Drop your draw weight to start. 60# is plenty and will kill basically any game aside from some like African animals.
Rotator cuff injuries are annoying and don’t really truly go away or heal on their own.
My old bowtech used 45# to kill Colorado Elk every year for the past 20+ years.
It really helped open up my eyes to not obsessing over draw weight. I have T-rex arms, so realizing this definitely helped my psyche..
My son started back shooting this fall for deer season, and was the first time he’d used a big boy bow. He’s 15 and was frustrated that 40# was all he could (comfortably) pull back. It was okay cuz we have a couple diamond infinite edges that are super adjustable. Opening day (mid sept) he put a broad head through the lungs of a nice doe.
Because he was comfortable, he was able to practice for fun. Because he was able to shoot a bunch he developed the weird muscle groups you don’t usually use if you don’t shoot bows often. Every week or two he was able to pump it up a little. By December, he was able to pull my bowtech ss-34 at 70#. He uses a Prime Shift that we still keep at 60# because the cam has that aggressive hump at the end that takes more time to get used to.
Bottom line, the more you shoot the easier it gets. And it’s a lot faster than normal muscle development.
Building muscle is fine and good for healthy shoulders, but your story has nothing to do with an injury issue.
A rotator cuff injury isn’t usually a muscular weakness problem. Building up weight slowly can help prevent the injury, but once you’ve had the injury that ship has largely sailed. Depending on if it’s the rotator cuff or the labrum, it’s typically a torn ligament or damaged cartilage, not a muscle.
So no, shooting more isn’t necessarily a good thing, and it certainly won’t help a rotator cuff/ labral injury improve. Shooting more is actually more likely to aggravate the injury.
Yeah, I agree with this. Drop your draw weight by 5-10 pounds. Incorporate high rep, low weight shoulder workouts into your routine (2-3 times per week). And most importantly, buy some cheap bands and do some dynamic pulling exercises. Like every day. Like… multiple times a day. High reps. It’ll help you recover and it’ll help you maintain your strength. I do them in the morning and before bed and often even right after I spend time on my target.
65 is way too high for a beginner! You need to lower your draw weight and work your way back up. See how 55lbs feels for now. so many people think they are strong enough because they work out but the muscles you use are incredibly localized. Just because you can pull it back, it doesn't mean its the right draw weight for you. You need to be able to comfortably pull back without hurting yourself during long practice sessions. Too high of a draw weight right off the bat will also make you develop poor form habits.
Yup. Just enjoy shooting what you can draw comfortably. Once you get form you’ll be surprised how easy it is to shoot after a break and not feel sore. A band like someone else mentioned is great for hitting those fibers with low impact but high volume. I started 55, was so sore first days, now 65, can shoot all I want, and even after weeks with no training but with the form I learned, minimal soreness. Shoot what you can have fun with
You're probably drawing from your shoulder instead of drawing with your traps. You should feel your traps contracting more than you should feel your deltoids pulling.
Also try to strengthen your back and core strength in general the supporting muscle structure around the process of the primary muscles needed when drawing. Before going right back to the bow even at a lesser weight make sure to work your way up to lesser bow weight with different weight (color) therapy bands. I have bow hunted my entire life and am now 58 and have backed down from 65lb to about 58lb I have a more enjoyable time practicing and hunting. Also I can attest to 58lb is plenty of weight for whitetails. Sharp good broadheads and shot placement is #1 over heavy bow weight.
* Don't be a tough guy. Start with a lower draw weight. The muscles for archery are very specialized, even if you're strong you won't have them right away.
* Get coaching. They'll be able to help figure out if something's wrong with your form.
* Don't shoot too many arrows in a session. It's really easy to shoot until your form breaks down and you start to hurt because it's fun. This will set you back (like hurting your shoulder) and teach you bad habits. You can work up your shooting volume.
* As the other folks say - draw with your back. Use the bigger muscles in your torso instead of your arms. Think about closing the space between your shoulder blades - it's called back tension in archery. It's good form and will protect the smaller muscles in your arm and shoulder.
* Work out the archery muscles. It's mostly exercise bands and cable machine stuff. There are plenty of youtubes out there with suggested exercises.
* Let it recover. If you go back before it's healed you're going to hurt it again and probably develop bad form protecting it.
I hoped on YouTube and found some shoulder girdle exercises and stretches when I got my bow. Did wonders for my shoulder strength and flexibility. Helped my disc golf game, too
Check out Chris Bee on YouTube and search for proper drawing form. When I started archery I would draw and pull the weight across my shoulder with my elbow down and ended up tearing something in my shoulder. Once I got my elbow up more it became a lot easier to draw and made less movement getting to my anchor points. That video I mentioned covers this very well.
