How to increase your (traditional bow) poundage

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.

good advice paolo.
I think we all have atleast some bad habits / poor form practice in our archery ...
as for over bowing , you know when that happens straight away .
do you mind me asking how old you were , when your American friend set you up right with the 30 pound trad. bow ?
I was 13 when I first was bitten by the archery bug, and 16 when I bought my first compound bow, for hunting .

I'm a late starter I shot my first bow at 34, I'm now 54, two years after I started the LB; I can now shoot an 80# with relative ease (when I'm tired I still tend to flinch a little) and 70# with almost no effort (this is my preferred for hunting), but I'm thinking to step-up to 90-95# to keep the challenge going, likely in few months.
To practice once in while I go back to the 63# and check myself; as the old saying goes "Aim Small, Hit Small", here we have no archery shops, so my preferred targets are milk jugs caps (large and small) which I stick and hang all over the hail bail and some trees I have in the court of the place where I live, I try to hit them from anywhere from 15 to 25-30 yards, changing the distance every shot.
It is very important for me to aim small (concentrate on the spot), even if you miss is still within the vitals of even the small prey.
I shoot almost every day (in the evening after work), sometimes just 10-15 arrows, sometimes 100+ and when the season is favorable in hunting........This is what keeps me ahead of my 18 years old son, rugby player. When the "old man" seems to buckle I tell him:"Let's go and shoot some arrows", that saves the day.

90 lbs trad gear, much respect ,mate.......
I use a 90 lbs hoyt compound ,but still love my 70 lbs bowtec( its my favourite bow )
im out of practice since coming home from south africa at the start of august , truthfully I wouldn't have shot 15 arrows since then ,
and only riffle hunted twice.