Incorporating Mace and Club into my KB workouts

[allison18]

Hey folks,

I've been swinging KBs on and off for maybe 7 years. In the last year, I've all but abandoned olympic lifting in favour of doing only KBs.

I've been through a few programs (S&S a few times, DFW, etc) and have also just done semi-random complexes that I've made up.

Currently I'm doing the Wildman Nerd Math program and am really liking it.

I've added in some mace and club work after the KB work. I don't have a proper mace or club program. I'm just playing around, doing mostly 360s and 10-2s with the mace and various things like mills, reverse mills and shield casts with the club. I just play around for so many minutes, increasing the time-under-tension every week.

Instead of this random stuff, I would like a more planned out program that uses KBs, mace and clubs.

One idea that I saw Mark Wildman mention is to just get 3 distinct programs and interweave them.

Eg,

KB: "A"

Mace: "B"

Club: "C"

Two weeks of workouts would look like this:

M: A

Tu: B

W: C

Th: A

F: B

Sat: C

Sun: Rest

M: A

Tu: B

W: C

Th: A

F: B

Sat: C

Sun: Rest

Anyone have any better ideas or ways to work a mace and club in with KBs??

I'm also looking for suggestions on Mace and Club programs, but maybe I'm better off asking on r/steelmace and r/clubbells.

 

[alij]

@allison18 I use the steel mace as a warmup before any kind of kettlebell or steel club work. Usually swing it for 10 minutes or so.

At the moment my priority is BJJ training so I’m not as regimented in my strength training, but I’m also following a Wildman Nerd program in which I alternate days of KB work and then work on one of the 3 workouts that Mark provided on his “Introduction to Heavy Clubs” from strongandfit.com which consists of Circles, pendulum swings, shield casts, squats and mills.

I would absolutely recommend this program because it gave me some direction as to what and how to program steel clubs into my workouts. In the program, Mark describes how the program was designed to be a supplement of sorts to whatever kind of sport specific training you’re already doing, so I kind of plugged it into my current KB program and have had amazing results. I love working out with steel clubs and have made pretty amazing strength and grip gains through his program. I definitely feel the benefits of the rotational training in my BJJ.

 

[crazycat2005]

@allison18 I try to follow the 4-day a week Tetris training method for the kettlebells using the heavy/light methodology.

M: heavy swings, goblet squats (light), one-armed rows
T: TGU, c&p, snatch
W: Rest
Th: light swings, one-arm front squats (heavy), rows
F: TGU, c&p, snatch
Sat/Sun rest.

I started doing heavy club on wed/Sat but I’ll be honest, I don’t always make it. My club routine is usually IC/OC/PU/SC, with ten reps per side and I try to up the time each week. I haven’t made heavy clubs a priority though because my focus is on hitting my KB goals.

I don’t know if that helps at all but that’s how I try to do it.

 

[allison18]

@crazycat2005 That's sort've where I am.

My KB work is very consistent, and then I try to add in some club+mace, but I don't always do it.

I think with a more structured program and an actual mace+club program instead of the random stuff I do, I'll be more likely to do it.

My current program (derived from Wildman "Nerd Math") is:

M: Swing (light) C&P (heavy)

T: TGU (heavy) Squat (light)

W: snatch (light) + mobility work

Th: Swing (heavy) TGU (light)

Fr: Squat (heavy) C&P (light)

S: snatch (light) + mobility work

Su: rest

And I seem to somewhat randomly throw in mace / club work on any of those days if I have enough time and am feeling so inclined.

I want to design a program that incorporates them so that I'm doing them consistently and progressing.

 

[crazycat2005]

@allison18 I tried to add heavy club to my KB days but I’m pretty fried by the time I’m done. But because if my work schedule and just life things squeezing it in on Wed/Sat doesn’t always work.

 

[jar1437]

@allison18 Last summer, I was doing club / arc pretty consistently. But haven't been doing it nearly as much as I'm currently having more fun learning some double KB stuff. I'm also trying to do more LISS cardio.

What I was doing was essentially the the MW 2H Club order of operations workout (but I'd do what I could 1H as stated below).

Each of the following exercises for 4 sets. Where possible, all four directions (RH top inside/outside; LH top inside/outside)

1. Squats
2. Circles
3. Clean and press
4. Lunge
5. Mill
6. Swipe
7. Getup

Heavy days 30s on, 30s off. Light days 40s on, 20s off.

I'd do what I could 1H (circles, C&P, swipe).

For getups, I'd do something like this tactical getup (the one with the toy rifle).

I was doing this as my "C" workout with "A" being Swings and getups and "B" being C&P and squats.

Like a lot of MW's stuff (and something like DFW), it's nice because you know that this workout is 28 minutes so you can schedule it in. And if I was doing this in off days between DFW, I'd probably ditch the squats, C&P, and Lunges, so it would be significantly shorter.

I've been doing more double KB stuff now and this is more on the backburner.

Instead, I have my arc in my office at work. I've been kind of periodically doing 4 sets of 25 360s or circles with them (1 set of each of the 4 directions above).

What I think I want to do it do this more systematically as "exercise snacks" during the day. Maybe program them so that I do it 3 or 4 times per day at a given time. Or something like, each time I come back into my office, do the short workout above. Something to be doing it more consistently.

I'll also sometimes do 100 total 1H mills (25 each direction) in the evenings. But again, not really programmed, just for fun. Which is another way of saying "rarely".