The machine also allows you to practice rotating the draw hand to the release position. In effect, you polish your technique while increasing your strength. If you are not a member of a gym with the right equipment, Jeremy added, you can do a similar exercise with a flex band.
The third exercise Jeremy recommends is purely for core strength.
“Most people don’t think of it, but core strength is probably more important in bowhunting than anywhere else,” he said.
Using the same machine, you set a comfortable weight, step away from the machine and turn 90 degrees with the handle in both hands. You then push in and out with the arms while maintaining the tension and a rigid stance. It’s important to alternate between having the left arm close to the machine, next time the right arm, to exercise arms, shoulders, and core equally. To increase the demand, simply increase the weight.
What Jeremy calls the “ultimate” core exercise—thePallof Press— also works the bowhunter’s shoulders and arms.
“This is the ‘Pallof Press,’ and it’s one of the best core exercises you can find,” he said, “With the added benefit of working arms and shoulders.”
Another thing to keep in mind is differences in both game and terrain a bowhunter will have to deal with.
“A Missouri bowhunter hunting whitetails will seldom shoot from anywhere except a stand,” he said, “While an elk hunter in Colorado might be stalking, crouching, and then shooting from a kneeling position.
“Our second exercise can be done kneeling as easily as standing, which is good practice for that.”
In our first Sporting Notes on physical conditioning (“Pheasant Phit”), we recommended split squats (a.k.a., ‘lunges’) which are also good for elk hunters.
It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, that core strength—the muscles that enwrap the body from hips to armpits—are important in every aspect of daily life, aside from hunting of all sorts. Whether it’s sit-ups, crunches, leg raises, the plank, or anything else, no one has ever come up with a core exercise that does the trick painlessly. Sorry, but it’s true.
It’s also true that no single core exercise will do it all. You need a variety, and you need to do them on a regular basis. Some trainers love the plank, others dismiss it as over-rated, but no one says it’s useless. And, it has the huge advantage of taking only 20 to 30 seconds to do an effective one (you have to tense every muscle to the max) and it can be done almost anywhere except while sky diving. A half-minute maximum-tension plank, three times a day, will go a long way to improving overall core strength.
Perhaps most important, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a valid excuse for not doing it.
Gray’s shooting editor Terry Wieland reminds you that Jeremy Koerber offers a variety of exercise programs tailored to different types of hunting, all of which can be accessed through his website, www.stayfittohunt.com.
