Specific muscles/weight lifting to aid in holding up/out a long arm

[GRIZ22]

Double time at port arms with it. this will also give you an aerobic workout. That's what they do in basic training.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Thanks for all the advice. What I'm going to try is lighter weight with more reps. It's a different approach than I've ever tried so I'm curious to see the end results. Shooting more frequently these days isn't an option. Fortunately, it should be easy for me to determine if the weight lifting is helping. Even when I go sporting clay shooting, the gun starts to get heavy about half way through when we're shooting 50 shells or so.

 

[gym]

Jut a circuit trainin course, run through it 3 times and your done. usually any decent gym has a 10-12 machine circuit training setup

 

[ball3006]

The rotator cuff muscles are "little" muscles so you should not use much weight but high reps when working them. I use a 2 1/2 lb plate to work mine. A program of overall body conditioning would work much better in your case. A shotgun is not that heavy.....chris3

 

[dampoo]

I received this in the mail a long time ago.

The fitness program I heard about where you are supposed to hold a 10 lb potato sack at arms length for as long as you could.

After two weeks of doing it, I was able to hold the potato bag straight out for 5 minutes.

After that I put one potato in the sack.

 

[Striker Fired]

I was dealing with shaking and getting weak armed when I first started shooting pistol league this winter,I have a bunch of different strength resistant bands from the physical therapist and started using them. I stand on one end and wrap the other end around my right hand or the pistol grip so when I bring the gun up in normal shooting posistion, I'm fighting the bands also.It has helped tremendously because it works all those little muscles that are used to keep steady plus the bigger muscles.You can add more bands or stretch them out more to increase resistance.

 

[MachIVshooter]

also go high reps that build to a slow burn
beach muscles fatigue much quicker

True.

However, the best approach is to bulk first with low reps/heavy weights and appropriate diet, then cut and tone with high reps when you're happy with the mass.

But.........be careful. I hurt myself real bad 2 years ago doing shoulder flys with 45 lb. dumbells. Went just a little too high, and for months it hurt in any position. Still isn't quite right to this day, I just work through the pain.

That said, you also need to figure out your body type so you know what kind of diet and exercise it will or won't respond to. There are three basic types, and most people are a combination of the three with one having strong overtones:

Ectomorph-lean, smaller build, high energy, can eat anything and not gain weight, but bulking muscle is very difficult.

Mesomorph-usually medium build, very stabile metabolism, naturally fit, respond well to most training.

Endomorph-usually heavier build, slow metabolism, gain weight easily, have to train constantly to stay in good shape.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Some of us are lucky, being mostly mesomorph. I don't diet carefully or train on a regimen, but am very physically active. With my activity level and body type, I have maintained the same weight since I was 18 years old (30 now) with good muscle tone and relatively low body fat (~13%). However, I have the larger bone structure usually associated with endomorph and the difficulty with bulking that ectomorphs have. My heaviest training regimen before my shoulder injury was a calculated diet and 4 days a week times 2.5 hours each at the gym, and in 3 months time, I only cut .6% body fat and gained 7 whole pounds of muscle. My body type is naturally fit, but does not like to change one way or the other without extreme measures.