What Mace Should I Buy?

You may have seen me or one of your friends swinging around a big medieval looking weapon for exercise and thinking your first of many questions, “what in the world is that?”. That my curious reader is a steel mace and it’s my one stop shop for fitness and fun. Now you may have more questions such as:

What steel mace should I start with? 

By asking this question, you’ve already answered another important one: “Should I get a steel mace?” Beyond that, your next concerns are probably:

• What mace should I buy? 
• How heavy of a mace should I start with? 
• Do I need more than one mace? 

This is going to be my guide to starting out with a steel mace. For the visual learners out there, there will also be links to video explanations as well. 

Before we get started, it’s important to remember, like any other form of exercise, these recommendations will depend on you. Your exercise experience, age, weight, and mobility will all be factors to consider. So, remember as you’re reading to take into account where you are now, and where you want to be.

A steel mace is very different from the typical weights you see in a gym. Barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells are all evenly balanced tools. The steel mace is designed to have a majority of its weight on one end, in the globe. Many steel mace exercises also involve swinging the mace. This is going to make that weight feel even heavier because of the momentum that’s being added. The weight of the globe builds more speed the farther down the handle you hold.  For these reasons, no matter how experienced and strong you may be, don’t underestimate the weight of a mace. A 45 pound barbell is standard; a 45 pound steel mace is unusably heavy to most. 

There are two styles of steel mace exercise to consider when starting and choosing a weight. The two styles include flow and hard style.

Flow focuses more on the aesthetics of the movements. Typically this will be done with a lighter mace that’s more balanced between the globe and handle. With flow the focus becomes more about making the transitions seamless and moving from one movement to the next effortlessly. As you progress in flow your movements will become more complex.

Hard Style focuses on using more weight. In hard style as you progress, the weight of the mace will become heavier. These movements will be less complex because of the weight. This style will help build strength more quickly than flow. 

Now for the mace breakdown. 

The 10 pound mace

In general, my recommendation for 80% of people is to start with a 10 pound mace. The 10 pound mace is great because it works for both flow and hard style training. Flow is going to focus more on complex movements and transitions while hard style is going to focus on using heavier weights as you get stronger. 

The 10 pound mace is the number one weight for flow. The balance of the globe and handle give you enough weight to build momentum and it’s a light enough weight that you can use it for longer periods of time before getting tired. When I flow, I almost exclusively use a 10 pound mace. 

The 10 pound mace is great for beginners practicing hard style steel mace training because it’s light enough to perform movements safely while learning and also heavy enough to still feel like you’re lifting a weight. Although 10 pounds may not seem like a lot of weight, the length of the handle puts that weight farther away from you than you may be used to. Add in any kind of swinging movement and you have to account for the weight plus momentum. 

The Upside:

• Gold standard for flow weight.
• Bridges the gap for flow and hard style movement as a moderate weight for most.

The drawbacks: 

• For those who are brand new to the steel mace and exercise in general, a 10 pound mace may still be too heavy to start with flow. 
• For those who are not interested in learning flow and only want to focus on hard style heavy mace training, the 10 may be too light for advanced lifters.

The 7 pound mace

The 7 pound steel mace is my second most recommended mace. It’s great because, in addition to being slightly lighter than the 10 pound mace, it’s also shorter. Now you may be saying to yourself, “Is 3 pounds really that big of a difference?” Absolutely. Remember when I was talking about the momentum of the swinging exercise? The combination of the lighter mace and shorter handle makes those swinging movements much easier with the 7 pound mace. 

For flow the 7 pound mace is great for practice. The gold standard for flow is with a 10 pound mace and sometimes the movements can get pretty tricky. It’s times like those that I grab my 7 pound mace and practice the movements and transitions with the lighter mace before trying with the 10 pound mace. It’s also great for learning the momentum of the flows if you’re brand new. Using momentum is often thought of as “cheating” in normal gyms so it may be a new concept to learn. 

The Upside:

• *Great mace for learning 1 hand movements.
• Helpful for learning more challenging flows before using the 10 pound mace.

The drawbacks:

• If you’re not interested in learning flow, the 7 will most likely be too light for you to see benefits. 
• The shorter handle can make some movements feel cramped for tall people. 

15+ pound mace

If you want to focus on hard style steel mace you’ll be increasing the weight of your mace as you get stronger. Depending on your exercise experience you may be able to start with a 15 pound steel mace. Even if you’re going to the gym regularly and used to using heavier weights I recommend starting with no heavier than a 15 pound steel mace. Chances are you’re not swinging those weights at the gym around your head so learning the steel mace movements safely is important. 

After you learn how to swing the mace and understand its momentum more, you’ll be able to graduate to weights beyond 15 pounds. Always remember as you go up in weight with the steel mace, factor in the additional weight and that weight at speed when swinging. Because of that I recommend only increasing weight by 10 pounds at most. Typically, steel maces go up in increments of 5 pounds from 10. 

The Upside:

*Gain strength faster than with lighter maces.

*Becoming comfortable with the heavier weight will make the lighter maces feel easier to flow with. 

The drawbacks:

*Flow becomes more limited the heavier the mace becomes.

*Beginning exercisers may struggle with the momentum of the weight. 

Which mace for which scenario?

New to exercise: 7 and 10 pound steel mace

Use the 7 pound mace to learn the movements. Use the 10 pound mace as the goal to flow with and your hard style mace.

Experienced Athlete: 10 and 15/20 pound steel mace 

Flow with the 10 pound mace and lean the hard style movements. Use the heavier mace to do your hard style workouts with. 

Experienced only looking for hard style: 15 and 25 pound steel maces

Use the 15 to learn the movements and get used to the hard style workouts. Use the 25 as your goal weight to use for all workouts. Then continue working your way up in weight.

Expert Flow: 2 7 pound maces and 2 10 pound maces.

Having a 7 pound mace will help you learn the complex advanced movements. The 10 pound mace will be your main flow weight. Having 2 of each mace will allow you to flow with a mace in each hand.