fitness for shooting sports

No sugar, caffeine

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Easy now.....

We have become a society who deals in "absolutes" too much. Moderation is key.

I am on a "health kick" as we speak. I weighed about 175 4 years ago (6') and climbed to about 230 a few months back. I am now around 215 through weight lifting at the YMCA, every Monday - Saturday.

Remember the upper body will follow the lower body, so work that area just as much. I was told years ago that squats are the absolute best way to get in shape the fastest......gets your core working.

And don't give-up everything, that's why people burn-out.

And yes, I do laugh at the guys with the "$5k" bug-out-bags who weigh close to 400 lbs. If you can't walk 1/2 a mile in just shorts and a t-shirt, what's the point?

Also, brisk walking with your dog is good for you and the said dog. It's a great way to improve cardio.

I walk a brisk pace (15 minutes/mile) every day; 4 miles a day. 1 mile walk with dog before work and 3 miles after work. I tend to MTB and hike with dog on the weekends.

Keeps me in shape.

+1 for lose weight
+1 for quit smoking
Don't blow any money on vitamins/supplements. You don't need them, assuming you eat a balanced diet.

Overall fitness and health are great for you regardless of whatever sport you participate in. If part of your goal with firearm proficiency and ownership is to protect and take care of your family, what good are you to them if you are dead from a heart attack, stroke or cancer? That 7 month pregnant belly look a lot of people carry is deadly.

Get fit to be the best provider/protector you can be. Restricting exercise and fitness to specific areas is foolish. Look at the person exercising in post #19. All upper body and skinny weak legs. This is the typical mistake of gym rats and vanity muscle builders. Exercise your whole body for the best results.

Overall fitness will improve your stamina and strength for any shooting sport. Having a better resting heart rate, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, better lung capacity, and better upper and lower body strength will improve your life.

ahtoxa said:

You don't need to be big and strong to be a good shooter. Lean, toned muscles can work very well at providing a strong, solid and flexible platform for shooting sports.

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This is correct.

I should have stipulated that I was taking a much broader and more general approach. A lot of things in life are easier if you have built muscle and strength, and bicycles won't do that.

But in the context of shooting sports, most people would be MUCH better off if they regularly, legitimately exercised on a bike (and ate less food).

Not being overweight + having cardiovascular fitness is far too rare these days.

Warp said:

This is correct.

I should have stipulated that I was taking a much broader and more general approach. A lot of things in life are easier if you have built muscle and strength, and bicycles won't do that.

But in the context of shooting sports, most people would be MUCH better off if they regularly, legitimately exercised on a bike (and ate less food).

Not being overweight + having cardiovascular fitness is far too rare these days.

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I don't think you're familiar with MTB.

Riding a road bike doesn't work upper body the way MTB does. Your bike is always fluid under you and you are always utilizing your upper body for bunny hops, manuals, and just getting through the terrain in general. Riding a mountain bike on proper terrain involves entire core of your body; you're never really sitting down; always moving.

Source: Been riding MTB for many years.

ahtoxa said:

I don't think you're familiar with MTB.

Riding a road bike doesn't work upper body the way MTB does. Your bike is always fluid under you and you are always utilizing your upper body for bunny hops, manuals, and just getting through the terrain in general. Riding a mountain bike on proper terrain involves entire core of your body; you're never really sitting down; always moving.

Source: Been riding MTB for many years.

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I'm afraid we are getting a bit off topic here. If you'd really like to convince me, PM me.

But I disagree, and I have experience in this field.

I will admit that I was much younger when I was a competitive trapshooter, but the mental game was much more demanding than the physical aspect.

2.5 mi on treadmill 5-6 days/wk for me.

About once every 2 weeks, I strap on my old LBE & ALICE pack and walk 3.5 miles with it.

What got me started was a challenge to make a BOB for under $200

So I did it and there were posts where people were saying what their BOB would do - what it was intended to do, I was thinking "How are these guys going to hike to a cabin with 30 or 40 pounds of stuff on their back?"

I started wondering how far I could go with one of these things on my back. So I started hiking with mine bout twice a month.

Countzero, unless you are doing an exercise routine a bare minimum of 3 times a week for at least 45 minutes, you are not accomplishing anything beyond taking a pleasant stroll.

Every morning I do pushups, sit ups, leg lifts, and 30 minutes of either cycling, stair-stepping or some other cardio. Three times a week I go through the entire exercise regimen I listed above.


I had a decent exercise regimen before I started experiencing problems at the range with offhand shooting. I found I had to target my forearms, hands and shoulders specifically.

I don't have those problems anymore. I can hold a better sight picture and I can shoot longer without getting fatigue in my arms.

I find that 12oz curls are not nearly as effective as some may thinkl

Crossfit.

The better your cardio condition, the lower your resting heart rate will be, and the sooner your respiration will slow after exertion. Both are helpful for accurate rifle shooting.

Grip strength will help with managing the recoil of a pistol.

Flexibility is good for getting into field positions, and the contortions sometimes required in dealing with obstacles and barricades in the practical sports.

The benefits of sprinting ought to be obvious for the practical shooter.

Shotgunners particularly benefit from strength and endurance in the shoulders.

Mat is right on the money. I would add a caveat about how you do cardio training. Try to avoid training that increases impact on your joints. Jogging and running being the worst for direct impact on joints.

Of course, carrying excessive weight on your skeletal frame dramatically affects your joints every minute of every day, so there are trade offs and benefits to doing cardio. For me, with all the types of arthritis and degenerative joint disease I have - this is even more critical. So I avoid high impact cardio at all costs and concentrate more on flexibility and joint health.

Swimming, biking, rowing, and low impact cardio machines like recumbent bikes and elliptical trainers are great ways to do cardio without adverse affects to your joints.

