I had my bow tuned at 70lbs draw weight and noticed that i was making noise when the string hit the let-off point. I have serious buck fever and I refuse to miss an opportunity at a buck because of my inability to stay quiet. I don't want to reduce the draw weight as it's comfortable for me. I think that through a little weight training, I can strengthen my core to help stabilize the shot and reduce noise. I've been reading articles about weight training routines but I wanted to get some input from fellow hunters . I've seen several devices that can be used for this sort of training but I want to eliminate the extra cost of weight training equipment and focus on what I can do with for free, with my community gym. Does anyone else have a routine for strengthening their draw arm? Also, I am trying to do alot of excersizes for this years season, like 2 minute drills, etc. Does anyone have a list of drills they practice? From now until the rut, how often should I be shooting? I was thinking around 3 times a week. When I do shoot, how many shots should I take? I read 60-70 was a good target rate. Thanks for all the help in advance
Dumbbell rows, pull-ups, seated rows and dead lifts will all work the "drawing" muscles. You'll also want to incorporate pressing motions for two reasons: a. You do some pressing while drawing the bow with your bow hand and b. You will want an equal balance of strength to avoid any injury. Core strengthening can be achieved by sit-ups, crunches, and bridging on your elbows and toes. This will not only strengthen your front core muscles, but will help you obliques and back core also which again, will help reduce the chance of injury.
If I'm reading this correctly I am a little confused. Are you sure there isn't something wrong with the bow that is causing the noise? My hunting bow was making noise when I shot it and I had the string replaced and had it tuned and it is shooting much quieter. I am a pretty strong dude and nothing seemed to change the noise in my bow regardless of my strength.
I believe he meant it as in he's making the noise (like a grunt) while straining to pull the 70#'s back and is asking for weight training help to minimize strain.
Now I see, duh. First and foremost, shoot, shoot , shoot. Shooting the bow works the muscles you are gonna use. Besides that, pressing exercises and back exercises work for me as well and rear delt exercises.
Yes, rear delt exercises also work. You will work this in your compound back exercises but can be targeted by doing cable crosses. Basically using a cable machine and with the cable height set about eye level, hold the cable on the left side in your right hand, and right side in the left hand. Place both hands together in front of you and spread them towards your sides keeping them chest level. This is a small muscle group so you shouldn't need a lot of work to be effective. Maybe 3-4 sets of 10 reps. It all has to do with your current fitness level. But like stated above, practice will also help you build strength and target the EXACT muscles required and when you're shooting 30-60 min a day (or whatever you do) you have to be careful not to overwork your muscles. Especially if your draw weight is high enough to get noise out of you when you draw.
Rampaige is pretty spot on, cant much critique that. however I will offer my 2 cents otherwise, if you are grunting at 70lbs you are not comfortable, and you are shooting too much weight for your strength capabilities. If you are worried about messing up your moment of truth you should care enough to drop a little weight off your bow. like everyone has said time and time again, it doesnt matter how fast your bow is if you cant hit the target when in matters. I'm not saying you cant shoot, dont take that personally, but as we all know it's a little different drawing on an animal than a block! hell if my bow could crank up to 90lbs i could prob shoot it for a half hour without much of an issue but i only shoot 65# in the woods, and that had more to do with getting a nano 340 in a straight line out of the rest than anything else..
I'll also add that I work out regularly (5 days a week), I wrestled last year in college, and I now have a physical job as a career firefighter and I still only shoot at 60#. I notice very little difference between shooting at 60 vs. 70 but I stick with 60 lbs. It is because of the spine of my arrows, but regardless, there is nothing wrong with shooting at a lesser draw weight.
Very very good information. Thank you all very much! Rampaige, I am going to try to work this stuff into my exercise routine and report back the results a month, or so, down the road. As for the noise that's audible, it's not me grunting nor the string from being pulled. It's hard to explain. It's more-so when I'm drawing the string back back in a swift motion, I hit the let off and I'm still drawing back as if it were still 70 lbs and not the let off... So, it's adding a little extra noise because I can't control the weight, which is why I was thinking exercising would help this problem. I can definitely pull the weight back not stressed, I just don't have 100% control when I hit the let off because of the weight difference. EDIT: forgot to include that I backed the bow down to ~65lbs earlier and shot for ~50 minutes (30 shots at 40 yards, 20 shots at 30 yards, and 10 shots at 20 yards). I def. felt the burn. It might also help to explain that this is my first bow and I'm trying to train for my first hunt in PA for the rut.
You can have someone watch you and listen for it, also. It might be louder than you think and it may not be really detectable at all. Also, be careful while lifting and make slow gains. There's no need to lift weights heavier than usual. You won't gain faster by lifting heavier. Go with a weight you are comfortable with and keep your repetitions to 10-12. Remember if you get hurt, all of this work becomes useless and your season could possibly be ruined. Go slow, keep good form, and don't get hurt. I'm big on that because it is unbelievable how many people get hurt from exercising with weight that is too heavy and/or improper form. The goal here is to be have peak performance in the woods.
just take a 20 pound dumbelll and do curl ups and lay down like your doing push ups and pull your arm up
Check out Hoyt.com for the Fitness and Workout Videos. They have all sorts of exercises that can target your entire body to get you ready for the upcoming season.
Do Planks for core, Push-ups for arms and upper body and squats and lunges for legs. Jump rope for cardio. onehundredpushups.com Now if I could just get myself to do this
