Could swinging the mace actually help reduce anxiety and depression? In no way am I recommending you use mace swinging as a replacement for actual therapy. Mental health is an important and personal journey and should always be handled by professionals. Perhaps, the act of swinging a mace could reduce stress both through the act of physical exercise as well as through a type of tactile Bilateral Stimulation (BLS). BLS is a technique used by therapists to help individuals cope with anxiety, depression and PTSD known as EDMR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) and in a very basic way be a possible effect of using the mace. The technique involves using light, sound and tactile stimulus to distract from the anxiety producing trauma through habituation. The individual focuses on a traumatic memory, then is presented with atone, light or tactile sensation, alternating from one side of the body to another crossing the body’s midline. The stimulation causes attention of the individual to be distracted from the intensity of the memory. This allows the brain to process the memory of the trauma in a non-threatening environment allowing a re-remembering of the memory through a process of non-associative learning. This changes the way the memory is stored in the brain. After Bilateral Stimulation treatment, there is a feeling of relaxation and the problem seems distant or less severe.

Perhaps swinging the mace would fit into the tactile stimulation category since a majority of swinging involves bringing the head of the mace from one side of the body to the other. The act of sliding the handle side hand to the globe before switching control from one side of the body to the other could in effect create an alternating and distinct tactile stimulation through the palms. In a sense creating a situation where one hemisphere of the brain relinquishes control and allows the other to assume control. This is most often seen when doing the 300 or 10 & 2. While swinging and focusing our attention on the globe as it passes from one side of the body to the other, could that be considered a form of visual stimulation? In some cases the handles of the steel maces are hollow. Filling the handle with beans or marbles could create an auditory stimulation effect.

Another possible effect of swinging the mace could be stimulating the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is a large part of the brain that allows both hemispheres to communicate and function as one unit. The more the brain functions as a unit the better one can increase creativity, timing a general awareness both physically and emotionally. Exercises that cross the body’s midline can effectively stimulate the corpus callosum. There is evidence that suggests that the corpus callosum is important for cognition and that it’s ability decreases as we age. Since a majority of mace exercises cross the midline it leads me to believe that using the mace in your exercise regimen may help stave off a decline in the corpus callosum’s ability to affect cognitive processing. Exercise’s like the 360, 300 or any exercise with a switch (i.e. squats, curls, lunges) fit the description of beneficial exercises.

Although I could not find any specific studies demonstrating any effects on mace swinging and depression and anxiety reduction or the positive effects on the corpus callosum it seems like there may be some truth to the effects of mace swinging beyond the overall physical benefits of asymmetrically loaded implement training.