Channeling Your Inner WarriorThe Steel Mace Practice
A slow, powerful practice for the strength you didn't know you still had.
What is a mace?
If you've never seen one, a fitness mace (also called a macebell) looks a little startling at first — a long steel handle with a weighted ball at one end. But don't let the name throw you. This isn't a weapon here; it's a training tool, and one that's been used in various forms for centuries.
What makes it different from a dumbbell or kettlebell is where the weight sits. Because the load is offset at the end of a long handle, your body has to work to control it — your core, shoulders, and back all engage just to keep the mace steady, even before you add any movement. That's the whole point. A 5-pound mace can challenge you more than a much heavier dumbbell, because you're not just lifting weight, you're managing leverage.
In this practice, you won't see any fast, uncontrolled movement. Your mace practice will be held with the same intention you already bring to your yoga mat — slow, controlled, breath-led — in this way the mace becomes another tool for building strength without losing that stillness.
About Me…
I'm not going to lie — I'm 56 now, and I have very few regrets in life. But somewhere along the way, my metabolism absolutely gave up. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about.
I'm a lifelong yogi, and over the last few years I've become a regular at the gym too — it doesn't exactly light me up, but it keeps me strong. My career has shifted along the way as well: I'm not just teaching yoga anymore, I'm helping women live fearlessly.
I picked up a steel mace just for fun — some part of me feels like an Icelandic Viking, and holding it made me feel strong, powerful, "empowered," in the truest sense of the word. I've built my career around. In that moment, I knew this practice needed a place on my mat, and more than that, I knew I needed to share it with all of you.
Why This Practice
Here's the truth about getting older: nobody warns you how much you have to fight for the same strength that used to come easy. Bone density starts to slip. Your back gets tired faster. Your shoulders forget what they're capable of. And most of the fitness world's answer to that is either intimidating — heavy weights, loud gyms, twenty-somethings who've never had a hot flash — or so gentle it doesn't actually ask anything of your body.
I built this practice because I wanted something in between. Something that would load your bones and build real strength in your core, back, shoulders, and arms — the exact places that need it most as we age — without asking you to abandon the slow, breath-led, intentional practice you already trust on your mat.
And then there's the part that surprised me: how much this practice would make me feel. Not just stronger in my body, but powerful. A little bit fearless. The same thing I've spent my career trying to give other women access to — I found more of it in my own hands, holding a steel mace.
That's what I want for you here. Strength that protects your body as it ages, and a practice that reminds you exactly how powerful you still are.
Who This Is For
This practice is for women who already know their way around a yoga mat — or want to — and who are ready for something that asks a little more of their bodies without asking them to leave that mindfulness behind.
It's for women in midlife and beyond who are watching bone density, strength, and stamina become things they have to actively protect, not things they can take for granted anymore. If you've started paying attention to what aging well actually requires, this was built for you.
You don't need mace experience. You don't need to be an athlete. You just need curiosity, and a willingness to feel a little powerful in a body you might've stopped expecting surprises from.
One more thing worth knowing: this isn't a bootcamp, and it isn't the fast, high-intensity mace training you might've seen online. It's slow, it's controlled, and your safety comes first, always.
Getting Started: Your First 4 Weeks
This isn't a practice you rush into, and I designed the on-ramp that way on purpose.
We start with light wooden sticks — no metal, no extra weight — just you learning how your body moves with a long-handled tool in your hands. This is where you build the patterns: how to hold it, how to move slowly and with control, how to keep your spine long instead of round, how to hug into your centre line for strength. Once those patterns are second nature, we move to the 5-pound macebells. Don't kid yourself — 5 pounds sounds like nothing, but because the weight sits at the end of the handle instead of close to your body, it feels like a lot more than 5 pounds the moment you pick it up. That's not a flaw, that's the whole design. It's why you can build real strength without needing to load up on heavy weight to feel it.
By the end of these four weeks, you won't just know the movements — you'll trust your body with them.
Join the Founding Five
This fall, I'm opening this practice to a small founding group before it goes any further — just 5 people.
You'll be the first to move through this practice, the first to shape how it grows, and the first to know what it feels like to hold a steel mace with the same intention you already bring to your mat.
Each 75-minute session includes breath work and relaxation, just as you'd expect from your yoga practice.
Spots are limited to 5. If this speaks to you, reach out.
Location: Washago Lions Club 4343 Hamilton St. Washago
Dates: Thursday evenings: Sept. 17, Oct. 1, 8, & 15th
Timing: 7:00 - 8:15 pm
Cost: $100 + HST for the full 4-week series.
Bring Your Girl Gang
Got a girl gang that's ready to channel their inner warriors together? You can book a private 4-week series in your own sacred space — the same practice, the same slow and powerful build, just with your favourite ladies. Groups are capped at 5 warriors. (Pricing may vary based on location.)
Reach out to book your own Steel Mace Practice series. mel@greenriverandco.ca