# Stengthening your bow draw



## Gurkha (Oct 17, 2013)

After having returned to bow hunting after a 20 year lapse (and too many hours sitting on my gluteus maximus in front of a computer!) I have returned from the dark side! In preparation for shooting my new bow, I wanted to build up the right muscle groups and found this very good article: 

http://huntdoctors.com/cgi-bin/site.cgi?request=articles_025

I have been able to crank up my draw weight from 60 to 70# after doing these exercises for only one month!


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

archery is a game of skill not strength:juggle: you can kill anything in N -America with a 60 lb bow..... ive only found one exercise that comes close to shooting a bow, and thats a row boat.... but most will tell you the only thing is to shoot the bow while you engage all the right muscles......but some exercise is better than none .but you have got to watch it in the cold weather. thats when most find out........ maybe other coaches will chime in on this


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## montigre (Oct 13, 2008)

True, the lat row works the majority of the "archery" back muscles to some degree, but it does not take the place of engaging the correct muscles under load by actually shooting the bow. There is also no viable means of strengthening those small muscles and tendons that support the shoulder without actually shooting. 

Sooo, focus on shootig with good form, good technique, and not shooting too much weight and the strength will come.


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Mike & Gail are right about technique being more important than strength. But there is absolutely nothing wrong about building up your shoulders and other muscles, especially the rotator cuff.
Allen


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