neck muscles

[Arrowcraft]

I generally shoot at least one hundred arrows daily , sometimes more and break it up into 2 or 3 sessions during the course of the day. I have been noticing that when shooting at times my neck muscle can get pretty sore any idea why? My draw , stance , the weight of the bow I am shooting not sure !  Thank You
    ----------------------------------------
       Black Wolf 68"57#@28
        Tall Tines 60"52#@28

[mlsthmpsn]

Probably a combination of all of the above, but mostly likely you are using those neck muscles to unintentionally compensate for what your back/shoulder muscles are being asked to do, but cannot fully complete.

Good thing about the trad archery muscles is they are small, and don't need a tone of time, weight, or effort to make huge improvements in their strength....I found this out in the unfortunate way of herniating a disc in my neck in Nov and then last month tearing the labrum and spraining my AC joint in my draw shoulder.


My orthopedic chiropractor had/has me doing a bunch of different stretches and exercises with different stretchy bands. These are aimed at strengthening my shoulders and back to correct posture issues and keep things aligned better.

All of them seem to be pretty related to the same movement/muscles used in drawing a bow.

[Sam McMichael]

Arrowcraft, how old are you now? How old were you when you started shooting this number of arrows? It may simply be Mother Nature telling you its time to cut back.

[moebow]

IF, your neck muscles are complaining, you are probably not drawing correctly.  But need a video or more info to help much.

Arne

[AZ_Longbow]

Sounds like you draw is off. Pulling with the neck rather than the back.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I had this happen when I was shooting a bow that was too much weight for me.  I was compensating for what my shoulders couldn't handle unintentionally.  

First, let your neck heal and then try shooting less arrows. it could be Fatigue that causes the compensation.  

I agree also to listen to Arne.  If anyone can pin pointy something quickly, it would be him.

[mgf]

I had the same thing going on. I also noticed that my neck got fatigued/sore even when working with a light stretch band.

I kind of went back to the drawing board and practiced drawing with a relaxed neck...stretch band first and then the bow.

[Eric Krewson]

Two things; You need to draw both right and left handed. I kept a sore neck years ago until I read a book or magazine article by Paul Bruner. He said he had the same problem until he pulled right and left to keep the muscles built up equally on both sides of his neck.

If I shoot ten times as a righty I pull my bow ten times as a lefty, no more neck problems.

Secondly; if you add some light weight work at the gym into your archery fitness program it will keep you shooting to a much more advanced age.

[4dogs]

Originally posted by Eric Krewson:
Two things; You need to draw both right and left handed. I kept a sore neck years ago until I read a book or magazine article by Paul Bruner. He said he had the same problem until he pulled right and left to keep the muscles built up equally on both sides of his neck.

If I shoot ten times as a righty I pull my bow ten tiles as a lefty, no more neck problems.

Secondly; if you add some light weight work at the gym into your archery fitness program it will keep you shooting to a much more advanced age.

[Hud]

One it would help to shoot less, try every third day. It is not a good idea to do the same exercise every day. The muscles need to rest to build strength. Repeating the same exercise every day, can lead to problems.

Get a solid rubber "puppy" ball, hold it on the muscle for a minute or two at a time. Don't press hard, easy at first. This will relax the muscle, especially if you notice a hard spot when rolling it in your hand.

Regardless of how you draw, you will eventually become muscularly imbalanced.  Muscles develop a thing called tonus, that is they will hold themselves tight.  If your neck muscles didn't do this, your head would flop around out of control, when you least expect it.  As was said, it is equally possible to artificially cramp up your neck with bad head positions.  It is also very possible that you could be aggravating a dislocation.  A good chiropractor can get you back to a neutral location, but you have to do things yourself to keep your muscular balance to maintain a stable neck.  first thing to do is to make sure that you are not cramming your neck when you draw.  Your neck does not draw your bow and you should not need to torque the crap out of it to find a good anchor point.
When I get going for the year, I shoot anywhere from 300 to 500 arrows a day, I know too many.   I shoot two to three hours in the morning and then again later in the day.  I put up to 18 arrows in my quiver.  I shoot both left handed and right handed every day, I also do a variety of exercises with dumbbells with an adjustable weight bench.  Not for draw strength, but for muscular front to back balance, this helps keep the shoulders centered and the arms balanced.  I need to ride bike more for cardio, but I have a serious case of the winter lazies going.

[Archie]

I had a lot of neck and back pain before I started dedicating equal time to drawing both right and left handed.  Then it all stopped.

I sometimes wear a shooting glove on my bow hand, so I can draw with the opposite hand after every shot.

[Terry Green]

Too much weight and or drawing incorrectly...refer to the form clock featured at the top of this page.

You are straining your neck and your neck should not be involved in drawing the bow.