To me, as a Native Hawaiian, the Steel Mace is like training with a laʻau palau. According to 19th century Hawaiian historian David Malo the laʻau palau was three to six feet with a smooth head, rough head, or a stone head lashed to a heavy wood with a cord.
David Malo described ideal warriors of old: “Men should be constantly practiced in the arts of war; with the short spear, ʻihe; the long spear, pololu; the club, la‘au palau; the kuia, in the use of the sling (ka-ala); with boxing; and with the practice of temperance.”
The steel mace is not new. In fact, it’s part of lost history that has been revived due to the open-mindedness of steel mace practitioners sharing this unconventional training tool with those in the modern gym settings.
There are multiple benefits of training with the steel mace as I shared in an earlier article, here. Aside from the physical benefits, I look at it as a cultural benefit for myself which has made the steel mace part of my cultural practice as a Native Hawaiian descended from warriors.
In this article, you are going to learn 4 different ways you can workout using the steel mace. You can use these methods to add variety to your current training and develop a new physical practice with this effective tool.
STEEL MACE: METHOD ‘EKAHI
Traditional Strength
This works for those who have a goal to improve strength and build lean muscle. The method follows a traditional structure of strength training which follows a straight-set approach. This approach take each exercise done for a specific number of sets and reps with a rest period between each set before you move on to the next exercise.
For example:
- Barbarian Squats 4×8
- Half Kneeling Shoulder Press 4×8/arm
- Reverse Lunge w. Switch 4×8/leg
- Renegade Row 4×8/arm
- 360 Swing 3×10 ea. way
STEEL MACE: METHOD ‘ELUA
CIRCUIT TRAINING
If you are looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness and conditioning, circuit training with the steel mace is an effective tool. During circuit training, you perform one exercise after the other without any rest in between exercises until you complete a full round.
You can use the workout from above and make it into a circuit workout using a lighter steel mace weight than you would in the traditional method.
For example:
- Barbarian Squats x 8
- Half Kneeling Shoulder Press x 8/side
- Reverse Lunge w. Switch x 8/side
- Renegade Row x 8/side
- 360 Swing x 10 ea way
Perform 4 rounds with 2 minutes rest between rounds
STEEL MACE: METHOD ‘EKOLU
Alapiʻi (Ladder)
This is probably one of my favorite methods of working with the steel mace. The Alapiʻi method can be use to improve overall conditioning and build muscle.
To follow the Alapiʻi method, you take these 5 exercises and perform the prescribed starting reps. In this case, it is 8 reps for each exercise. The following subsequent rounds, you take away 1 rep each time until you work your way down to 1 rep.
The rest between rounds is dependent on the round and your fitness level with the main intention on proper execution of the movement.
STEEL MACE: METHOD ‘EHA
The Flow
The flow is when you take a single rep of each exercise and flow it together in one continuous movement with transitions to set up yourself for each movement.
Flows allow for the creativity of movement to be expressed. There are some who turn it into almost a dance form/kata like sequence. But it makes sense, because at some point you do feel like you are doing some sort of choreographed movement where you lose yourself.
Now If I were to take the 5 exercises in the example, it would flow something like this:
- 360 Swing
- Reverse Lunge
- Half Kneeling Shoulder Press
- Barbarian Squat
- Renegade Row
Perform that sequence all on one side, before popping up and doing the same sequence on the opposite side. You’ll notice how much your mind has to stay sharp to remember the sequence while also performing the exercises on a side you may find a couple of mental and physical blocks you may need to explore more.
