THE ORIGINAL. THE BEST. THE MACEBELL.

new to mabebells

I am a new member and new to macebell swining. I am 54 years old so I might be to old to get into this but I am going to try. I amde several home made macebells last summer and have started using them but have gotten away from it do to the weather in Illinois.

I do have some questions if anyone could answer.
1. I have issues with Arthritis do genetics and lifestyle. Is swining a macebell a good way to fight this awful disease. I know you are supposed to exercise and work your joints to not lose flexibility when you have arthritis and I thought mavebells might be a good way to do this.

2. I have had knee surgery on my left knee 3 times. The doctor told me I will need knee replacement some day. Is therer a danger of doing damage to the knees swining a macebell.

3. I am 6 feet tall and weigh 260 to 270 which is about 75 pounds to much. Is macebell swining used for weight loss programs at all?

4. This question is for Kevin. I have watched most if not all of your you tube videos. It seems to me that maybe you have lost some weight from the pictures on this sight. If you did what type of program did you follow?

I also have a 25 pound kettlebell and 2 15 pound clubbells.

Again thank you for letting me join!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linus Callahan on December 31, 2009 at 1:13pm: Welcome aboard, Neal!

You're never too old to start swinging - so long as you don't do too much, too soon. Build up slowly, allow time for proper rest, and make sure you're getting good nutrition and you should be fine.

1) Exercise is vital to arthritis care. Strengthening, endurance, and range of motion exercises are recommended, and luckily the macebell can provide all three. In my own experience, the macebell has ben a big help in rehabbing my shoulder - both for flexibility and strength.

2) For basic swings you will find that the involvement of the legs is largely isometric - that is, the muscles of the legs will flex as they stabilize you, but the joints don't move to a great degree. I doubt that 360s or 10 to 2s will harm your knees at all.

3) You can use the macebell for fat burning. Increasing the length of your sets, shortening the rest between sets, or using a timer protocol like this one will slim you down and build your cardio.

Keep swinging :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rik Brown on January 3, 2010 at 2:38pm: Hi Neal!,It sounds to me like you already have enough serious tools to formulate an effective training program to loose weight.Use your 25lb kettlebell to do 2 hand (and later,one hand) swings for sets lasting 1 min or longer.
Work on increase the set time as you gradually decrease the rest period.
Use your 15 lb clubs for similar timed sets of swipes and mills and bullwhips.(Big Kevin uses a 45lb club for this!)
Use your Mace for 360's and 10 to 2's and all the other cool moves on the Macebell dvd---get it!
Dont dwell on your limitations but rather your possibilities--I too am over 50,250 lbs, and also did the knee surgery thing and the Macebell is a serious addiction in my life,I love it and so will you!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Wint on January 4, 2010 at 7:52am: Hi Neal, I'm 55 and new here also. I did a double-take when I read your post. It sounded very similar to my own situation . . . even down to clubbells and kettlebells . . . I've got a couple of home-made 15 lb clubs and three KBs.

I would be extremely careful with joint problems. Yeah, exercise (be it walking, kettlebells, macebells) can all help strengthen joints . . . but they can also help injure them. It's a fine line. Even a kettlebell swing is putting massive strain on knees and ankles . . . so does macebell. It may be isometric for the muscles like the quads and hamstrings but the force you're generating with your upper body is transferring to the ground via your legs and joints.

Like Linus Callahan said - go slow. Experiment. Do a little work then back off for a day or two. See how it feels.

Remember too, that sometimes, damage is slow to build and show symptoms. You need to get your doctor involved in the discussion and you should consider using wraps at least initially.

One other issue with joints (and this is especially true with the ankle) is that we tend to compensate for joint pain by holding our feet and legs in different ways. Doing that can injure ligaments and tendons and cause postural imbalance and bad form leading to OTHER injuries.

LOL . . . I realize that sounds like all doom and gloom . . . not trying too. My point is that yes ballistics (clubs, kettlebells, macebells) are great for big guys (like me and you) but with bad ankles and knees we need to just watch things very, very carefully and go really slow.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Richard on January 6, 2010 at 3:56pm: Macebell workouts will help you shed pounds, guaranteed. In fact I have lost more weight than I ever wanted to or thought even possible.; ▶ Reply to This