Injury stalled my budding bowhunting career last year. Part of the trouble with my back and shoulder began with a nasty fall down the stairs. While recuperating from that mess, I thought I was getting strong enough to continue learning to shoot my new bow. I quickly found that to be a mistake. I kept having pain while I worked out at the gym or practiced my shooting and it kept me awake every night. I was getting frightened that I would end up needing some sort of heinous surgery that would completely derail my ever learning archery. I thought that if I kept working out, I would eventually work through it. I made it much worse and didn’t get to hunt at all.
– Two great products to help you shoot better, higher poundages and keep from injury.
I had seen the ads etc, on bowhunting.net so during a conversation with Rich Walton I mentioned my shoulder problems. I do some Product Field Evaluations for Rich and he mentioned the BowFit would be a great product to try and see if it worked for me. I was sent this simple, yet ingenious exercise tool and an extremely interesting, informative DVD. BowFit is a wonderful fitness device made with various weights of surgical tubing to give custom workout strengths and a padded yet sturdy grip that helps you to duplicate the movements of shooting a bow while strengthening all of the muscle groups that normal daily activities and exercises do not address.
Injuries are generally avoidable but are most frequently caused by archers not warming up their muscles or stretching before they practice. Another problem archers have is trying to pull more weight than they are used to or able to comfortably. Just because you can get the bow pulled back doesn’t mean that it is the correct weight for you. You also need to be able to sustain the draw.
– Daughter Kelly shows BowFit in use.
Bow hunters end up in medical offices because they decide to go out a week before hunting season to sight in their bows and pretend they have not gotten a year older. Absolutely you must sight in you bow, but don’t start a week before hunting season. Start several weeks or months before hunting. You are going to have a much better hunt and keep yourself out of the ER if you follow some simple tips from ArcheryFit. ArcheryFit is packed with great information from major players in the archery world, I needed to watch it several times to get a grasp on all of the tips and techniques. After resting my shoulder for several months, I began working with my Bowfit and learned so many techniques from the ArcheryFit video about proper stretching and strengthening techniques, I am able to use my compound bow with no pain.
While at the Team Huntress Outdoor Adventure Camp recently, I also found out that I could pull back a 51# recurve bow and make the shot. I had never tried a recurve and had always thought I would not have the strength to hold one. I was very pleasantly surprised. I credit the exercises I have been doing with my BowFit for allowing me to learn a new facet of archery.
There are so many tips on the ArcheryFit DVD whether you are a seasoned archer or a beginner you will be able to get some helpful information to help you improve your game. If you couple an ArcheryFit DVD with a BowFit, you will be much farther ahead when bow season comes along.
You may find both ArcheryFit and BowFit in the Cabela’s catalog, or online at www.cabelas.com or www.BowFit.com
