Steel Maces?

Anyone ever use one? Thoughts?

I have one that I've spent a lot of time with; but if you're interested don't get too crazy about buying one for a few hundred dollars.  I made mine out of stuff I bought at Home Depot (old basketball, cement, post-hole digger handle, and a 12-inch screw to give the cement something to set around) and it's held up well for like 7 or 8 years now.

i think they're only useful for maybe one or two exercises, but I like those exercises enough and think they give enough value it's worth having just for those (IMO).

Here's the main exercise:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CreCOrf9ExM

if the link doesn't work, just look up "Karl hitch mace swinging demo".  The gada (name for the "mace" in India) is a traditional part of wrestling S&C in India.  I've only found it helpful to swing a heavy gada two-handed and treat it as a strength exercise, I usually do - couple sets of 10-20 after whatever else I'm doing.

the movement feels really similar to chopping wood (it's an explosive movement driven a lot by your lats with the arms/shoulders as more secondary movers), and in my experience it's got a lot of carryover to punching power and mat strength (especially throwing).  Whenever I work diligently on this exercise, I build some noticeable muscle on my triceps and lats, too. 

The length of the handle has a big impact on how difficult it is to swing around, so without something of proper length it's hard to get enough resistance. The post hole digger handle I used is 4 feet long, which is great.  If you try to do the movement with even a heavy sledgehammer, the handle is too short to feel much resistance.

if you do decide to try to make one, a basketball used as a mold for the concrete made a gada that was about 32 lbs, which feels really heavy on the end of a 4 ft pole (I had to choke eat up the handle, and I was hitting a tire with a 20 lb sledge pretty regularly when I made it).

So to summarize, I like them and plan to keep using mine regularly the rest of my life; it's fun, good for building muscle and strength in a way that I feel helps me with combat sports, and if you make your own is comparatively really cheap.  I also like that while the movement is similar to hitting a tire with a sledgehammer, which was a fixture of my workouts for years, it's easy to scale to much higher weights and you don't actually have to hit anything (I can do it in my garage without fear of damaging my house or waking up neighbors, and I used it regularly in apartments while I was in college.

its a little bit gimmicky, and of course you could just chop a tire with a sledgehammer (though my 32 lb gada is much cheaper and builds power better than my 20 lb sledge) or lift weights normally or whatever, but I really enjoy it and like the effects I get.  There was enough historical precedent (pehlwani/Indian wrestling, Karl Gotch and some of the Japanese shootwrestlers he trained, etc) that I thought it was worth trying, and I've liked the results-especially for grappling of any sort.

My whole "gym" at home is some mats for mat drills, the gada, a sandbag, a doorway chin-up bar, and a keg.  Everything aside from the mats, which were like $200, was under $50 and I have hundreds of lbs of sand to use as weight.  I really enjoy all of it and can't see myself ever needing any more than I have now, to be honest.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I think I’ll make my own. It seems like a cool tool, but not worth the price of buying one from Rogue or Onnit

A great tool for shoulder recovery & over all strengthening. I’m using a 30lb 3x a week now. I won’t ever not use it in my routine.

My right shoulder needs surgery. Both the infraspinatus & supraspinatus are almost completely torn off at the shoulder connection. Its been that way for months. After working with my mace for s little while now, I don’t worry about it a whole lot now. Its a great tool if utilized correctly

My wife bought me a Shoulderok for Christmas.  Big fan.  Has really helped my shoulder mobility.

Humbling to struggle using 10 lbs at first.

Scott Tuggle -

My wife bought me a Shoulderok for Christmas.  Big fan.  Has really helped my shoulder mobility.

Humbling to struggle using 10 lbs at first.

Stay with it & use it regularly, it has helped my shoulders immensely

The old lady asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I kept saying nothing. Long story short I eventually caved and asked for a 10,15,20 pound set of maces. Underestimated them. I use kettlebells and train with SFG instructors so I though I would be able to move up pretty quick.......I had to order a 7 lb from on it to practice because the 10 lb was too heavy. Learned a lesson.