30 Minute Total Body Macebell Workout

This macebell workout will take 30 minutes of your time (more if you add in mobility and a progressive warm-up)

The workout is divided into 6 x 5 minute sections.

Each round, you’ll be performing either a macebell 360 swing or macebell gravedigger in addition to one other exercise.

The “other” exercises are organized to be as non-competing as possible.

• Round 1: Upper body push
• Round 2: Squat
• Round 3: Horizontal Pull
• Round 4: Lunge
• Round 5: Deadlift
• Round 6: Core Strength and Anti-Rotation

In this workout, you’ll be getting up close and personal with two staple macebell exercises: 360 swings and gravediggers.

If you want to learn more about Macebell 360 Swings, check out this blog post here.

Here’s the rep scheme I went with for the Macebell exercises:

• 360 Swings x 10 per side
• Gravediggers x 5 per side

I didn’t want to have type out the reps for each round, it’d be redundant.

Reps can and probably should vary from person to person. This will depend on your familiarity with the exercise, macebells and current fitness level.

Also, I do use specific equipment in this workout. Suspension trainer, barbell and landmine trainer. You don’t need this exact equipmetn to participate. Leave a comment below and I can help with substitutions.

Round 1 – Macebell 360 Swings + Push Ups

Round 1 of this workout kicks things off with a bang: 360 swings and push-ups.

10 reps of push-ups.

Keep each burst of exercise brief, constantly alternating between exercises.

Push-ups, are undefeated for building upper body pushing strength and muscle mass.

Many people stop exploring push-ups at the basic 2-arm variations. Progressing into single arm push-ups builds pushing strength, core stability and total body tension.

Round 2 – Gravediggers + Alternating Pistol Squats

Round 2… fight!

Gravediggers are the gym version of exaggerated shoveling. You’re “scooping” the macebell from low to high, up and overhead. While shoveling dirt, you’d never do this, but the gym isn’t the back yard.

5 reps of pistol squats per side.

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A pair of 5lb dumbbells in each hand acted as counterweight. The tempo of each repetition was quick, yet controlled.

There’s a time and place for SUPER strict single leg squat practice, and this workout isn’t it.

Round 3 – Macebell 360 Swings + Inverted Rows

Round 3… back to macebell 360 swings for the second time, plus some pulling.

8-10 repetitions for inverted rows.

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Inverted Rows

Inverted rows are one of my favorite horizontal upper body pulling exercises. They’re resourceful, demand total body tension and can effectively balance out the pushing in one’s workouts.

Gravity creates the resistance. I stuck with bodyweight loading for this workout, but feel free to add or decrease weight to tailor the difficulty to you.

Round 4 – Gravedigger + Landmine Grapplers

Round 4… time to toss the barbell.

8 reps of landmine grapplers per side.

Landmine grapplers are a side to side, midline crossing exercise, and one of my favorite landmine exercises ever.

The landmine apparatus creates a whole new dimension of exercises and training options. I highly recommend looking into getting one if you’re curious. Great piece of equipment.

Round 5 – Macebell Swings + Deadlift

Round 5… deadlifts?

6 reps of traditional barbell deadlifts.

Yes, pre-fatigued, sub-maximal barbell deadlifts in round 5.

I’ll take the walk of shame. Shame…. shame… shame…

Know thyself, worry about thyself, not your neighbor. I know that I can handle 225lb barbell deadlifts x 6 reps handedly while under fatigue. Can you? If the answer is no, dial it back, use a kettlebell or consider an exercise like hip thrusts for this round.

Kettlebell deadlift variations are fantastic to groove hip hinging and learn how to lift dead weight from the floor.

* Note: Deadlifting under fatigue is not ideal, but will be something you’ll have to do at some point in your lifetime.

Beginners 👉 Learn and train your deadlifts while fresh. Seek guidance from a professional.

Round 6 – Gravedigger + Modified Dragon Flags + Pallof Press

Round 6… digging more graves and core training.

8 reps of modified dragon flags and 6 reps of Pallof Press.

Modified dragon flag:

I used my sexy new Ancore Trainer to add resistance to the Pallof Press. The Ancore Trainer is an amazingly versatile and genius piece of home gym equipment. It’s a functional trainer shrunk down into a portable unit weighing about 5lbs. Attach it to almost anything and start training. Game-changer.

Assuming you don’t have an Ancore Trainer, use resistance bands or a cable machine.

Pallof Press is an anti-rotation core exercise, and a good one. Press the hands out, avoid any rotational deviation. Bring the hands back in.

You thought I was going to skip core exercises? Not a chance.

Summary

30 minutes of movement using the macebell and a variety of other exercises.

Very little rest and lots of work being performed in a relatively short amount of time.

I did this workout on a Saturday, where I knew Sunday was a non-exercise rest day. The volume of macebell 360 swings and gravediggers fried my grip and arms. I actually felt this workout for a few days after.

Any of the exercises can be adjust/modified to suit your space, equipment and know-how.

Leave a question in the comments section and I’ll help you with ANY questions.

How to Workout in 30 Minutes or Less: The Movie Threat

Last night “dinner and a movie night” at our place.  After a long weekend, yes, a long weekend… I couldn’t wait to lay on the couch and mindless watch Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows.  It was a good flick.  I enjoy the modern-day film that is shot in the old day setting.  Know what I mean?

