 can get you a wide variety of fitness items.

What about a standard sledge hammer from the local hardware store? I assume 10lbs is on the lighter side, but for those of us aspiring to try somehting new?

Now you can do a DIY video for making a homemade plate loadable mace, and put them out of business for being jerks, and over charging. Then everyone will love you, and you will live happily ever after while they beg for change under an overpass.

The Great Gama swung an 80 lbs mace for 40 minutes a day. I use kbs, mace/clubs, and sandbags only.

You felt the benefit because you got to put your shoulders into a wider range of motion without a lot of stress. Imagine if you grabbed small Indian clubs and did a lot of speed work with them, you would notice your elbows shoulders and wrists go through the entire range those joints are able to and with a much smaller resistance, you get that blood flow without the stress

For the algorithm

Mace training is actually very orthodox among wrestlers in India!

I got a 10lb macebell for $30 and I can do a lot with it. Just takes some research and imagination :)

Your injured shoulder is going to feel so good after a month. These really do bulletproof the shoulders.

My mace is great and was only $49 on Amazon lol

Funnily enough you got me into jiu jitsu, and then my Jiu Jitsu coach got me into mace work, and then I finally see you make a video about mace work. But yea he had a history of shoulder problems and apparently there are alot of different variations such as one handed mace swings, which work the hell outta your forearms and shoulder stability and add a whole nother layer of depth to the mace, once I tried one handed I never looked back, 5 lbs humbled me and I only do 10 lbs now, it's worth a try

I thought this sonofagun was macing his eyes daily to build up tolerance

This is how vikings got so strong.

is it worth it? probably not IMO, concept of specificity applies

Might be worth it just for the shoulder benefits

Just watched Fight Club for the first time, def was different than I was expecting

300 bucks is waaaay to much money for what you get

Your a great lifter, however it looks like you hardly studied the forms, and hardly scratched the surface of this style of training. Maces, clubs, kettlebells, (and even burpees, as per your comparison) are meant to be trained very different than a barbell for the most part. The reps need to be extremely high, you need more variation, and much less rest. A good mace workout might look like: 100 x each side 360 swings to squats, 200 x 10 - 2's, 100 x barbarian squats, with a 500 x bw squat finisher. And as far as the pricing, if you are doing workouts in the fashion I mentioned with a set weight, you can use a tool like a mace, club, or kettlebell as a single or primary piece of equipment for about a year, as someone who trains daily. This makes 300 dollars turn into less than a dollar a day, which is worth it if you are training from home and want to master a tool like this. That's the whole idea, get great fitness, have fun, master something odd, save money. But you gotta put in that same study and ethic that you have with barbells, sandbags and stones (and all the other crazy elite stuff you have done) before. The channel I recommend you check is "Goondalini", he adds in his own twists (as you can), and does a great job portraying the versatility, and how to make them for cheap. It's not for everyone, but don't discredit something which you never gave the due time and respect. Same with burpees, checkout the older videos on the channel "Iron Wolf", burpees, maces, clubs and kettlebells go wayyyy deep man. Also, imagine doing anything else you've done for just 28 days, and then sharing a set opinion on it. I imagine all other implements you use you have put years and decades of hard work into, and often times it might have taken over a year to be comfortable with even a single movement. Think about a barbell squat or a deadlift, I know you get sore when your just starting in these movements, but how long (realistically, not theoretically) does it take for someone to feel "smooth", "controlled" and have proper form in these movements? I feel like even after 5 years, a competitive lifter is still constantly queuing themselves, making adjustments, and having thoughts like "I have patience, just you wait and see everyone". All forms of training take time, effort and open-mindedness before their true value is revealed. Thank you for sharing your video and your opinion on it thus far.

28 days is only playing around with the maces, and those rotational movements really uncomparable with kettlebell work. If someone, (maybe in a city) never did hard physical labor with hand tools, maces are a great way to lots of untouched potentials. Saying, there's only one excercise with them is weird, 'cause wielding a weighty, long lever is the basis of about every martial art weapon technique ever. And a word on price: I made the simplest DIY mace from a leftover piece of pipe with two heavy duty collars, so it costed literally nothing to try out.

That feeling when Brian's active recovery is your version of getting at it.