What Clubs and Maces Train That Dumbbells Don't

Clubs and maces are leveraged weights. Where you grip the weight is not where the weight is, and that one fact changes everything about how they train you. They load the transverse plane, the rotational plane that barbells and dumbbells mostly ignore. They train traction, the pulling on your joints that is the opposite of contraction. And because every swing is a pattern, they train your nervous system to generate power the way athletes actually generate it: by rotating.

Why does a 20-pound club feel heavier than 20 pounds?

Because of where the weight sits.

Pick up a 20-pound club for the first time and it feels way heavier than 20 pounds. The force it puts on you is more than the actual weight, because the mass is out at the end of a lever and you're holding the other end.

Think about closing a door. Push near the handle and it swings easily. Push near the hinge and the same door suddenly fights you. A club puts your hand at the hinge. Same weight, very different job.

What is the transverse plane, and why does it matter?

It's the rotational plane, and it's the key plane a club or mace trains that barbells and dumbbells don't.

Think about any athletic endeavor. Most of the power comes from rotating the core, not from moving one-dimensionally up, down, forward or back the way bodybuilding training does. Swinging a golf club. Swinging a baseball bat. Throwing a football. Kicking a soccer ball. Every one of those is a rotation, and every one of them can be trained through the rotational work of clubs and maces.

That also means you're training movement patterns as well as muscles. Your brain and nervous system adapt to use efficient mechanics for generating power. The club mill is literally the throwing pattern with a weight on it.

What is traction?

The pulling on your joints. It's the opposite of contraction, which is what nearly all gym training is built around.

Traction strengthens the soft tissues and joints to resist forces, and it does it in a way barbells and dumbbells can't replicate. A barbell does pull on you, in a deadlift for example, but that traction runs in one direction. When you swing a club, the traction goes through infinite ranges of motion as your wrist torques and turns. The load keeps changing angle, and your tissue has to answer it from every one of those angles.

What are barbells and dumbbells better at?

Raw strength in one plane, and size.

If your goal is to load as much weight as you can on a bar and see big numbers, barbells are obviously the way to go. A 50-pound club would be nigh impossible for most people to pick up and swing. 50 pounds on a barbell is babyweight. That's the same leverage principle from the door, working against you this time.

For the same reason, barbells and dumbbells are better for hypertrophy. You can load more weight in a one-dimensional fashion and isolate muscle groups. If all you care about is the size of your bicep, bodybuilding is the way to go. Barbells and dumbbells were made for it.

Where people go wrong is assuming that makes them great for athletics. They are, to a certain extent. But too much muscle inhibits athleticism, and contraction will dry up the fascial lines in the body and make you more prone to injury. Look at the injury rates of professional players in basketball and other sports: Achilles tears, MCL and LCL tears. Western modern sports science has not yet studied the importance of the fascia and how it keeps the integrity of the body in place.

The fascia can be trained through the traction of maces and clubs. That's why mace swinging and club swinging have ancient histories. The ancients needed strength for functional things like wrestling, and that's why they focused on this type of training.

What humbles a barbell lifter in the first month?

How heavy a "light" club feels.

They won't be used to a leveraged weight, and they'll feel their body resisting swinging the club in a relaxed fashion. They'll still be holding on with muscle. On an inside circle, for example, the club pulls on the elbow. Most people who aren't used to traction will keep some tension near the elbow joint to take the load, because the fascia there is too tight and they can feel instinctively that if they go too hard, it will tear.

An experienced clubber can fully relax the joint and let the elasticity of the fascia take the load. That's how the fascia gets trained by leveraged weights, and it's what gives you that athletic bounce, the same one that takes years to develop in the rest position on a mace.

Who should be careful?

Anyone who has never done any athletic endeavor in their life. But that's true of any weightlifting, clubs included.

If that's you, start with calisthenics or Indian clubs first and build up to loaded swinging from there.

Replace or supplement?

I don't use barbells anymore. I spent a large portion of my life putting in the work with heavy weights.

One thing barbells and really heavy weights can do, and it's best done when you're younger, is build up the myonuclei in your muscle fibers. That's what muscle memory actually is. When your muscles lose size, the number of myonuclei in those fibers stays the same.

Nowadays I mainly train with clubs, maces, calisthenics and running. I'm not chasing size or a powerlifting total anymore. I only do things that improve my quality of life and my ability to stay moving into older age.

So the honest answer is that it depends on the phase you're in. Heavy iron has a season. Leveraged weights are for the long run.

Doing the arithmetic

Clubs and maces run on the same honest math as everything else: a timed climb for two-hand work, sets and reps for single-arm, one increment at a time. The system is free to run with a notebook and a timer. Perside just never forgets and never rounds in your favor.

Where to start

One two-hand club, 10 to 15 pounds. Two-hand inside and outside circles, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, 5 sets. That's 5 minutes, and it'll feel heavier than the number on the club says it should. The circles guide covers everything after week one.

If you'd rather start with a mace, the mace 360 progression is the entry point there. And if you've never trained athletically at all, start with calisthenics or Indian clubs and come back.

Perside programs volume, density, and timed cycles for clubs, maces, and kettlebells. See the full progression at The Path, or size your first club at getperside.com/learn/start.