# Excercises



## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

What are some good excersizes that you guys do for bow hunting? The reason I ask is I broke my shoulder a couple years back and have issues pulling back anything over 35-40 lbs comfortably since I lost a lot of muscle mass in the 3 months my arm was casted. I want to be able to pull back a bow with a 50 lb draw or more by next season if at all possible, so I figured I should start working out now. So could somebody tell me about a few things I could do to work on it?

Thanks!
Alex


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

Are you seeing a trainer? go to the gym? At home exercises?

If you go to the gym do lots of torso twists, Dumbell flys. Dumbell bench incline bench. Etc. The reason I am saying Dumbell is because you will work more of the small muscles that you will use pulling a bow back. Regular bench focuses more on the big muscle groups.

If you are at home push ups, dumbell rows. Probably the best thing you could do is get resistence bands and do a bow drawing motion. If you need a better explanation pm me. My sister is a personal trainer, and I looked up some of these in her rehab books.

Good luck Injuries suck.

Mike


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

Thanks a lot hunt4p&y. I'm just going to do stuff at home, I've got free weights and I might be able to get to the schools weight room once a week or so after school. By


> resistence bands and do a bow drawing motion


, do you mean just holding it out in front of me with my left arm and pulling the other end back with my right?


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## rednek (Dec 29, 2006)

hey alex that bow you made keep shoot with that, you will build arm strenght up quick. i went to were i could just pull back 45lbs and i shot that for awile and every time it got easy to pull it back i moved the poundage up.


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

That's what I was thinking would be a good one, but I didn't know if that could hurt my arm if I shoot too much.


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## rednek (Dec 29, 2006)

no, i was shootin 6-7 hours a day for a couple of months and i never hurt my arm it was sore but that was it


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

Yes, just use it like you are shooting a bow. I woulden't suggest shooting for 6 to 7 hours like Rednek said. I don't think I could shoot for more than 2 hours, and I shoot alot and do a lot of lifting. Even if it is only at 45 lbs, after a while your form gets bad and you will get lazy and then you are at a larger risk of getting hurt. Take it easy and try to do lots of body resistence workouts.


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## bretts (Feb 24, 2004)

Shooting for more than an hour isn't recommended. Of all the great shooters from the past and present they recommend shooting for about 20-30 minutes everyday. Form tends to get sloppy...move pins..get frustrated..start playing mind games and everything goes down hill. Stick to some basic shoulder excercises.


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## drjongy (Oct 13, 2003)

You will need the most work on your shoulder/scapular(shoulder blade) stabalizers and retractors...rhomboids in particular, not so much biceps. Do a lot of rowing type exercises, reverse flys are good as well. As someone mentioned above, get some resistance tubing and perform the motion you would when pulling back a bow...basically like doing a one-handed rowing exercise. This is going to be activity specific, and may be one of the best exercises you can do at home for your problem.


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

Amen Bretts. Anyone that can shoot for over 6 hours is an animal. Stick to the exercises and you will gain a ton of strength!


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## Tator (Dec 10, 2005)

I've actually been practicing lifting 12oz of your choice beverage from my lap, to my mouth. It seems to be helping my middle body, as I have gained some extra mass there. I'm assuming it will help with upper body as well.

If that doesn't help, switch to Schmidt, if that doesn't get your middle body ready for bowhunting, I don't know what can!!!

:beer:

sorry, that's my offseason routine, seems to work just fine for myself : )


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

Tator said:


> I've actually been practicing lifting 12oz of your choice beverage from my lap, to my mouth. It seems to be helping my middle body, as I have gained some extra mass there. I'm assuming it will help with upper body as well.
> 
> If that doesn't help, switch to Schmidt, if that doesn't get your middle body ready for bowhunting, I don't know what can!!!
> 
> ...


My dad's good at that one when the Vikings are on.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Do bent rows with a dumbell, use a chair or weight bench and support your body with your other arm to avoid any lower back problems.

You want your upper body to be nearly parrallel with the floor. Start light and do 3-4 sets of 10 -12 reps progressively moving up in weight each set.

Then rest at least two days before doing this again. Twice a week would be optimum.

Combine the rows with some push ups and you should be fine in a few months. When you do push ups just go down about 4-5 inches so you don't have alot of angulation in your elbows and shoulders it safer and more effective because you will be able to do lots more of them each set. Muscles only react to force of contraction and the volume of contractions, range of motion has no effect on strength. Rest a minimum of 3 minutes between each set.

Do your stretching for flexablity after the workout is complete and your muscles are nice and warm.

You should also try to do some light seated flys with dumbells for your deltoids, go very light at first and keep a slight bend in your elbows, rotate your hand like your pouring water out of a pitcher as you raise the weights and go only slightly over shoulder height. That will hit all three heads of your delts.

The rest periods are critical, do not shoot heavy bows or workout everyday with weights.

Warm up with slow movements and light weights when rehabing injuries.

I only shoot 25-30 arrows in a practice session 25 shots made with good concentration are more useful than a hundred arrows flung without concentration on form and follow through.


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

Woa, thanks Bob. That's a lot of good info. I'll start doing some of that stuff tonight before bed.


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## Starky (Mar 15, 2006)

Weasle, i seperated my left shoulder and dislocated my right so I know what you're going through. The best exercise is actually shooting a bow. You may have to start out at a low poundage and work your way up to a hunting weight. Stop when you get tired, not when it starts to hurt.


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## weasle414 (Dec 31, 2006)

I've been working a lot lately and I'm finally getting a hunting bow from my dad! It'll need to be set really low for now, but I'm going to practice with it a lot and do some carp shooting and by fall I'll be tree stand ready and I'll bag me a big'un! Thanks for the help guys!


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