What they excel at is really loosening up your shoulder capsule. When you swing Indian clubs, you move your arms through the entire range of motion that your shoulder is designed for. Furthermore, the centrifugal force that results from the swing applies “traction” to the shoulder joint – an outward pulling force. In certain positions, they also apply a beneficial torque to the tendons and ligaments in the joint that stretch them out. It is much more fun to swing these things around than to do the single plane of motion resistance band exercises that my PT therapist had me doing. I found those exercises rather drudgeful (I think I just made up another new word). What Indian clubs do not do very well, is build muscle.

By the way, the term Indian club refers to India, not native Americans. When the British were colonizing India in the 1800’s, they discovered the Indian practice of swinging heavy clubs, meels or jori, for strength training, a practice that came to India from Persia. The British brought this to the west, changing the shape, weight, and movement, to the form that was popularized as Indian club swinging.

The Steel Mace
Meels are large, heavy clubs made of wood. As I learned more about Indian clubs, I learned that there was a heavier version of the western clubs called steel clubs. Though they look like the standard Indian clubs, they are not generally referred to as such. Steel clubs can get quite heavy and are designed to build muscle. Many of them are designed to be swung with two hands, not just one.

Related to the meel, is the gada. A gada is typically made with a length of bamboo pole, on the end of which is a heavy weight of some sort. In the west, we would call that a mace. The European medieval mace was a favorite weapon of those that could not afford a sword. As a modern strength training tool, rather than as a weapon, a steel mace is also often called a macebell.

After working with the Indian clubs, I decided to get a steel mace. The interesting thing about a mace is that since the weight is out at the end of a 3-foot long handle, there is a lot of weight multiplication due to that long lever arm. This means that a relatively light mace feels heavier than you would expect. However, that felt weight is easily adjusted simply by moving your hands up or down on the shaft.

Mine is what is considered to be a good starting weight of 10 pounds. When I first picked it up and tried to hold it vertically from the end of the handle, it was quite difficult. I had to fight its tendency to try to topple off to the side.

In a short time, I was able to master one of the basic steel mace moves, the 360° swing. You begin with the mace held vertically in front of you, what some refer to as the “warrior position”. You begin by rotating the mace in front of you, which places the ball over one shoulder. Gravity takes over, causing the ball to drop. As it does, push the ball behind you, and lift your arms over your head. The ball will swing behind you. Control the momentum of the swing as you pull the mace around your opposite shoulder, decelerating the mace as you pull it back to the starting position. This does takes significant muscle work, but technique is used to harvest gravity and momentum to perform the swing effectively.

Unlike dumb bell exercises, where you are targeting a specific muscle with each exercise, swinging the mace engages your entire upper body strength chain. You don’t need to spend endless hours of repetitions targeting different specific muscle groups. After performing a fair number of swings, you can feel the burn in your forearms (you need to grip the pole tightly to control the swing), triceps, biceps, deltoids (shoulder muscles), trapezius muscles (upper back), pectorals (chest muscles), and your lats (mid to lower back).

Of course there are other exercises you can do with it; one-hand swings, shovel-type movements called “grave-diggers”, squats and lunges to engage your lower body; but the key point is that swinging a mace is far more fun than doing standard dumb bell exercises, and is at the same time more efficient since more of your musculature is involved.

So What is the Point?
If you’ve read this far, you may be asking yourself, “Why is this in my Sportsman Club newsletter?” What does this have to do with our regular shared interests? Plenty, I think.

First, I can think of a number of shoots that we hold, that require shooting a rifle from the offhand standing position. Holding a rifle out straight and steady to squeeze off a carefully controlled shot takes good upper body muscle tone. Standing precision pistol shots likewise take a firm steady grip with good trigger control.

But let’s leave the realm of club shoots and go out into our everyday world. This topic goes to some points that I touched on recently in a discussion about my decision to carry concealed on a more regular basis.

We all know that the very last thing that we ever want to do is to have to pull out our concealed carry handgun. That’s because if we have to pull it out, there have been multiple failures in our, and/or our adversary’s decision making process that brought us to this life-altering moment. The only reason to ever pull out your carry piece is because there is no other way to stay alive than to use it.

Our decisions should not take us to dangerous places, at dangerous times of the day. We should always decide to swallow our pride when confronted by irrationality to avoid conflict. I know, I’ve been there. That hurts our ego and haunts for a long time, but the alternative can be worse.

On the other hand, there have been multiple instances in my past where someone began verbally assaulting me, that were quickly diffused simply by standing up and facing the irate individual squarely, with no words spoken on my part.

One way that we can affect other people’s decision making process, helping them to decide not to do something stupid, is to “present” as a hard target. That’s why keeping yourself in top physical shape is important.

I don’t know whether it was my physical size (which is not that big), or a cold and icy stare and a confident bearing that immediately caused them to reassess their actions and calm down. In one instance, the guy pulled a door closed between us with his wife tugging on his arm, simply because I turned to squarely face this irrational screaming individual.

Today I am 65 years old. Every day there are more younger men than me, men in their physical prime years. Some of those young men are willing to act aggressively toward old men. The longer that I appear to be able to give more than they can take, the longer the hyenas will leave me alone and I won’t have to pull an “equalizer” out of my pants.

You don’t have to be an old man for hyenas to try to attack you. I would counsel any of my “bros” in the club to keep yourself as fit as you can. Keep active. Keep strong. Present yourself as a hard target, but do so without the attitude that invites a challenge.

At this age there is another factor that comes into play. It has a name, and that is sarcopenia, or age-related loss of muscle. WebMD describes it thusly:

From the time you are born to around the time you turn 30, your muscles grow larger and stronger. But at some point in your 30s, you start to lose muscle mass and function.

Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you’ll still have some muscle loss.

There’s no test or specific level of muscle mass that will diagnose sarcopenia. Any loss of muscle matters because it lessens strength and mobility.

Sarcopenia typically happens faster around age 75. But it may also speed up as early as 65 or as late as 80. It’s a factor in frailty and the likelihood of falls and fractures in older adults.

Symptoms can include weakness and loss of stamina, which can interfere with physical activity. Reduced activity further shrinks muscle mass.

Although sarcopenia is seen mostly in people who are inactive, the fact that it also occurs in people who stay physically active suggests there are other factors in its development. Researchers believe these include:

• Reduction in nerve cells responsible for sending signals from the brain to the muscles to start movement
• Lower concentrations of some hormones, including growth hormone and testosterone
• A decrease in the ability to turn protein into energy
• Not getting enough calories or protein each day to sustain muscle mass

The primary treatment for sarcopenia is exercise, specifically resistance training or strength training. These activities increase muscle strength and endurance using weights or resistance bands.

Resistance training can improve an older adult’s ability to convert protein to energy.

The proper number, intensity, and frequency of resistance exercise is important for getting the most benefit with the least risk of injury.