This is an area where our axe-wielding ancestors had us beat just by the lives they lead. These men lead hard lives full of manual labor just to survive…we on the other hand are for the most part soft unless we do something about it or happen to be lucky enough to have a job where manual labor is regular.
An obvious exercise is chopping wood
It can be a bit dangerous but has long been used by boxers, wrestlers and strongmen alike as a method for building strength and conditioning. Now these mountain brigands surely used their axes for more than fighting…there can be no doubt that all the time spent using an axe as a tool will only help you when it comes to making sure you are hitting on target with the correct edge alignment.
Kettlebell lifting
Not specifically Carpathian but still a very popular form of exercise in Eastern Europe of the past, kettlebell lifting can build muscle and work to reclaim and maintain range of motion in an athletes joints.
An Ancient Partnered exercise
A very grueling and interestingly fun exercise that is very axe oriented is a sort of stick wrestling done by both the Cossacks of the 16th century and the Soviet military of the 20th Century.
One of the excercizes that is easy to overlook is the squat. It is used in all the dances of the Carpathian mountains. Squats are useful to build up the legs for jumps, low strikes, or fallen weapon retrieval. Often the axe is swung under the leg to train in high kicks. A flurry of axe blows interspersed with kicks is an opposing force. One of the reasons these things are overlooked is they are hard. It’s hard to work legs as they get pretty sore. But, these are time tested ways to find the best warriors, as those very dances and squats were the methods of recruiting men by the military of Eastern Europe.