Yes, the headline took some liberty, as the macebell descends from the Indian gada, rather than from weapons typically employed by Vikings, who fought mainly with spears, axes and swords.
What you get in this MLI 1899 post:
¶ How to swing a macebell safely, from your first circle to a full 360
¶ Five mace moves: the 360, wood chop, gong, shovel & skillet pass
¶ Unedited videos of my freestyle macebell & skillet workouts (with bloopers)
¶ Why you shouldn’t go heavy, & how sliding your hands changes the load
¶ The physiology of macebell workouts: how they build shoulders, core, grip & turning strength
¶ Reps & rounds for 3 levels of individual fitness:
— “never lifted” — “new to strength training” — “experienced athlete”
¶ How I warm up my surgically repaired shoulders with Indian clubs
¶ Doing it all with a cast-iron skillet, a hammer or a broomstick
¶ Variations & regressions: seated versions & joint-friendly versions
The physiology behind this workout
The power of the offset bell
A dumbbell got it’s name for a reason: it just sits in your palm as static weight that you move in linear planes of motion, more or less. Nothing happens without you starting it.
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Macebells are nothing of the kind. Nearly all their weight sits in a steel ball at the far end of a handle (the length of which varies). That offset weight, plus gravity, is what makes the macebell workout unique, fun and creative. The farther a weight is from your hands, the harder it twists against your wrists, forearms, shoulders and trunk. Sliding your hands down the handle away from the ball can double that twisting force, making a 20-pound mace feel a lot heavier than 20 pounds. But choke up near the ball, and it gets remarkably lighter.
Macebells allow you to dynamically change the workout without changing the weight.
The two halves of every swing train (and restore) shoulder mobility
Every macebell swing has two halves. First you get the ball moving. Then you have to slow it down and turn it around, sometimes behind your head where you can’t see it. That braking half is what generates a lot of the mobility and strength workout.
The small muscles deep in your shoulder that hold your arm in its socket (aka the rotator cuff) have to control a weight moving in a circle or oval. Because the load is off to one side, the muscles along your sides and back work to keep your trunk from being pulled sideways. Your grip and forearms are working the whole time.
On the bigger swings, like the shovel, your legs and hips start the move. Your whole body takes part in nearly every rep. Be like Freyja and Thor, folks….
Functional mobility training, instead of straight-line workouts
Gym lifting mostly moves in straight lines: up and down, forward and back, both hands sharing the load evenly. Life doesn’t. You reach across the car for a bag, swing a suitcase into an overhead bin, turn to put a pot on a high shelf. The mace trains that kind of movement, and the muscles involved matter more after 50. In one study of 2,404 Australian adults, people in the oldest age group could raise their arms about 40 degrees less than people in the youngest.1 In a large study of nearly 140,000 people in 17 countries, every 11 pounds of lost grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of dying over about four years.2 That study shows a link, not cause and effect, but grip is a number you can move.
Two caveats
First, no controlled trial has tested macebell training in anyone, at any age. The only lab data I could find is a 2020 conference abstract that put muscle-activity sensors on eight college students. It found that muscle activity changed depending on which side of the body the ball was on.3 The case for the mace rests on simple mechanics and on what we know about the muscles it trains.
Second, your shoulders are the joint this tool works hardest, and shoulders are often damaged after 50 maybe without you knowing it. When researchers scanned the shoulders of 664 people in a village in Japan, about 1 in 10 people in their 50s had a full rotator cuff tear, and two out of three people with a tear had no symptoms.4
That’s why I warm up with Indian clubs and keep the mace light. I’ve had tendon repairs on both shoulders, and I’d like you to skip that part of my experience.
Where the name comes from
The macebell is named after the medieval mace, a war club with a heavy metal head that soldiers used against armored opponents.
Its ancestor is the gada, a heavy-headed club that wrestlers in India have trained with for centuries. Many wrestling gyms in north India are devoted entirely to swinging clubs and maces.
The “bell” is the weighted steel ball on the end of the handle. The mace’s lighter cousin, the Indian club—which also originated in India, obviously—came to Victorian England in the packs of British soldiers in the 1820s.
Gear needed
a macebell (optional)
a cast-iron skillet (optional)
a broomstick or wooden dowel (optional)
a dirt shovel or metal rake (optional)
a large hammer (optional)
Time commitment
5-30 minutes
How to do it
If the movements or equipment don’t work for you, check out the Variations & regressions section below.
Below, you have full access to:
how to do this workout
suggested sets and reps per set (and/or time thresholds) for your ability
alternative ways to do this workout, for any fitness level
raw video of freestyle macebell and iron-skillet routines that you can use as a guide (and laugh at all my skillet drops)
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