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Injured shoulder exercises for archery?

Will Harris

Will Harris

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2018
Messages
415
Location
Indiana
i'm looking to increase my draw weight this year to flatten my 590gr arrow trajectory. both of my shoulders are jacked. i'm not having surgery to repair. i hunt mostly from a saddle and i shoot a LOT all year.

looking for real world, 1st hand experience exercises that you have used to increase draw weight. pictures, videos or detailed exercises are highly appreciated.
 
GeoFish said:
When I injured my shoulder my Doc sent me to a physical therapist. Taught me some exercises for my specific injury. You only need to go a few times to learn the exercises for your injury.
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you are not wrong by any means. i just dont want to go thru the hassle and expense of xrays and mri to prove my injuries so i can get the "proper" treatment. i know my right shoulder is a mostly torn rotator cuff and my left was a collarbone break and a slight tear of rotator cuff.

just looking for (maybe general) strengthening exercises that real peeps have used to strengthen their shoulder specifically for archery.
 

This video helped me with tendinitis in my draw shoulder.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
 
Will Harris said:
i'm looking to increase my draw weight this year to flatten my 590gr arrow trajectory. both of my shoulders are jacked. i'm not having surgery to repair. i hunt mostly from a saddle and i shoot a LOT all year.

looking for real world, 1st hand experience exercises that you have used to increase draw weight. pictures, videos or detailed exercises are highly appreciated.
Click to expand...
i can ask my wife the physical therapist what exercises she’d recommend to increase mobility and strength in the “archery” muscles of the back and shoulder but you’re probably not going to enjoy them lol
 
+ 1 on the physical therapist. I had rotator cuff surgery in 09 on one, 13 on the other. Problems again in 21, my wife hooked me up with a physical therapist. Took a few months to get back to normal, but beat the heck out of surgery!
 
gcr0003 said:
i can ask my wife the physical therapist what exercises she’d recommend to increase mobility and strength in the “archery” muscles of the back and shoulder but you’re probably not going to enjoy them lol
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thanks! i'm old but i dont hesitate to embrace the suck for the greater cause. i'm doing the ones off google already and they do suck. i couldnt shoot my recurve for days after the last good session.
 
Will Harris said:
thanks! i'm old but i dont hesitate to embrace the suck for the greater cause. i'm doing the ones off google already and they do suck. i couldnt shoot my recurve for days after the last good session.
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I would encourage deferring to the PT's but I added a few variations of face pulls and do a good bit of bent dumbell rows where I focus on making the pull a 2 part pull. I start the pull with the shoulder blade fully relaxed and down then pull the shoulder blade back to simulate proper back engagement. When the shoulder is fully engaged then finish the pull. Hold for a second then reverse letting the arm relax then the shoulder. On the face pulls I just change the angle of the pull a little. With those I focus on full shoulder contraction, hold and slow return. It has made a noticeable difference in my shooting and ability to shoot longer sessions with the neck pain I was starting to develop if I shot more than 20 arrows at a time. To my knowledge I have no cuff tears though so again I would defer to the professionals that deal with those issues regularly.
 
Both of my shoulders have been jacked for years, left one from shooting my bow (I’m left handed) and the right from Jiu Jitsu. I’ve used a combination of the following to get myself back to where they don’t hurt anymore and I have decent mobility (at 57 that’s about all I can expect):

1. Find a good deep tissue massage therapist, ideally one that has experience with shoulder injuries. Every other week to start then monthly (or as often as you can afford).
2. Band exercises, there are some basic ones tailored for rotator cuff injuries. These are light work so daily if possible.
3. Dead hangs- one set for as long as you can, 3-4 times a week
4. Indian Clubs - 5-10 lbs each. Great for mobility and strength. I do several sets of these 3-4 a week
5. Push ups - don’t directly strengthen the shoulders, but builds upper body strength and indirectly stretches the shoulders at the point of connection with the pecs.
 
Little different but when I tore my rotator cuff the physical therapy was great but after I regained mobility and strength I had ZERO archer muscles. I shot a 35 lb bow for months to work the muscles. Then to 50 up to 60 and eventually back to 80
 
ericabbott said:
Both of my shoulders have been jacked for years, left one from shooting my bow (I’m left handed) and the right from Jiu Jitsu. I’ve used a combination of the following to get myself back to where they don’t hurt anymore and I have decent mobility (at 57 that’s about all I can expect):

1. Find a good deep tissue massage therapist, ideally one that has experience with shoulder injuries. Every other week to start then monthly (or as often as you can afford).
2. Band exercises, there are some basic ones tailored for rotator cuff injuries. These are light work so daily if possible.
3. Dead hangs- one set for as long as you can, 3-4 times a week
4. Indian Clubs - 5-10 lbs each. Great for mobility and strength. I do several sets of these 3-4 a week
5. Push ups - don’t directly strengthen the shoulders, but builds upper body strength and indirectly stretches the shoulders at the point of connection with the pecs.
Click to expand...
Indian clubs??
 
