The Cave

We’ve had the Vintage Strength games since 2019, but this year’s games will be the best yet.

The events will include Strongman and mace/club events.

Athletes will have to be brutally strong and well-conditioned to handle this type of competition.

I love this stuff!

Get all the details at Woodall’s Vintage Strength Games​

In this crazy world, weakness makes you an easy target.

Don’t be weak.

You never know what you might have happen on any given day.

You might have to defend yourself or family or maybe carry an injured person out of a burning building.

It pays to be strong all over at like Ed Coan says.

So grab your gear and your training in today.

Get strong and stay strong,

Coach D

Just about all heavy lifts are done with two hands.

No doubt bilateral work can get you strong.

But what if your dominant side compensates for your weaker side?

Maybe there’s a muscle imbalance lurking in the shadows.

Unilateral exercises could probably help fix that.

Dumbbells, kettlebells, maces, & clubs are great for that.

Snatches, presses, and swings are a few of the things that can be done with these implements.

There are many more unilateral exercises that can also be done.

Take a plank for instance.

A one-armed plank is much tougher than using two hands.

The same thing goes for pullups, squats, and deadlifts.

One of the excruciating exercises we do in Mace Fit is the Russian plank fly.

Basically its a unilateral plank but with a steel club in the other hand.

The club is slowly pressed parallel to the ground then to full extension, then it’s

brought slowly around in a wide arc back to its starting position.

This one really shows which side needs more work.

So throw in some unilateral work this week.

You won’t regret it.

Coach D

I hope you had a great Christmas.

Now New Years is coming up fast.

Many people will be making resolutions for 2023, most of which will probably fizzle out in a couple of weeks.

They will do basically nothing.

Others will opt for an extreme, even drastic plan to get in shape.

It’s kind of a lifestyle revolution.

They will do crazy fad diets and overdo it on exercise.

Neither the resolution or the revolution are any good.

All the weightloss and fitness hype will be in full swing and a lot of peope, will get suckered by it.

What people really need is discipline and a legit coach with a solid training strategy.

Discipline is superior to motivation because motivation fades after a while.

Discipline is a lifelong habit.

Good coaches are out there if people have the sense to seek them out.

Coach D

cavestrongnation@gmail.com

Real quick, I wanted to share a recent podcast I was on.

We covered quite a bit of territory on this one.

One thing was the growing interest in mace & club training in the Strongman and martial arts communities.

Check out the podcast here

Hope you like it,

Coach D

In this crazy world we live in very few things are reliable or predictable.

Politicians often lie. News stations always have their spin (agenda) when it comes to news.

Facts get lost in the blur.

Thank God that iron and steel are reliable.

Henry Rollins made that point several years ago.

When you pull a PR deadlift you know how much the weight had increased. There’s no guessing.

Iron and steel don’t have any agenda.

They just sit there until you make them move.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a heavy mace or a 100lb plate.

It is what is.

It never changes.

If you want to read something reliable look at your training journal.

As long as you haven’t lied to yourself you will get accurate information every time.

This is how we improve.

Hype and nonsense help no one get better at anything.

Stick to the basics and rule the day!

Coach D

Today I’m double-checking what we need to run our booth at this epic event.

This is our 4th year as a sponsor and I am chomping at the bit to get up there in that high-adrenaline atmosphere.

Watching Strongman on TV or online is great but it doesn’t compare to being there in person.

You can get all the details on events, weigh-ins, sponsors, tickets, etc.at Iron Podium​

If you are in the central Florida area get on over there this Saturday!

Stop by the Mace Fit booth for some hands-on steel mace & club exercises and to enter our drawings.

You can also get your “look like a Viking” photo taken holding a steel mace or club.

Grab a copy of our new interactive training manual while they are on sale too.

The $15 discount is only available at the Tampa Bay Strongman Classic on Nov. 5, 2022

Retails is $39.00

Sale price is $24

While supply lasts

• Step-by-step instructions and photos
• QR code links to exercise demos

I love to study strength training of all sorts.,

Yes, I do especially like Strongman training,

but Powerlifting is right up there too.

Zach Even-Esh says, “You can’t fake strong.”

Several years ago I learned about a monster of a man named Chuck Ahrens from one of Josh Bryant’s books.

Legend has it that his shoulders were so huge and the dumbbells he used were so big that he had to press them out at an angle

instead of straight up .

That change of angle makes a press much more difficult.

I first learned this with dumbbells and later adapted it for steel clubs.

We just call it the Ahrens Press in our Mace Fit classes.

It is frequently used in our training, in fact we used it this morning.

The way we do it is to press about 45 degrees out from vertical,

your arms form a “V” at lockout.

Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Out for now,

Coach D

I was recently on a Zoom call with our Mace Fit coaches and I shared something I don’t usually talk about with people outside of my family.

It was well received and I was encouraged to share it publicly.

So here we go.

On June 5, 2018 I was in an ambulance heading for the Emergency Room & Cardiac Unit.

My heartbeat was crazy,my pulse way very high, and it wouldn’t come down.

They ran me through a battery of heart tests and several cardiologists were callled in.

No one could figure out what had happened.

They shot me with some kind of drug that dropped my heart rate extremely low.

I was hooked up to a several types of monitors.

They wheeled into a room and told me to try to get some sleep.

I guess they thought I couldn’t see the monitors, but I could.

My heart rate was dropping.

When my heart rate reached a dangerously low level an alarm would go off.

I knew I might go to be with the Lord that night, knowing this could be the end.

I prayed to God that if He wanted to take from this life I was ready, but I asked Him not to make my precious wife a widow.

My prayer was answered.

Come to find out I had a genetic heart problem that had not been previously diagnosed.

The cardiologists said with my clean lifestyle, plenty of exercise, healthy eating, and good sleep habits that this never sould have happened.

Now I found out I also had major blood pressure problems.

The readings would shoot up to around 200/100 which could bring on a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage.

For the next three weeks or so these episodes kicked in repeatedly.

My wonderful wife was there by my side through it all.

I knew I could still die at any moment. Needless to say I prayed a lot!

When I went home I had updated my will right away.

The doctors said they wanted me to exercise, and at first that was only doing short walks in shaded areas.

I did end up in the ER again on Dec. 21, 2018 with the same problems, but not as severe as the first time.

Many things changed for me.

I had lost almost all my strength, but I knew the Lord was with me.

Gradually I was able to do a few reps of bodyweight squats, some light work with bands, and some Mace Fit.

The things I did to get strong with barbells now were out of the question.

No more holding my breath to create intra-abdominal pressure

No more 1 RM lifts

More extended time under tension

No more explosive lifts

Any of these could put me back in the ER or the morgue.

The absolute best type of training I could safely do was Mace Fit.

Here I could get my cardio and build strength safely.

The breathing was rhythmic in the exercises.

This has been my main type of training ever since. The cool thing is I can still do pullups,

dips, and can do some light deadlifts with out the old breathing technique.

Yes, I am entirely sold on Mace Fit.

I know how it helped me come back to a healthy life again.

God has been so good to me!

Unless you have been at the point of death, knowing the end could be in a matter of hours, minutes , or even seconds

this email might not be something you can relate to.

I hope you never have to find out firsthand.

Coach D