13 Impressive Benefits Of Macebell Training

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Macebells aka steel maces definitely offer more unusual workouts. Find out the benefits of this type of training to see whether they align with your goals.

Similar to many workouts you also want to make sure you don’t overdo it. Macebells can be relatively challenging for body parts like your shoulders too.

1. Macebells can build and strengthen muscles

This first benefit of macebell training is not the most unique but that does not make it any less valuable. Macebell workouts can simply make a variety of muscles bigger and stronger.

What movements you choose will influence the muscles macebell work but there are some general things you can say.

More specifically, macebells tend to work your forearm grip strength muscles, other wrist muscles, core muscles, deltoids (main shoulder muscle), and scapular muscles (shoulder stabilization muscles) a lot.

Macebell training works in the sense that it can help you strengthen these muscles to some extent. Especially for your scapular muscles, a steel mace can be a good training tool.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that macebells are often not the number one tool for building the most pounds and kilograms of muscle mass.

If this is your goal, you likely want to stick to more standard exercise equipment options like barbells and dumbbells.

2. Macebells can improve coordination and balance

Swinging macebells in the right ways and their uneven weight distribution can be challenging in terms of coordination and balance.

This can be a benefit of macebells because it can improve your skills in these areas.

In turn, better coordination and balance can make daily activities like carrying things around or even climbing stairs easier and safer.

3. Macebells can improve shoulder mobility

Mobility is how far your joints and tends can comfortably move.

There are macebell exercises that can help you push your mobility to safe extents. Especially in your shoulders.

In turn, this can lead to mobility improvements which can make daily activities easier, improve exercise performance, and reduce injury risk.

You may even also improve your flexibility, how much your muscles can comfortably lengthen, with steel mace training.

This offers similar benefits as mobility but the combination of both is even more valuable.

4. Macebells are available in different weights and lengths

You may have noticed that challenging your body enough but not too much was important in the previous (and other) benefits.

Enough is inevitably a vague statement because different human bodies can have different strength levels, body sizes, preferences, etc.

These things also come with different macebell weight and size needs.

Luckily, the rising popularity of macebells makes it so there are a variety of brands, models, and weights to choose from.

If you are new to this type of training, one of the main general macebell weight recommendations is a 10-pound model.

Relatively strong men can go one “level” heavier and women who are not that strong (yet) can start one “level” lighter.

5. One macebell offers many challenge levels

10 pounds may seem and is a very general recommendation. However, due to the shape of a macebell, one single model offers a variety of different “resistance settings”.

By putting your hands at different positions, the same steel mace exercise can vary from too easy to too hard.

Generally, the closer you put your hands to the mace head and the further you put your hands away from each other, the easier the movements become.

Similar to basically any workout, you want to find the zone where the macebell exercises you do are challenging but not too challenging for optimal results.

6. Macebells can improve grip strength

Using steel workout maces works your forearm grip muscles a lot. Strengthening these muscles can help improve your grip strength.

A stronger grip allows you to lift heavier objects for longer amounts of time.

This can be useful while moving regular objects around but can also improve your performance in heavy pull exercises like deadlifts and rows.

Something else that is worth noting is that good grip strength makes it easier to hold on to something when falling down which can help you avoid bad consequences.

Even if falling is currently not a concern, strengthening your grip with macebells can help reduce this risk for years to come.

7. Macebells can prevent back pain

Pains and aches are relatively common but there are actually ways to reduce your risk of these.

For example, by doing macebell exercises that strengthen your core muscles you can reduce your risk of back pain.

This actually applies to many of the movements you can do with this piece of equipment. All the swinging exercises require a good amount of core engagement to do successfully.

One important thing to note is that people who already have back pain want to be careful about implementing steel maces into their workout routines.

If this applies to you, you can talk to an expert, or at least start light and carefully, to make sure you will actually get benefits from macebells and not the opposite.

8. Macebells can help you avoid injuries

Injuries come from challenging your body too much for its current strength level.

One way to avoid these is by strengthening your body so that it can deal with bigger challenges.

You can do this by improving the mobility, flexibility, and muscle strength of your shoulders and the muscles around them with macebell training.

The conditions macebell workouts can help you avoid range from an uncomfortable feeling in your shoulders after sitting behind a desk all day to situations where you can not move your arms due to injuries.

9. Macebells get your heart beating

It is true that macebell workouts tend to focus more on mobility, flexibility, and muscle-related training.

At the same time, you do also train your health in other areas to certain extents.

More specifically, after doing a few heavier macebell 360s your heart likely starts beating faster and your lungs likely have to work harder.

This is because the muscles you work need more nutrients and oxygen to function when you use them more intensely.

In simpler words, while they are not the top option for this, steel workout mace exercises can engage, preserve, and potentially even strengthen your cardiovascular health.

This is a benefit because it reduces your risk of a variety of related conditions.

10. Macebells can improve muscle endurance

Not all muscle-related workouts are the same. The way you work these muscles also influences details like their ratio of different muscle fibers (1).

If you keep the weight in your macebell workouts relatively low and do a lot of repetitions, you will mainly focus on growing type 1 slow-twitch muscle fibers. Especially in your shoulder stabilization muscles.

This type of muscle fiber is good for generating force over longer amounts of time. For example, to keep your body upright during the day.

On the other hand, you have type 2 fast-twitch muscle fibers which are good for generating a lot of power in short bursts.

You could theoretically focus on growing these by using heavy macebells and only doing a few repetitions.

That being said, you can say that macebell workouts will mostly benefit your muscle endurance. This can be helpful for certain activities and sports.

11. There are many macebell movements to choose from

It is easy to find examples of exercise and sports equipment options that you can only use for one or a few movements and activities.

These can still be worth it in many cases but it is fair to say that a one-sided use is a downside.

On the flip side, you have steel workout maces that you can use for many exercises. And even in single exercises, you can often switch up the movement by doing it one-handed or two-handed.

It is worth noting that barbells and dumbbells are even better in this benefit. That being said, the variety you can get from macebells is still a positive point.

12. Macebells keep things interesting

Even if you only work out for the health benefits this offers, it can be worth paying some attention to making your workouts more fun.

This is because having more fun with your exercise sessions makes it easier to do them consistently. Consistency is important for seeing progress and health benefits.

Additionally, adding some enjoyment to activities you do regularly for nice amounts of time can just make your life better.

There are a few things you can do to make your workouts more fun and interesting.

Two of these include switching it up with unusual equipment options like macebells and doing different exercises than usual like for example steel workouts mace 360s.

13. Macebells are relatively compact

Something like a resistance band is definitely even better than macebells but you can still say that metal workout maces are at least somewhat compact in terms of width and height.

This is a benefit of macebells since it makes them easier to store and transport.

Something to note is that actually using the macebell still requires a good amount of room.

If working out outside is not an option, you will need a relatively big workout space too.

Additionally, steel workout maces still have a relatively high length. To put this into precise numbers, 10-pound macebells are often around 37.4 inches (95 centimeters).

In short, the dimensions of macebells can be good for compact living spaces with a lot of room to exercise outside.

You do likely want to double-check these dimensions to make sure the macebell you have in mind fits into your lifestyle conditions.

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Author:

Matt Claes founded Weight Loss Made Practical to help people get in shape and stay there after losing 37 pounds and learning the best of the best about weight loss, health, and longevity for over 4 years. Over these years he has become an expert in nutrition, exercise, and other physical health aspects.