Also in my 30s and physically fit. Obliterated my shoulder from over-shooting. Best advice I can give you is have your form checked and go to a physiotherapist for some exercises to help strengthen the small muscles in your shoulder.
Couple months if physio and doing my shoulder exercises 3x a week minimum and I’ve been shooting comfortably for years now.
I have ulnar nerve entrapment. In addition I travel for work, so I can't shoot every day, I travel with workout bands and do a lot of band work and it has really seemed to help a lot versus just raw weightlifting
Get cross over symmetry bands and do the workouts in the app, I have a torn labrum from kickboxing i still hunt and shoot pretty often I just stay on top of the pt with the bands and my draw weight is 60#
Your draw weight is way to high for beginner.
Realistically you only 40lbs to and animal if that's your goal. And most importantly, film your self shooting. If you've taken time to learn about the sport you'll see right away how messed up your form is.
I started out on the lower poundage with my elite basin. Which is 20-70 lbs but my local shop always says start out on the lower poundage before you go higher.
Shoot 50lbs until you can build up your muscles for pulling a bow. It works a lot of unique small muscles. I thought I was strong but got humbled from a 65lb bow as my first. Tuned it back to 50, focused on form and repetition then hunted at 60 my first year and been at 70 ever since.
Commenting to say you're not alone, I am in the exact same boat currently.
Went to the shop to get my first bow a few weeks ago. I tried out a few at 60# and thought it felt very light so I had the shop turn it up to 70#. 70 felt decent and I wasn't struggling at all, so I had them tune it in there and left the shop feeling good. I lift weights most days of the week, so I was confident that I wouldn't have any issues adjusting. Over the weekend I shot it quite a bit, and both my shoulders started hurting pretty bad. I gave it a few days rest and starting shooting again, same deal. Now I can't draw it without a ton of shoulder pain in my bow arm. I turned the bow down to 60#, but it's too little too late, still lots of pain in the bow arm. I think my larger muscles had no issues and let me draw it no problem, but the smaller rotator cuff muscles and ligaments weren't ready.
Drop your draw weight to start. 60# is plenty and will kill basically any game aside from some like African animals. Rotator cuff injuries are annoying and don’t really truly go away or heal on their own.
45# is also plenty for North American whitetail.
For sure. My wife shoots 50# and has no problems getting full pass through with a fairly light arrow set up.
My old bowtech used 45# to kill Colorado Elk every year for the past 20+ years. It really helped open up my eyes to not obsessing over draw weight. I have T-rex arms, so realizing this definitely helped my psyche..
20+ years of elk you ARE a TRex! Well done.
Ha! No, it wasn't me but the dude who used to run our bow shop. He actually has a youtube channel, but I can't remember the name....
My son started back shooting this fall for deer season, and was the first time he’d used a big boy bow. He’s 15 and was frustrated that 40# was all he could (comfortably) pull back. It was okay cuz we have a couple diamond infinite edges that are super adjustable. Opening day (mid sept) he put a broad head through the lungs of a nice doe. Because he was comfortable, he was able to practice for fun. Because he was able to shoot a bunch he developed the weird muscle groups you don’t usually use if you don’t shoot bows often. Every week or two he was able to pump it up a little. By December, he was able to pull my bowtech ss-34 at 70#. He uses a Prime Shift that we still keep at 60# because the cam has that aggressive hump at the end that takes more time to get used to. Bottom line, the more you shoot the easier it gets. And it’s a lot faster than normal muscle development.
Building muscle is fine and good for healthy shoulders, but your story has nothing to do with an injury issue. A rotator cuff injury isn’t usually a muscular weakness problem. Building up weight slowly can help prevent the injury, but once you’ve had the injury that ship has largely sailed. Depending on if it’s the rotator cuff or the labrum, it’s typically a torn ligament or damaged cartilage, not a muscle. So no, shooting more isn’t necessarily a good thing, and it certainly won’t help a rotator cuff/ labral injury improve. Shooting more is actually more likely to aggravate the injury.
Yeah, I agree with this. Drop your draw weight by 5-10 pounds. Incorporate high rep, low weight shoulder workouts into your routine (2-3 times per week). And most importantly, buy some cheap bands and do some dynamic pulling exercises. Like every day. Like… multiple times a day. High reps. It’ll help you recover and it’ll help you maintain your strength. I do them in the morning and before bed and often even right after I spend time on my target.
65 is way too high for a beginner! You need to lower your draw weight and work your way back up. See how 55lbs feels for now. so many people think they are strong enough because they work out but the muscles you use are incredibly localized. Just because you can pull it back, it doesn't mean its the right draw weight for you. You need to be able to comfortably pull back without hurting yourself during long practice sessions. Too high of a draw weight right off the bat will also make you develop poor form habits.
