Archery exercise

[McDave]

I've developed a new (to me) archery exercise that I really like.  I don't claim to be the one who invented it, but at least I reinvented it out of my own head.  I've been doing it for about a month now, and look forward to doing it every day.

I find a bow that I can hold at full draw without undue strain or shakes for 20 seconds.  For me, this is a 25# bow.  I stand fairly close to the target and draw the bow to full draw.  I try to keep as perfect form as I am able while I am holding.  I use an app on my iPhone called Seconds Pro to beep at 20 second intervals.  I breath in through my nose and out through my mouth during the 20 second hold.  When it beeps, I complete the breath I am on, hold my breath, and aim the shot.  After about 2 seconds holding my breath and aiming, I release the arrow.  I take at least a 40 second rest between sets and repeat for 4 sets.  I do 4 sets on both right and left sides.

I can easily do this right handed, since this is the way I usually shoot.  I shake a little left handed, so I let this be the limiting factor, since one of my objectives is to balance my sides better.  Maybe when it becomes easy left handed I will increase the weight.  I think 4 sets is plenty.

The main reason I like doing this, and look forward to it every day, is what I learn about myself during the hold.  I won't go into specifics, because what I learned is different from what you will learn.  Just expand your awareness of whatever part of your body you feel needs it, and you will learn something that will improve your shooting.

You will benefit from this exercise in increased strength, control, awareness, and relaxation of muscles that shouldn't be tensed during the hold.  If you do it on both sides, your body will become better balanced.

This is a low stress and low impact exercise, and may be of benefit for rehab of injuries, although I have to leave that to professionals who understand rehab better than I do.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Thanks for sharing this. It sounds like a great way to improve ones shooting. Very interesting!

[McDave]

Thanks Dennis.  My dog likes this too.  She has discovered that the 40 second rest in between sets is a good time to get my attention.  If I try ignoring her, she will bump the back of my leg with her ball or frisbee until she taunts me into throwing it for her.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Hahaha. In a pavlovian response, your dog probably sees your bow exercise as the dad/dog playtime! Too funny

[dnurk]

Nice post.  I'm guessing it would also have a secondary impact of helping fight off any TP or tendency to rush the shot by reprogramming the mind's sequence.  I'll give this a try with my wife's target bow.

[BenBow]

Thanks McDave! I recently pulled the muscles on my shoulder blade and can't pull my bow without severe pain. I have one of the board bows I built for my granddaughter thats less than 10 lbs that I'm going to try this with.

[McDave]

Hi Galen,

You might want to try two more exercises to help with your rehab, which I do every day in addition to the exercise above.

Start by holding the bow in more or less the same position you would hold it at full draw, except your string hand isn't on the string and stays by your side.  Your bow arm is extended fully at 90 degrees to the side of your body, with the bow vertical and the string touching your forearm.  Bending at the elbow, and keeping the bow vertical, slowly rotate the bow through 180 degrees until your bow hand touches your chest, and then back out to the starting position.  Do 5 reps, then rest, and do three sets.  Then do another 3 sets holding the bow in your other hand.

For the second exercise, draw a light bow to full draw and hold for several seconds.  Keep your string hand at your anchor, and slowly let the bow down, using only your bow arm, bending at the elbow.  The bow should stay vertical during this process.  Still keeping your string hand at anchor, push the bow back out to the full draw position using only your bow arm.  Repeat 4-5 times, then rest.  Do three sets on each side if you can, but don't stress yourself.

Neither of these should hurt, although the second one will take some practice getting used to, even with a light bow, since you're using muscles you don't normally use when shooting the bow, which is really the purpose of these two exercises: to keep your body in balance.

Obviously, if you're doing these for rehab, you want to stop if they make the pain worse, and if you're working with a physical therapist, run them by him to see if he thinks they will help with your particular injury.

[BenBow]

Thanks McDave. I'll try but I couldn't even pull the 10-15 lb bow back. Should be able to do the one just holding the bow.  Been icing and applying heat to my shoulder blade but looks like I better not shoot for awhile or I'll do more damage. ;(

[BenBow]

I think I'll do your first exercise but without the bow. Go through the motions and visualize to keep my mental form. Thanks