So... you should pat yourself on the back, just for coming to this site! You want to stay active and in practice and we think that's great. That's why we've come up with some exercises for you to help you with your project. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you prefer to watch the exercises on video, please visit our Instagram page where we will demonstrate them to you.
Warning: the text below assumes several things about you
We miss you guys. And we miss shooting (and missing) together with you. We know times are tough and we cannot visit our beloved parcours, but there are still a few things we can do to keep busy. Let us give you a few suggestions on how to keep your archery prowess without shooting a bow.
Warning: the text below assumes several things about you
- You are familiar with the basic concepts of archery
- You have visited Arco Vienna Club at least a few times
- You are stuck at home and are bored out of your mind
We miss you guys. And we miss shooting (and missing) together with you. We know times are tough and we cannot visit our beloved parcours, but there are still a few things we can do to keep busy. Let us give you a few suggestions on how to keep your archery prowess without shooting a bow.
Exercises without everything
Brushing your teeth… archery style!
We hope you know how to brush your teeth. Otherwise you may have to look up some other texts first. Stand in front of your bathroom sink and place your body in the archery stance:
Bonus points if you are able to switch hands.
Extra bonus points if you are able to brush your teeth with the draw elbow at or slightly above shoulder level!
Going upstairs
Owning a house or a maisonette is not a prerequisite for this exercise. If your partner is actively doing yoga, chances are they have a wooden or rubber block you can borrow. If not, you can use thick phone book, that Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy you have in your bookshelf (we’re not judging), maybe even the subwoofer of your home cinema system (I built mine myself, so that thing is strong!). Do not use a stack of Traditionelles Bogenschießen those things are treacherously slipper. Skateboards are out for the same reason.
If you are actively doing yoga yourself, it is likely you know a lot of even better exercises.
Anyway, place your block somewhere where it will not slip, like a carpet. Place one foot on the block, transfer all your weight on that leg, then bring the knee of the other leg as far up as you can. Step on the ground, switch feet. Do this thirty or forty times and you will feel some heat building up.
Bonus round: interlock your hands behind your head and try to touch the right elbow with the left knee. Keep your hips tilted up and your neck straight, this helps to prevent the back from collapsing.
Rotten to the core
Speaking of tilting the hips up, there is a beautifully tortuous exercise you can do to help strengthen the belly muscles. I am speaking, of course, of the plank!
Do not do this directly on the floor. Find yourself a carpet, a yoga mat, a blanket, a rubber padding. Lie down on your belly and place your elbows below your shoulders. Stretch that back a bit. Now tuck your toes and place the balls of the feet on the ground. Lift the body so that you are supported only on the balls of the feet and on the elbows. Tilt the hips in an archery stance and make the body into a straight line. Keep this for 30 seconds, then lie down. Remember to breathe! Tilting the hips is very important in planking, because if you do not do it, the weight of your body rests on the ribs… and you need those muscles for breathing, not for support.
Bonus round: do a side plank
Boss round: do the plank on your hands(s)
The Expanse
Fans of James S. A. Corey will be disappointed here. Remember how Konstantin always tells you to push backwards with your draw shoulder to increase the power? Yeah, let’s try to do that without a bow.
Assume your archery stance. Hold the draw hand in front of your chest, palm facing up, fingers pointing towards the side of the body. Place the bow hand on it, palm facing down, fingers overlapping. The wrists are straight and the lower arms are an extension of each other. Now make fists, interlocking the fingers. Place this contraption just under your chin, pressing against the chin, knuckles vertical, the knuckles of your draw hand facing away from the body. Hook your hands in each other and pull apart with your shoulders. Do not allow the hands to detach. Do you feel that tension in the draw shoulder blade? Good. Now switch hands.
Bonus round: do it one-legged on the block
Boss round: do it on a balance board. Do not try to put the handle of a screwdriver under the block and keep it balanced.
