Tune your body not your gun

[bkjeffrey]

Everyone here practices proper shooting techniques at one point or another. Some people only focus on technique instead of the mere enjoyement of casual plinking. Humans are competetive by nature, and wether it be defensive pistol, long range rifle, or skeet/trap, the human body when properly taken care of can improve your performance in all of the aspects of the sport.

Imagine a well trained human body with essential core strength would be able to control recoil, control breathing, control bone and muscle support, and control follow up shots and shot follow through. Or, imagine an overweight, short winded individual trying to swing a shotgun on a skeet, run an IDPA match, or lay prone and shoot High Power. The out of shape guy would be a serious disadvantage I would think.

So, with that, who here trains their body physically while focusing on improving shooting techniques? Do you do any specific exercises to learn better muscle control? Practice breathing techniques while winded? Im looking for some exercises to add to my regimine.

 

[TeamPrecisionIT]

While I am active with exercise and keep my body in shape, it hasn't helped my shooting much. What really helped my shooting was dry practice and focused practice at the range with only a few (for me) live rounds shot. I will dry practice at home watching a movie, TV, etc. And then when I make it to the range, my carry/comp guns, I will only do focused drills and that usually only consists of about 40-50 rounds fired with CF ammo. Since I just picked up a 22LR, I have started to incorporate that, too.

Damian

 

[P.B.Walsh]

I work out, it has helped me to keep a rifle up longer (less muscle fatigue).

What is cool is that I have been pulling back a standard AR-15 trigger and bolt rifles feel like I just touch them to go off.

 

[Howard Roark]

Here are a couple of articles written by CPL Walter Craig, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.

http://www.odcmp.org/0906/default.asp?page=USAMU_RANGEDIET

http://www.odcmp.org/1107/default.asp?page=USAMU_CONDITIONING

I dry fire for muscle memory and use my treadmill for endurance exercise.

 

[Soupy44]

I shot in college and have been involved with the workout programs for the university's rifle team for 5 years now. We require 3 hours of workouts a week, 2 hours of strength training, 1 hour of cardio. However, I need to qualify this.

We are looking to get only a minor improvement in score from this. In smallbore and air rifle, technique is the path to improvement for beginners through intermediates. I would not suggest a workout program for anyone below the advanced level. Before then, it is important for the shooter to realize position and mental processes are key. Everyone is used to working out and using muscle to improve their athletic ability. However, it is much harder to get someone to relax and let the positioning of the body work for them.

Mentally, the slowing down part is the hardest. I took some friends shooting in December because they wanted to learn to operate a number of firearms. I didn't cover much beyond the fundamentals until they were shooting my AR. They weren't shooting too badly, but told them to slow down for 5 shots offhand. They both took less than 30sec to shoot those shots. Now, take a collegiate shooter and tell them to slow down for 5 shots offhand, and I know of a number who could take 10min for those 5 shots.

Now in my personal experience, working out did benefit my shooting. At Perry for smallbore a few years ago, the wind was really blowing during offhand. We are given 40min for 20 shots standing for 2 targets in a row. I ended up taking 70-80 holds for each target and took nearly all of my 80min to fire my shots. I feel the deadlifts I did in workouts were very beneficial to being able to pick up a 15lb rifle 150 times and holding it.

But I am an advanced shooter. Take an intermediate shooter and get them to workout, and they will have a compromised ability to tell whether or not they are muscling the gun, or letting their position work for them.

 

[btg3]

"Be it good or bad, you earn your health every day of your life."

I don't recall who said that, and there are exceptions, but still there's much to heed in that quote. Here's another:

"Do what you don't want to do, to become who you want to be."

Both quotes speak to a long-term committment to self-discipline. The application regarding fitness requires good choices regarding diet, excercise, sleep, mental stimulation, etc.

You can look around and see 3 kinds of people:
1. Those that make good choices.
2. Those that do not make good choices.
3. Those that are unfortunate enough to have their choices limited through no fault of their own.

Specifically for competition shooting, realize that muscle memory is a big component of training. There are specific drills that help with this, BUT... coaching is a good investment to assure that your muscles remember good technique rather than poor technique. It's another one of those choices that we all make, or fail to make.

 

[ny32182]

I've thought for a while that all else being equal, an athlete should have a slight to moderate advantage in shooting sports depending on the sport of course.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I play roller derby. Best shape of my life.

 

[Justin]

At Rocky Mountain 3 Gun Nationals last year, it became quite clear that I'd put on an unacceptable amount of body fat, had no stamina, and a lack of upper body strength.

Shortly after that match, I joined a local Crossfit gym and started going five times a week. I dropped about 30 pounds of body fat, and have managed to make noticeable gains in both upper body strength and endurance.

I've noticed that I'm now able to complete stages faster, and while I don't know that Crossfit has had a noticeable effect on the actual act of marksmanship itself, it has had an effect on how quickly I can move through a course of fire.

 

[shockwave]

who here trains their body physically while focusing on improving shooting techniques?

That's exactly what I'm doing. Circumstances had me away from shooting for a few years, and when I went back to the range I found that my arm and grip strength were not where I wanted them to be. So in addition to my daily martial arts practice and chi gong exercises, I've added the P90X program (not for the faint-hearted) and and also doing a number of the grip strength exercises explained here.

My magnum revolvers are heavy guns, and so is the shotgun. There is a minimum amount of strength necessary to operate them well. As a bonus, while I added physical condition primarily for handling my firearms, I'm getting all kinds of other benefits as well. Highly recommended.

 

[kopcicle]

Tune both . I have by the simplest of modifications to a pistol grip turned that pistol into a usable weapon when before it was an indistinct shooter at best . For years I had steel in my hands at construction sites and fabrication shops . When I no longer was using and abusing my upper body I noticed not only that my "hold" had changed but that it was less instinctive and headed to the gym to rectify the issue .

So, both ...

~kop