Hire a personal trainer. Tell them what you want to do better and let them suggest a program to help you gain the fitness level you want. An overall fitness program should work for you. If you are new to a gym , TAKE IT EASY at first.

I have been a competitive powerlifter for 25 years. The weight training makes any gun feel like a feather in my hands. It took me a long time to get here due to my age. I did not start lifting in a gym until I was 40. I am now 70 and still lift. My cancer battle last year did not allow me to workout any and it shows at the range....chris3

ball3006 said:

Hire a personal trainer. Tell them what you want to do better and let them suggest a program to help you gain the fitness level you want. An overall fitness program should work for you. If you are new to a gym , TAKE IT EASY at first.

I have been a competitive powerlifter for 25 years. The weight training makes any gun feel like a feather in my hands. It took me a long time to get here due to my age. I did not start lifting in a gym until I was 40. I am now 70 and still lift. My cancer battle last year did not allow me to workout any and it shows at the range....chris3

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Many (most?) personal trainers are worthless.

A powerlifter should be aware of this, I would think.

Let's take the squat as an example. What % of personal trainers even know what proper depth for a squat is? 1%? 0.5%?

No sugar, caffeine, alcohol, stop smoking.

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That would take me from wanting to shoot, to wanting to be shot.

I am an IDPA 5 gun master and have never had to move more that 10 yards between shots.

Training, shoot fast accurately and you will be good at many sports. Some of the best won't win any marathons.

jmorris said:

I am an IDPA 5 gun master and have never had to move more that 10 yards between shots.

Training, shoot fast accurately and you will be good at many sports. Some of the best won't win any marathons.

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Yes, but if you spend less time running, you can spend more time shooting and see the same stage times. That should translate into more points, and a higher HF. Or shoot the same and see lower stage times, which would also produce a higher HF.

Shooting fast and accurately is a good thing obviously, but if your movement sucks, you're leaving a lot of time on the table. If you don't have a lot of health related limiting factors, that can be real low hanging fruit.

There comes a point when trying to improve shooting speed reaches a point of diminishing returns, taking large amounts of ammunition and training time for relatively small improvements, but fitness can make quite large differences.

If you're Robbie Leatham, with bad knees, but all the resources of Springfield Armory behind you, maybe you still focus on out shooting your competition. For the rest of us, maybe a pair of running shoes and a couple hours a week using them is a better place to look for gains.

Those other than jmorris, take my arguments with a grain of salt. I'm not even a one gun master, yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W05aL79EeEk

DammitBoy said:

Mat is right on the money. I would add a caveat about how you do cardio training. Try to avoid training that increases impact on your joints. Jogging and running being the worst for direct impact on joints.

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This may not apply to you, as it sounds like you've got a plate full of joint trouble already, but in general, one should not do away with high impact training altogether, as it promotes the retention of bone mass as one ages, which a strictly low impact regimen does not.

Mat, I train three days a week, two hours a session with zero cardio (as most people think of cardio).

By that, I mean I don't do treadmills, stair masters, or stationary bikes. I do circuit training with resistance equipment and free weights. Instead of doing one routine (like bench press) with 3 sets of 10 reps, I do 2 sets of 15 with less than 30 seconds between sets and then move on to another routine in less than 60 seconds. When I finish my warm-up hour, I change up to heavy weights and work muscle groups to exhaustion with 6 or less reps in 2 sets.

By constantly mixing up sets and routines, with very little time between sets, you can eliminate traditional cardio exercises. If you do circuit training properly, you will get excellent cardio results. My resting heartbeat is 55, and my blood pressure is 116/70.

As to bone mass and cartilage mass, my workout routine has shown a marked improvement over the last 15 years. My X-rays and scans amaze my doctors/chiropractor - they say I have the bone mass of a healthy 20-something instead of a 54 year old with lots of joint issues. IMO, weight resistance training produces much better results for bone mass than traditional cardio.

Diet and taking the correct supplements are also important, but a good exercise program is king.

So, I had this whole explanation written out, and I went to find a link, and accedently closed the window, losing what I had written. Instead, I'll just throw out some general principles that I have found to work.

- Diet is SUPER important. You can work out like a beast, but if you're eating crap, you won't be able to perform as well and won't be as lean.

- Make sure that your fitness program matches your goal. If you're training for an Ironman, then powerlifting probably isn't going to be as beneficial as something like 12 weeks to BUD/S, and I wouldn't spend hours on a stationary bike if I had a Strongest Lumberjack competition coming up.

- If you're a gun guy, you should be swimming and mountainbiking or riverrafting. A correctly performed crawl stroke is very similar to a draw stroke, and unless you feel like setting up an elaborate pulley system, I think its one of the best ways to go through the motions of drawing with resistance. Mountain biking and rafting are great for stress inoculation.

- We're all familiar with the expression "After a gun fight, no one has ever wished they had a smaller gun or less ammo." We'll, no one has ever said that things might have turned out better if they were slower and not as strong. Lift heavy weights.

- Like shooting, fitness is something that you can take as far as you want. Just as you don't have to go and train with Clint Smith every other week, you don't need to go to a Crossfit gym 5 days a week, and run 5 miles every other day... but could you imagine if you DID do that?

- Crossfit is good, but remember, every gym has their programming a little different. Some of the programs that I've really liked have been 5/3/1, and 12 Weeks to BUD/S. Stew Smith's website is a goldmine of information (http://www.stewsmith.com/)

- One thing we don't talk about a lot is stress and sleep. You want less of one and more of the other. I'm positive that I gained more over the holiday season than I should have, because of a lack of sleep (Although I'm sure all the junk food, the increase in alcohol, and the lack of training had an impact).

Hope this helps,
Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson