This week I present another steel mace workout patterned similarly to the MV Workout I posted a couple of weeks ago. Just like last time the exercises come from Aubrey Marcus and Coach Vaughn. All of the movements are demonstrated between both presenters’ videos. Instead of finishing with a chest press I decided to change it up and finish with the overhead press.

Also, like last time, the structure of the workout follows Marcus’ “Ultimate Steel Mace Workout” or as he calls it, “The Warrior Maker.”

Two things differentiates this workout from the MV Workout. The first and most important is that MV-2 is designed to be done where you have a low ceiling. My basement ceiling and pipework is too low to safely do Standing 360’s and Barbarian Squats and sometimes (like yesterday) I don’t want to open up the basement and go outside because it is raining.

Secondly, the MV-2 doesn’t focus very much on the legs. With the MV workout you have the squats and you also get some lunging action with the Twisted Sword Draw. There is a little glute activation in the MV-2, especially with the deadlifts, but I do find this workout suitable for days when my legs are sore, which often happens especially after doing the Wyatt.

MV-2 Steel Mace Workout

This time I provided links to each exercise, which takes you to the point in the video where Marcus or Vaughn begins their presentation of the movement in question.

Do one set of 20 reps of each of the following exercises with no rest between exercises. Then, again with no rest, do another set. With the second set switch hands or your grip and do the movements in the opposite direction where appropriate.*

• TWO SETS OF:
  • Kneeling 360’s
  • Swing & Catch
  • Grave Diggers
  • Dynamic Curls
  • Jousts
  • Deadlift to Bent Over Row
• After the final set perform 20 Overhead Presses from a shoulder-width stance. Flip the mace around to change your grip and do another 20 reps. You’re done!

What I wrote before in the MV Workout holds here as well. You can change the rest, reps, number of sets or the size mace you use to make the workout easier or harder, or align the workout more with your goals.

* A variation is to do one set but do 20 reps of the exercise one way and then 20 reps the other way (or switching hands were appropriate) before proceeding to the next exercise. Each set done this way counts as two sets done in the usual manner.

I’ve been enjoying playing with my 5 pound thrift store steel mace and learning new exercises with it. After a few weeks of this I thought it was time to start doing a workout with it. I call it the MV Workout because it is a workout presented by Aubrey Marcus where I tacked on the 360’s and Rebel Presses from Coach Vaughn. All of the movements are demonstrated between both presenters’ videos.*

MV Steel Mace Workout

Do one set of 20 reps of each of the following exercises with no rest between exercises. Then, again with no rest, do another set. With the second set switch hands or your grip and do the movements in the opposite direction where appropriate.**

• TWO SETS OF:
  • 360’s
  • Barbarian Squats
  • Grave Diggers
  • Joust
  • Twisted Sword Draw
  • Rebel Press
• After the final set perform 20 Chest Presses from a Horse Stance, flip the mace around to change your grip and do another 20 reps. You’re done!

If you want to make this workout easier, you can do just one set, do less repetitions or introduce rest where needed. Conversely, if you want to make it more involved, you can do more sets, more repetitions, or even do this as a Tabata, where you perform each exercise for twenty second rounds with ten seconds of rest between rounds. After eight rounds move onto the next exercise.

The workout as presented is focused more on endurance — performing work with little to no rest using resistance that allows you train for a goodly amount of time. One could just as easily use a much heavier mace and possibly drop the repetitions (say to 10) and rest as needed between exercises. I’m going for the endurance end of things for the moment with my mace because I only have the one mace and also because I already get in an adequate amount of heavier training.

I have noticed, and Marcus points this out in his video, that for some of the exercises you can make them easier by choking up on the mace or harder by gripping lower on the handle. For example, I found the Grave Diggers very easy with my 5 pound mace but when I gripped way down on the handle I immediately felt the movement a bit more in my forearms and hands. I imagine this would be magnified if one were using a heavier mace.

* All of the movements used in this workout are contained in Aubrey Marcus’ “Ultimate Steel Mace Workout” and Coach Vaughn’s, “Beginner Steel Mace Workout.”

** I like the names for many of the exercises. I find the whole “warrior” thing neat and names like “Grave Digger” and “Rebel Press” brings on delusions of grandeur which are always welcome. Where I think perhaps it goes a bit too far is when I am reading through comments of mace videos and people start debating the merits of using the steel mace and their concomitant training for home defense and the like, though perhaps if one’s domicile were besieged by hordes of Franks or rampaging Janissaries then they might have a point. One could at least give as good as they got!