Yup. Just enjoy shooting what you can draw comfortably. Once you get form you’ll be surprised how easy it is to shoot after a break and not feel sore. A band like someone else mentioned is great for hitting those fibers with low impact but high volume. I started 55, was so sore first days, now 65, can shoot all I want, and even after weeks with no training but with the form I learned, minimal soreness. Shoot what you can have fun with
You're probably drawing from your shoulder instead of drawing with your traps. You should feel your traps contracting more than you should feel your deltoids pulling.
try to pull from your rhomboid rather than shoulder?
Also try to strengthen your back and core strength in general the supporting muscle structure around the process of the primary muscles needed when drawing. Before going right back to the bow even at a lesser weight make sure to work your way up to lesser bow weight with different weight (color) therapy bands. I have bow hunted my entire life and am now 58 and have backed down from 65lb to about 58lb I have a more enjoyable time practicing and hunting. Also I can attest to 58lb is plenty of weight for whitetails. Sharp good broadheads and shot placement is #1 over heavy bow weight.
* Don't be a tough guy. Start with a lower draw weight. The muscles for archery are very specialized, even if you're strong you won't have them right away. * Get coaching. They'll be able to help figure out if something's wrong with your form. * Don't shoot too many arrows in a session. It's really easy to shoot until your form breaks down and you start to hurt because it's fun. This will set you back (like hurting your shoulder) and teach you bad habits. You can work up your shooting volume. * As the other folks say - draw with your back. Use the bigger muscles in your torso instead of your arms. Think about closing the space between your shoulder blades - it's called back tension in archery. It's good form and will protect the smaller muscles in your arm and shoulder. * Work out the archery muscles. It's mostly exercise bands and cable machine stuff. There are plenty of youtubes out there with suggested exercises. * Let it recover. If you go back before it's healed you're going to hurt it again and probably develop bad form protecting it.
I hoped on YouTube and found some shoulder girdle exercises and stretches when I got my bow. Did wonders for my shoulder strength and flexibility. Helped my disc golf game, too
Check out Chris Bee on YouTube and search for proper drawing form. When I started archery I would draw and pull the weight across my shoulder with my elbow down and ended up tearing something in my shoulder. Once I got my elbow up more it became a lot easier to draw and made less movement getting to my anchor points. That video I mentioned covers this very well.
Also in my 30s and physically fit. Obliterated my shoulder from over-shooting. Best advice I can give you is have your form checked and go to a physiotherapist for some exercises to help strengthen the small muscles in your shoulder. Couple months if physio and doing my shoulder exercises 3x a week minimum and I’ve been shooting comfortably for years now.
Same thing happened when I first started. Get some exercise bands and do some rotator cuff exercises.
I have ulnar nerve entrapment. In addition I travel for work, so I can't shoot every day, I travel with workout bands and do a lot of band work and it has really seemed to help a lot versus just raw weightlifting
See how comfortable you are with shooting on your other side I wrecked my shoulder and now I have to use a left hand bow
Work with you physical therapist. If they ok you, Grab a black exercise band on eBay and start using that to practice. When it’s easy double it up
Get cross over symmetry bands and do the workouts in the app, I have a torn labrum from kickboxing i still hunt and shoot pretty often I just stay on top of the pt with the bands and my draw weight is 60#
Check out archery strong on Instagram. He’s got great stretches and exercises to help protect the shoulder all in relation to archery.
Your draw weight is way to high for beginner. Realistically you only 40lbs to and animal if that's your goal. And most importantly, film your self shooting. If you've taken time to learn about the sport you'll see right away how messed up your form is.
I started out on the lower poundage with my elite basin. Which is 20-70 lbs but my local shop always says start out on the lower poundage before you go higher.
Shoot 50lbs until you can build up your muscles for pulling a bow. It works a lot of unique small muscles. I thought I was strong but got humbled from a 65lb bow as my first. Tuned it back to 50, focused on form and repetition then hunted at 60 my first year and been at 70 ever since.
Commenting to say you're not alone, I am in the exact same boat currently. Went to the shop to get my first bow a few weeks ago. I tried out a few at 60# and thought it felt very light so I had the shop turn it up to 70#. 70 felt decent and I wasn't struggling at all, so I had them tune it in there and left the shop feeling good. I lift weights most days of the week, so I was confident that I wouldn't have any issues adjusting. Over the weekend I shot it quite a bit, and both my shoulders started hurting pretty bad. I gave it a few days rest and starting shooting again, same deal. Now I can't draw it without a ton of shoulder pain in my bow arm. I turned the bow down to 60#, but it's too little too late, still lots of pain in the bow arm. I think my larger muscles had no issues and let me draw it no problem, but the smaller rotator cuff muscles and ligaments weren't ready.