According to Wikipedia:
“The gada (Sanskrit: गदा gadā, Malay: gedak) is a blunt mace or club from India. Made either of wood or metal, it consists essentially of a spherical head mounted on a shaft, with a spike on the top. Outside India, the gada was also adopted in Southeast Asia, where it is still used in silat.”
Of course you wouldn’t be training with the actual weapon but a modified version of it that won’t scare people away at the gym!
So why would someone want to train with an ancient weapon?
There are four good reasons!
- Rotational Power – the mace is one of the most effective ways to build core and rotational strength
- Muscular Endurance – when incorporated correctly into a workout program it can greatly increase muscular endurance, especially the shoulder and core muscles.
- Real World Strength – the real world doesn’t have items like dumbbells or barbells evenly distributing weight. The mace has an extremely disproportionate weight displacement making many normal movements quite challenging.
- You look like a badass training with an ancient warrior weapon!
Here’s a workout I performed using the mace as the centerpice of my push WOD (chest/shoulders/triceps) with some leg and core work;
4 Rounds
Incline Barbell Chest Press: 10, 8, 5 ,5x
Barbarian Squats: 15x
3 Rounds
TRX Suspension Dips: 12,10,10x
Twisted Sword Lunges: 10x
Mace Thrust Squats: 10x
3 Rounds
Archer Pushups: 12,10,9x
Conan 10-2 Rotations: 5 one way 5 the other opposite direction
3 Rounds
Mace Shoulder Toss: 8 each side
Mace Overhead Tricep Extension: 12x
Mace Twists (Russian Twist with Mace)
So where would you be able to buy a mace? That’s easy I use Onnit.com! They’re the experts in Mace equipment and training!