(Warning: we shall not be held responsible for fall, injury, mayhem, destruction or invasion by a protomolecule)
Mobility with a stick (or a broom)
If you are not a kung fu enthusiatst you might not have a fighting stick, but everybody had to sweep the floor once in their life, so take your broom (or mop, or paint roller) and screw the head off. Here you go, you can now feel like a kung fu fighter! Now do as follows:
Position your hands about 2 shoulder widths appart on the stick/broom and stretch out your arms. Keeping them straight bring them behind yourself passing over your head and then back to the front. Repeat.
Too hard? Put your hands further apart or start with your arms already behind and try to move them up and down from there. Remember to keep them straight!
Too easy? Put your hands closer to eachother and work your way up till you can't do that anymore.
If you are the kind of person who likes to keep track of your improvements, you can then put a piece of tape on the place your hands were when you were still able to do the exercise and check out if you had any improvement after 2 weeks (and after one month, and so on).
We hope you know how to brush your teeth. Otherwise you may have to look up some other texts first. Stand in front of your bathroom sink and place your body in the archery stance:
- Your feet are hip-width apart for ladies, shoulder-width for gentlemen, the toes are pointing 10° out from a parallel line
- Your knees are relaxed, your legs are straight
- Your hips are turned forward and up so that the lower part of the spine is straight and rigid. The rump and belly muscles are flexed, the legs remain straight, the upper body leans gently forwards
- Your shoulders are down
- Your neck pulls the head up, your chin is low, you are a tall proud archer(ette).
Bonus points if you are able to switch hands.
Extra bonus points if you are able to brush your teeth with the draw elbow at or slightly above shoulder level!
Going upstairs
Owning a house or a maisonette is not a prerequisite for this exercise. If your partner is actively doing yoga, chances are they have a wooden or rubber block you can borrow. If not, you can use thick phone book, that Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy you have in your bookshelf (we’re not judging), maybe even the subwoofer of your home cinema system (I built mine myself, so that thing is strong!). Do not use a stack of Traditionelles Bogenschießen those things are treacherously slipper. Skateboards are out for the same reason.
If you are actively doing yoga yourself, it is likely you know a lot of even better exercises.
Anyway, place your block somewhere where it will not slip, like a carpet. Place one foot on the block, transfer all your weight on that leg, then bring the knee of the other leg as far up as you can. Step on the ground, switch feet. Do this thirty or forty times and you will feel some heat building up.
Bonus round: interlock your hands behind your head and try to touch the right elbow with the left knee. Keep your hips tilted up and your neck straight, this helps to prevent the back from collapsing.
Rotten to the core
Speaking of tilting the hips up, there is a beautifully tortuous exercise you can do to help strengthen the belly muscles. I am speaking, of course, of the plank!
Do not do this directly on the floor. Find yourself a carpet, a yoga mat, a blanket, a rubber padding. Lie down on your belly and place your elbows below your shoulders. Stretch that back a bit. Now tuck your toes and place the balls of the feet on the ground. Lift the body so that you are supported only on the balls of the feet and on the elbows. Tilt the hips in an archery stance and make the body into a straight line. Keep this for 30 seconds, then lie down. Remember to breathe! Tilting the hips is very important in planking, because if you do not do it, the weight of your body rests on the ribs… and you need those muscles for breathing, not for support.
Bonus round: do a side plank
Boss round: do the plank on your hands(s)
The Expanse
Fans of James S. A. Corey will be disappointed here. Remember how Konstantin always tells you to push backwards with your draw shoulder to increase the power? Yeah, let’s try to do that without a bow.
Assume your archery stance. Hold the draw hand in front of your chest, palm facing up, fingers pointing towards the side of the body. Place the bow hand on it, palm facing down, fingers overlapping. The wrists are straight and the lower arms are an extension of each other. Now make fists, interlocking the fingers. Place this contraption just under your chin, pressing against the chin, knuckles vertical, the knuckles of your draw hand facing away from the body. Hook your hands in each other and pull apart with your shoulders. Do not allow the hands to detach. Do you feel that tension in the draw shoulder blade? Good. Now switch hands.