I got in a bad roll over few years ago and had bunch of micro tears in my rotary cuffs. the company I work for sent me to a sports doctor to help me get off kight duty. she said wall pushes then work your way in to regular push ups. Went from not being able to turn a ratchet to shooting a 60 pound bow in 3 months. I now easly shoot 67 comfortably but won't try to go back to 74 pounds.
 
Unsolicited opinion, but if you're not able to shoot for days following a workout, you may be jumping in too heavy, too quickly? Most injury prevention/rehab routines I've been exposed to start light and ramp up slowly to not exacerbate the injury or cause too much inflammation which exacerbates injury/prevents form from being correct. It's more about light weight repetitions and building gradually over weeks/months rather than taking big leaps.

No direct experience specifically with shoulder rehab, but have some other (leg) injuries, and IMHO biomechanics is biomechanics
 
thedutchtouch said:
Unsolicited opinion, but if you're not able to shoot for days following a workout, you may be jumping in too heavy, too quickly? Most injury prevention/rehab routines I've been exposed to start light and ramp up slowly to not exacerbate the injury or cause too much inflammation which exacerbates injury/prevents form from being correct. It's more about light weight repetitions and building gradually over weeks/months rather than taking big leaps.

No direct experience specifically with shoulder rehab, but have some other (leg) injuries, and IMHO biomechanics is biomechanics
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you are very correct in your assessment. didnt seem like too much at the time, but was by far too much. also, should have grabbed the compound and not the recurve.

all are correct that i should go see the PT. i think they would order xrays and then mri and .... this probably is the proper way to go. but man i hate doctors and doctor offices. went thru back surgery in 2023 and the PITA that was.

just want a few exercises that might help from dudes that have my same stupid hobby and have been there. not trying to pitch major league, just looking to go from 47# compound to closer to 60#. may even blow some fairy dust out of my nose and lighten my arrows a touch.

thanks to all that have replied and hope more help comes in.
 
I tore my supraspinatus and infraspinatus and couldn’t even put my shirt on. My ortho doc told me to buy this https://shoulderreliever.com/ and use it religiously and according to the directions.
I’m not one for giving praise to devices but it absolutely worked. To this day zero pain and have full range of motion and strength.
 
Not sure what's wrong with your shoulders. I swam in high school and tore up my rotator cuffs - coach said we wasted too much time stretching and warming up and threw us in the pool cold... anyway. Was taught to do shoulder raises with 5# dumbbells. Stand straight, weight in each hand, thumbs up, bring arms to horizontal out to sides 10x. Repeat with thumbs forward. Repeat with pinkies up. Repeat with arms to the front, thumbs up. Repeat with arms to the front, thumbs down. Repeat with arms to the front, pinkies up. As I recall, it helped our rotator cuffs.

Funny that coach said we had time to do that exercise, but not stretch and warm up....
 
The main thing is first learning how to properly draw the bow using the proper muscles as to not impinge the shoulder. This may require you to drop the poundage and build up your strength. Then you can increase the poundage a couple pounds a week until you get to poundage you want.

As for your shoulder's current condition, do some rotator cuff stretches and exercises to improve the shoulders mobility. Here is a good video to improve the shoulder's mobility.
 
Will Harris said:
i'm looking to increase my draw weight this year to flatten my 590gr arrow trajectory. both of my shoulders are jacked. i'm not having surgery to repair. i hunt mostly from a saddle and i shoot a LOT all year.

looking for real world, 1st hand experience exercises that you have used to increase draw weight. pictures, videos or detailed exercises are highly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I guess the first thing I would ask you is why increase draw weight if you're having shoulder issues? I've suffered with shoulder issues myself and dropped poundage instead of increasing it. However, I recently moved from 30 years shooting a stick bow to a compound and my shoulders were getting worse. I found out that I was drawing my compound incorrectly, drawing with a low elbow. Watching a few videos helped me learn to draw correctly and maybe they can help you too. I've posted a couple here that helped me.



 
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