Prior to the dinner and movie, my girlfriend Amanda gave me the challenge of ripping out a movement training session in 30 minutes or less.  She knows that when I go downstairs to train, I typically procrastinate the workout by writing while I am down there.  There is something about being in our training area that puts me in a frame of mind to write.  I can’t say it’s a bad thing, but when I am on a time crunch, it usually delays whatever we have planned.

Amanda was nearly finished with dinner (fajitas, so good!) when I told her that I was heading down for a workout.  To her credit, that is a bullshit move on my part heading down with dinner so close to being done, but I am always confident that I can get a quality workout done in short time.  Especially if it’s going to be work capacity based.

“I bet you can’t finish a workout before 7:01pm”, she says.

I looked at the clock, it was 6:31pm.

“I will take that challenge”, I said.

“But there is one more thing I would like to add to this.  If you don’t finish the workout by 7:01pm, we are going to watch my movie, What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, she adds with a grin on her face.

I took the challenge and without thinking twice (still in my scrubs from the work day), I grabbed my computer and sprinted downstairs.  The computer is very necessary for an enjoyable workout I will have you know.  It’s provide me the advantage of being able to listen to whatever music I want, and with my premium subscription to Spotify, my playlists are rock solid.  No music, or worse yet slow music or bland tunes during a training session are brutally painful.

Here is an example of one of my Spotify playlists…

Fueled by a deep burning desire to not watch her awful chick flick, I quickly traded by scrubs for a workout shirt and short, filled the water bottle and got my Macklemore playlist going.  Macklemore is a stud.

Here he is in Breckenridge, CO at the Dew Tour… stud:

 

Once I made it to the basement, I made of list of quick priorities for the workout:

1)  Grease my t-spine and hips

2)  Jump Rope to increase my core temp and basically sweat (some skill practice here).

3)  Unloaded and sub-maximal loaded movements that would act as a primer to the demands of the workout itself.

4)  Kettlebell Complex (my staple metabolic workout)

5)  Any time leftover would be devoted to “anti-core training” of my choosing.

 

I got it done.

Crisis avoided.

It was a great reminder of what a person can accomplish in a ridiculously short amount of time.  I enjoyed competing against the clock.  I weeded out any unnecessary exercises and created priorities for the training session by asking myself, “With the time that I have, what are the most impactful activities that I should incorporate into this workout”.  It created a focus to what was most important.

Strategy with training is important, but people tend to over think their training sessions I find.

Keep it simple…

—> Choose movements you can manage, ideally:

• Squats, hip hinging lifts, presses, pulls, drags, carrying, “anti”core work, etc.
• Go total body to elicit a larger training effect.

—> Choose reps/sets or rounds to perform:

• 3-5 sets/rounds of 8-10 repetitions per movement.

—> Choose rest periods that make sense to both your goals and your conditioning level:

• Beginner: 60-90 sec 
• Novice:  45-60 sec
• Advanced: 45 sec or less

Basic strength based movements using sub-maximal loads at a rep/set or round type format,  organized with challenging rest periods between movements can do wonders for people.  

Forget complicated workouts.  Keep it simple and safe.  There will be plenty of reward from a well designed simple and safe workout.

Are there some pretty awesome exercises that aren’t basic?  Yes, absolutely.  But my point is that you can get one hell of a training effect, create some serious change and work your way to earning the right to integrate those higher level movements into your program.

—>  Warning:  Here comes an awful attempt at an analogy…

If you sign up for a marathon you start your race at the starting line, the 0 mile mark, and you run 26.2 miles to the finish line.  They don’t drop you off at the 24 mile mark and still call it a Marathon.  That’s my awful analogy for skipping over essential progressions in movement.

Now, not every training session is like this for me.  I spend a great deal of time working on the quality of my movement, making sure that I avoid nagging injuries like low back pain or shoulder issues.  I value my mobility, stability and bodily symmetry.  When things get jacked up and become restricted, unstable or asymmetric, the body starts compensating for those issues and injuries begin to surface.  A small amount of proactive interventions goes a long ways in preserving the integrity of one’s body.

—>  Eating isn’t the only thing but it is everything…

Plain and simple: my eating is on track.  I don’t feel the need to “kill” myself during each and every training session.  In fact, there is zero need for me to bury myself in each and every training session.  Eating the right foods makes training more enjoyable and vice versa because I do not feel the need deprive myself of “vice-like” foods or “fun training”.

If you looked at my diet, you’d notice a couple of things without digging too deep:

1)  I eat a lot of vegetables.

2)  I drink a lot of water.

Veggies keep me full while delivering vital nutrients and water keeps me hydrated.  Pure and simple.  The benefits of staying hydrated go well beyond what I care to touch on in this post… so I will refer out for that:

All About Dehydration

You’ll notice that the link says “dehydration”.  Dr. Berardi and his team at Precision Nutrition are the best (in my opinion), so I jumped on that article.  At the very least you’ll get an idea of why you should avoid entering a dehydration-like state.  There’s a fair bit of science in the article for those of you that enjoy that sort of thing.

So, what did we learn from my movie threat experience?…

—> Anyone can get a workout done in about 30 minutes or less and feel damn good about what they accomplished<—

… and What to Expect When You’re Expecting is worth avoiding. 🙂

 

Cheers to less being more!

 

 

KG