The Real Issue With Fixed Weight Maces
When people shop for their first mace, they usually think the biggest difference is simple. Fixed weight or plate loadable. But what most lifters do not realize is that the difference is not just about how heavy a tool can go. It is also about how light it can go.
This matters more than people think.
With a fixed weight mace, you are locked into one weight forever. That is your warmup weight. That is your work weight. That is your heavy day and your light day. One option. No progression built into the tool.
A plate loadable mace changes everything because you can go lighter when you want to warm up and heavier when you want to train for strength, mobility, and torque. Minimum loading becomes just as important as maximum loading.
Why Light Fixed Weight Maces Get Outgrown Quickly
In this video, Nate shows an example from his own training - His 42 inch handle loaded with six fives and a two and a half sits right around forty pounds. Years ago, that was a heavy two handed swing for him. Now it is baseline.
He has not swung under thirty five pounds in a long time because his body has adapted. His strength, mobility, and timing have grown to the point where lighter loads simply do not challenge him anymore.
This is the problem with light fixed weight maces. If you buy a fifteen pound or twenty pound fixed mace, it might feel great at first. But as your timing and strength improve, that weight stops giving you a stretch in the backswing. It stops loading your pullover. It stops building meaningful strength.
It becomes something you simply swing around without progress.
Where Plate Loadable Maces Become Superior
With a plate loadable design, you get true flexibility.
You can make the mace light enough to warm up easily.
You can load it heavy enough to build strength.
You can progress over time without switching tools.
This is the exact benefit Nate talks about when he mentions warming up with a lighter club and then picking up his forty pound mace for work sets. The warmup weight matches the moment. The training weight matches the goal.
You cannot do that with one fixed weight.
A fixed weight mace forces you into two bad options.
Warm up with something too heavy... or never go heavy enough to actually build the strength and mobility you want.
A plate loadable mace eliminates that entire problem.
Training Evolves... Your Tool Should Too
Nate mentions in the video that he can walk in cold and hit a couple 10 to 2s, some 360s, and then move straight into single arm swings with a forty pound mace. That is not because he skips warming up. It is because he has spent so much time training under that load and heavier loads that it is now comfortable.
That is what progression looks like.
Your body adapts. Your mobility improves. Your coordination sharpens. And the weight that once intimidated you becomes something you can control with ease.
A fixed weight mace does not allow that progression. It locks you into whatever weight you purchased on day one. For many people who stay consistent with training, that weight eventually becomes too light to be useful or too heavy to be safe for a cold warmup.
A plate loadable mace moves with you as you get stronger.
The Real Problem With Light Fixed Weight Maces
Someone who is only training for competitive ten minute sets with very light weights may find value in a small fixed mace. But for most people who want long term shoulder strength, trunk stability, rotational power, and the ability to swing heavy weight with confidence, a light fixed mace becomes a roadblock.
Too light to build strength.
Too heavy to warm up safely.
Too limited to grow with you.
This is why we build plate loadable maces. They solve the entire progression issue. They give you a warmup option and a heavy training option in the same tool. They let you scale your training immediately and over time without ever being stuck.
When choosing a mace, do not focus only on the maximum weight. Look at the range. Look at how light you can go and how heavy you can go. Look at whether that tool will still matter six months or a year from now.
Your strength will go up.
Your technique will sharpen.
Your capacity will rise.
Choose a mace that grows with you!
If you want to explore the plate loadable maces and clubs we build here in the USA, you can find them at www.ckmaceworks.com.