Look, I'm 62 years old. I'm going to keep throwing that number out there every chance I get because I'm probably older than a lot of you reading this, and I want you to know – this stuff works. I'm the last of the Boomers and proud of it.
Today we're diving into one of the simplest exercises you can do with your club: marching. But don't let "simple" fool you. This movement is going to teach you balance and core stability in ways that beat the absolute hell out of lying on the floor doing endless sit-ups and getting rug burn on your back. We all know what that feels like, right?
Why You Need This in Your Life
Here's the thing – marching with your club is a phenomenal way to train your abs and core muscles without actually doing sit-ups and avoiding that nasty rug burn. You're standing up, you're moving, and you're building functional strength that translates to real life.
Balance is one of the most important things for aging people. And you young folks? You might not feel like you need to work on balance now, but trust me, it declines as you get older. Work on it now. Get it better than what it is today and progressively improve it as you age. If you maintain good health until your last day, and somebody just flicks off the switch like we're all hoping for, you'll have good balance until the end. Hopefully all the bad stuff won't happen to you.
The Four Positions
Let me break down the four positions for marching with your club. Each one builds on the last, so don't skip ahead if you're not ready.
Position 1: Dead Hang
The simplest one of all. Hold the club in a dead hang at your side and begin to march, bringing your knees up as high as you can.
Here's what you'll discover: when you change sides, one of your knees – or both – might not make it up as high as they did the first time. Or they might be going up higher. You might wonder why. That's actually showing you where your weaknesses are in your body and what you need to work on. Build that up by doing more marching and progressively making the weight heavier.
Position 2: Rack Position
The club is racked on your shoulder, similar to a kettlebell rack. Keep that elbow tucked in tight and the club level on your shoulder. That elbow needs to be married to your ribs, NOT flared out to the side like some kind of chicken wing. Work on getting the elbow down and in. Make sure your lat is engaged and pulling your shoulder downward. When you've got this compact, tight position, you want your lats pulling your shoulders down to keep them in pack.
Position 3: Order Position
Hold the club in the order position with your elbow married to your iliac{HIP}crest or your oblique – tight against your side. Forearm is parallel to the floor, club is perpendicular to the floor. You want a nice base there. March with that. Again, pull your shoulders down with your lats to keep your elbow tight on your side. Very, very important to pull down with the lat.
Position 4: Torch Press (Advanced)
Marching in the torch press: overhead, arm completely extended, shoulders pulled down into pack. You'll see in the video that once I clean the club up, I wiggle my shoulder into pack, pulling it down with my lats. I'm setting my lower back and making a stable foundation by pulling the shoulder down and driving upward at the same time. As I'm pulling down, I am pushing upward with the club.
This is for advanced people. If you're trying it with a lightweight club and a bent elbow, go ahead, but work on getting that elbow locked out and making sure your shoulders are in pack. You want that force of driving up and pulling down with the shoulder, driving up with the hand at the same time. Don't allow your shoulder to come up near your ear – that's very important. Keep it down and the arm upward, as open as possible in the elbow.
As you fatigue, you're going to slowly start coming in. When that starts to happen, stop before you drop the club on your head or your floor.
Why Are We Doing This?
Big question, right? Just throwing exercises into your repertoire and doing them once in a while isn't what I'm professing to you. Although it is good to try different exercises just to get a taste of them and see if you like them.
Here's a truth bomb: exercises you don't like to do are usually the ones you really need to work on. Why? Because you think you suck at them, or somebody else thinks you suck at them, and you feel weird doing them. Get good at the exercises you don't want to do because you probably aren't good at them. I'm not good at doing these – that's why I'm doing them and showing you.
We're doing this to work on balance. Balance is very important. We're also doing this to strengthen our core. This is one of the best core exercises you can do. Forget about all those knee-ups and sit-ups and Russian twists that hurt your back and wear the skin off your tailbone. Grab a club, start training with it, and get your core working the right way it's supposed to because everything you do with a club, you are standing for 99.9% of it.
Programming This Movement
How many times should you do this a week? At least once a week to test yourself. I would incorporate it two days. You don't have to do a lot of reps... three reps on each side. You can alternate them, which is a good thing to do.
If you can't alternate because you have a problem shifting from one foot to the other while marching, don't worry about it. Just use your right knee first, then your left knee. Switch the club to your other arm and do the same number of repetitions until you can alternate left and right while keeping your body stable. That's the main thing keeping your body stable as you're alternating your feet.
The Real-World Benefits
The reason we're doing this is side stability and having a strong core that's explosive and beneficial to either athleticism or everyday movements. You never know when you're going to be in a position where you have to react fast.
A lot of times people get hurt from moving quick. They grab a kid, a grandkid. They go to reach for something that's falling off a shelf. We've all knocked something off a counter and tried to catch it with our foot. Let's try to avoid those things and get faster at catching things with our hands so we have good balance and stability and can explode from different positions throughout life – whether you're sitting, standing, kneeling, bent over, whatever. You've got to grab something real quick? That's part of your core stability.
Work on this. This is important.
Also, you're going to be carrying things for your whole life. Car seats for kids, groceries, buckets, tool bags, luggage, a bag of charcoal, cases of water or beer. You're going to be picking these things up. Holding the weight and moving the legs with a stable core will help you do a lot of these normal life routines effortlessly – and you'll be able to do it longer.
Try It Out
I hope you try this out and work it into your programs. Let us know how you're doing with it. Let's see your progression.
Peace.
Donald Giafardino is the founder and owner of Adex Clubs & Maces, where he's dedicated to helping people build functional strength and longevity through rotational training methods.
Helped edited with the power of AI