Bonus round: do it one-legged on the block
Boss round: do it on a balance board. Do not try to put the handle of a screwdriver under the block and keep it balanced.
(Warning: we shall not be held responsible for fall, injury, mayhem, destruction or invasion by a protomolecule)
Mobility with a stick (or a broom)
If you are not a kung fu enthusiatst you might not have a fighting stick, but everybody had to sweep the floor once in their life, so take your broom (or mop, or paint roller) and screw the head off. Here you go, you can now feel like a kung fu fighter! Now do as follows:
Position your hands about 2 shoulder widths appart on the stick/broom and stretch out your arms. Keeping them straight bring them behind yourself passing over your head and then back to the front. Repeat.
Too hard? Put your hands further apart or start with your arms already behind and try to move them up and down from there. Remember to keep them straight!
Too easy? Put your hands closer to eachother and work your way up till you can't do that anymore.
If you are the kind of person who likes to keep track of your improvements, you can then put a piece of tape on the place your hands were when you were still able to do the exercise and check out if you had any improvement after 2 weeks (and after one month, and so on).
Exercises with a Gym Band
The rubbery stretchy thingy
We are not mentioning brand names here, but we know that you know what we are talking about. Use a yellow or red stretchy thingy for this exercise, green or blue if you feel very powerful, black, silver or gold if you hate yourself. The red ones we have at the club are 1.25 m long which makes them ideal for some practice shots.
To make a ring, take the 1.25 stretchy thingy approximately one third from each end. Cross these points on top of each other to make a loop. Bring the ends a few times through the loop to create a thick braided rubbery thingy. This will be your bow, the thin part of the loop will be the bowstring. Go through the entire shot sequence normally. Keep the bow hand relaxed, no gripping! You may want to wear a glove on the bow hand in case the impact is too strong. Men, if you have forgone shaving while working from home, be careful on the release. That thing hurts!
The stretchy thingies sold in stores are usually 2.5 m long. If you have not cut yours in two (as we did), then you have a bit of extra length to play around with. In this case, make your loop towards one end, while letting the other extend freely. When you are ready to go through the shot sequence, place your bow foot on the free end. This way you can simulate the weight of the bow.
We are not mentioning brand names here, but we know that you know what we are talking about. Use a yellow or red stretchy thingy for this exercise, green or blue if you feel very powerful, black, silver or gold if you hate yourself. The red ones we have at the club are 1.25 m long which makes them ideal for some practice shots.
To make a ring, take the 1.25 stretchy thingy approximately one third from each end. Cross these points on top of each other to make a loop. Bring the ends a few times through the loop to create a thick braided rubbery thingy. This will be your bow, the thin part of the loop will be the bowstring. Go through the entire shot sequence normally. Keep the bow hand relaxed, no gripping! You may want to wear a glove on the bow hand in case the impact is too strong. Men, if you have forgone shaving while working from home, be careful on the release. That thing hurts!
The stretchy thingies sold in stores are usually 2.5 m long. If you have not cut yours in two (as we did), then you have a bit of extra length to play around with. In this case, make your loop towards one end, while letting the other extend freely. When you are ready to go through the shot sequence, place your bow foot on the free end. This way you can simulate the weight of the bow.
Exercises with your bow
Building endurance
String your bow. Draw back the string until you reach full draw and stay in the position for 10 seconds. Decide what you are aiming at beforehand and focus on the form while keeping the position. Try to do it 10 times.
Keep an eye on your strength ressources and avoid dry shots at all cost
Note: This is also a fine control test. If you cannot do it, you should consider switching to a lighter bow
String your bow. Draw back the string until you reach full draw and stay in the position for 10 seconds. Decide what you are aiming at beforehand and focus on the form while keeping the position. Try to do it 10 times.
Keep an eye on your strength ressources and avoid dry shots at all cost
Note: This is also a fine control test. If you cannot do it, you should consider switching to a lighter bow