Heavier bow for training?

[Flying Dutchman]

At the moment I am shooting a fast hybrid. She's 45lbs@49lbs. Over a few weeks I will get a second one, same model and lenght but this one will be 28lbs@28".

I draw 29 inches, so the difference in both bows will be 5 lbs. And my woodies on the heavier bwo will "become" less in weight. That will be 9.5 to 10 GPI vs 9 to 9.5 GPP.

I am thinking of training with the heavier bow and shooting with the lighter. Any guys who have experience with this? Is it a good idea?

[straitera]

Excellent idea. Exercising 10#-15# over 3-4 days weekly will put you into manhandling your everday shooter.

Might accomplish the same thing with your own bow by drawing in 1/3 increments & holding for a 3 count both drawing & letting off. Plus, do a set of 10 reps with each hand. That is, pull  the string with your offhand using the same incremental counts.

[Raging Water]

What Buddy said!

Matt

[BowHunterGA]

Follow Buddy's advice. One additional excercise I also like to use. Take your heavier bow, bring to full draw as rapidly as possible, without jerking or yanking, then slowly let the bow back down. As slowly as is comfortable. a count of 10 is good, a 20 count is better if you can let down that slowly. The negative resistance will build strength faster than shooting because it is different than how you use your muscles to shoot.

I also really like using dumbell rows for maintaining and increasing weight. Do the reps very slowly and as with the excercise above, never forget that the negative resistance, lowering the weight, is just as beneficial as lifting the weight. Perhaps more so.

Hope this helps.

[Kentucky Jeff]

Depends.  How well developed are your back muscles?  How good are you at developing back tension?

You should not be using any muscles in your arms.  It all comes from the back.

Before you progress up in weight you need to be able to isolate and activate those rhomboid muscles.
If you can't do that you need to stay with the weaker bow until you can.  If you progress to a heavier bow before you have trained your brain to use your back muscle you will not be able to isolate it and you'll revert to using shoulder and biceps.  Once you have control of your back muscles THEN you can move up.

[straitera]

Steve, on top of all your other accomplishments & credits, you're becoming a good steward. He went from 40-50# recurves into the 100# Schulz & other bows in his "format" in less than a year. Remember very similar of Matt?

You guys should come play with us in the Dark Continent section in the 80#-100# thread. It's all fun but with significant input & revelation.

Best luck FD. Shoot straight!

[LBR]

Yep--what Jeff said.  Some folks are strong enough to muscle back really heavy bows--back when I was several years younger I have pulled as much as 125#-130#...I shot 3-D tournaments with 82#...and I had no idea what real back tension was.  When I was learning back tension, working with a 40# bow wore me out and made me sore.  It's a real eye-opener.

[Steelhead]

I think it should end up in a positive outcome.Just make sure your executing proper form with the heavier bow and not snap shooting.You dont want to get into any bad habits that can possibly become ingrained and can be hard to get over for some folks even when they go back to shooting thier lighter bow.

[gringol]

It really works for me.  I draw and hold a 70# bow (I don't shoot it).  It makes my 56# bow feel like a toy and has really improved my shooting because the drawing requires so little effort now.