Paolo Mauritania
AH veteran
I want to share my personal experience on how, after the initial experiences of being over bowed, I managed to increase effectively my bow poundage.
At the beginning......there was darkness.......(archery speaking), based on my at the time fitness I figured a 50# bow, 24 Kg, draw weight would be manageable. Big mistake!! My bow muscle weren't even closed to the be conditioned and I started struggling with my form. I could handle double that weight on dumbbell's exercises but that 50# bow wouldn't me have it. I almost quit archery.
One friend of mine from the US, a lot wiser and experienced at the time, gave me a 30# longbow, told me how to shoot and told me to come back when I could shoot 10 arrows into a 5" inches circle at 10 yards. It took a while but eventually I managed.
He then gave another LB at 45# same exercise; when I could draw the 45# with ease, he told me to increase the weight at 15# increment if I felt up to it, I then went to the 60# (which in reality turned out to be 63#.....it happens); it took me a while and at the time I could draw it with ease (it takes a lot of constant practice), I went on to #70 and then #80.
Our muscles, important point I noticed, reach some for of hysteresis when it comes to weight handling; that is in order to increase the poundage, you have to challenge your muscles, I found that 10-15# is the right amount of challenge for me. It is impressive to see that when you start picking up on the new weight, and return to the previous bow 10-15# lighter, this latter appears to be a lot more light than we left it even though we were ok when we made the jump to a higher weight.
It is also important from time to time to go back to lighter bows in order to check the form; the heavier the bow the easier is to shoot with proper form (if you are not over bowed), few arrow once in a while with a lighter bow will immediately tel us if we have rooted some bad habits.
My two cents.
At the beginning......there was darkness.......(archery speaking), based on my at the time fitness I figured a 50# bow, 24 Kg, draw weight would be manageable. Big mistake!! My bow muscle weren't even closed to the be conditioned and I started struggling with my form. I could handle double that weight on dumbbell's exercises but that 50# bow wouldn't me have it. I almost quit archery.
One friend of mine from the US, a lot wiser and experienced at the time, gave me a 30# longbow, told me how to shoot and told me to come back when I could shoot 10 arrows into a 5" inches circle at 10 yards. It took a while but eventually I managed.
He then gave another LB at 45# same exercise; when I could draw the 45# with ease, he told me to increase the weight at 15# increment if I felt up to it, I then went to the 60# (which in reality turned out to be 63#.....it happens); it took me a while and at the time I could draw it with ease (it takes a lot of constant practice), I went on to #70 and then #80.
Our muscles, important point I noticed, reach some for of hysteresis when it comes to weight handling; that is in order to increase the poundage, you have to challenge your muscles, I found that 10-15# is the right amount of challenge for me. It is impressive to see that when you start picking up on the new weight, and return to the previous bow 10-15# lighter, this latter appears to be a lot more light than we left it even though we were ok when we made the jump to a higher weight.
It is also important from time to time to go back to lighter bows in order to check the form; the heavier the bow the easier is to shoot with proper form (if you are not over bowed), few arrow once in a while with a lighter bow will immediately tel us if we have rooted some bad habits.
My two cents.