# General Fitness Routines for Archery?



## markel71 (Aug 16, 2018)

Archery Strong has great programs focused on archery and shot specific exercises. They have a program for pain relief and injury prevention, a program for overall archery specific strengthening and an abbreviated program to prepare the hunter for deer season. Prices range from $49.99 for the injury prevention and strengthening programs to $24.99 for the Whitetail program. I did the archery specific program and it is an online based program with 3-4 exercises a day with videos and reps/sets detailed out. Program lasts 1 month, takes 15 minutes per day.

https://www.archery-strong.com/


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## sixteen26 (Oct 13, 2019)

I've noticed a significant difference in my archery after spending more time on pull ups, dips, push ups and db rows. Especially as I focus on keeping my shoulders down, similar to what you want from your front shoulder while shooting.


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## Poppabear62 (Aug 17, 2010)

Cam Hanes is constantly doing reps of 10 of multiple different exercises. Do you think that is the answer?? I really struggle at times holding steady


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## Wahooo03 (Oct 7, 2019)

I’m just getting into archery but kettlebells seem to be the ticket since they work your shoulders and back muscles so well. Swings and Turkish Getups should do the trick.


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## 3eepoint (Feb 24, 2013)

I can only speak from experience and not from anny coaching background, that being said, the following are my personal favorites for strength training in archery:

Overhead/miletary Press:

A favorite of mine in general as it combines a good amount of load you can put on and engages several stabilising muscles in the shoulders and back and also trains you to stay upright and rigid in your core under load.


Deadlift:

May seem out of place here, but archery depends a lot on the posterior chain of muscles and if you want to train them, there is no way around the deadlift to really get them to work.

Shoulder Barbell Flys:

Perfeckt for strengthening the Deltoids and the traps especially for keeping that shoulder stable

Classical Pushups:

I have got a saying with pushups, "the strength coes from the chest, form from the shoulders". A correct and mindfull made pushups lets one stabilize the shoulders, keeping them nicely in your back and engaging the scapula and develop a strong chest to keep it balanced*

Bend over rows:

Close to the deadlift, but the wider grip and different barpath target a different potion of the upper back and brings the raw strenght one sometimes needs there.

reverse Crunches:

Abs are as importent for a stable back as the backmuscles themselfs, so to train them effectively I recommend the so called inverse crunch. Targets all and needs a lot of stabilisation efford.

Pullups:

Not much to say here. An absolute classic and engages almost the whole back.

Kickbacks:

A good triceps exercise as it engages all three heads and also targets the connecting backmuscles between arm and shoulder.

General training advice:

As for weight, you should be able to bring out 3 more reps at the end of the last set. If you can do more, increase weight til you dont and work it up to 3 possible last reps again, then repeat. If you dont want to add weight, add reps an spread them over the sets. If you reach 15 reps per set, add another set and adjust the over all reps accordingly.

For how to split up sets, I tend to differentiate between compound-movement, semi-isolation and isolation exercise. Compound lifts, meaning movement that use a whole chain of muscles like the deadlift, profit from a lower rep range with heavy weight, 6x4 is a good start. Semi-isolation like pushups, which use a specific muscle but need a lot of stabilisation, are at home in the 9x3-4 range with lower or moderate weight. And isolation like the kickbacks profit from higher rep ranges like 12x3 with low weight.

Avoid training the same muscle groups for atleast 48 houers between workouts.

With what you do these, kettele, dumb or Barbells is mostly up to you. I would more often recommend barbell over dumbbell as it avoids inbalances in your barpath.

These are my favoites/guidelines and I have seldom trouble to hold my bow up and I have one heavy setup. One should keep in mind tho that no amount of strength training will fix bad form. A Problem of mine for example is that, when I have trouble holding my bow up, I am most likely not correctly lined up with the target and my bow arm is further in front of my body (chestwise) as nececcery, thus taxing my deltoid shoulder muscle til close to failure.

As always with such advice, proceed with caution! A wrong made deadlift can injure you badly!


I hope you can work with this and apologize for anny grammar mistakes, english is not my mother tongue.

*Please note that all these exercises are specific for archery but have to be combined in to a balanced workout!


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## lcaillo (Jan 5, 2014)

For archery, I would emphasize motion and control over strength building. The muscle involvement in the execution of a shot is very complex and the way to train strength and endurance for archery is with more well executed shots. Training around that needs to not facilitate compensation for poor form, but needs to emphasize control and stability to enhance the shot.


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## rojo grande (Dec 29, 2019)

I second archery strong, also follow them on instagram for daily tips, exercises and techniques to make you a better archer


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## Trojan Archery (Dec 29, 2019)

I really liked Jake Kaminski's recent book on training. It goes over a nice easy to follow archery workout program that you can do maybe 2-3 times a week that wouldn't over exhaust your body. I think its really important that you are able to get in your arrow count... so finding a balance between lifting and arrow count is really important


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