Military presses are a great way to build upper arm strength for shooting
The short answer to that question is “yes, duh.” Shooting is a physical activity, and like any thing you do that involves muscles and coordination, being in better condition is going to make you better at it. Please note before you flame me in comments, that if you are in poor condition, I am by no means saying that you shouldn’t carry a gun or compete in action shooting or anything like that.
However, if you’re serious about developing your shooting skills as a competitive shooter, you cannot ignore physical fitness. Guys like Dave Sevigny and Bob Vogel certainly don’t, and their physicality is part of the reason they’ve been so dominant in the shooting sports in the past couple of years. Yes, they’re excellent at the simple mechanics of shooting as well, but having good sight alignment and trigger control doesn’t help you when you’re running 15 yards in Florida in July trying to whack plates during the Pro-Am. If sprinting 5 yards gets your heart rate up so high that your gun hand is jumping around, it might be time to consider supplementing some of your range time with a little bit of time on the treadmill.
If you do decide to start trying to get fit, there are quite a few good programs out there – Simple Fit, Stronglifts, Couch to 5k programs, etc. And as someone who’s been on the fitness bandwagon for years, here are some pitfalls of getting started to avoid.
- Rewards: It’s good to have rewards to motivate yourself. However, if your reward for running a mile (which burns ~100 calories give or take) is to eat a 400 calorie chocolate chip cookie, then you would have been better off not running OR rewarding yourself.
- Lack of goals: Do you want more endurance? Do you want to be stronger? Maybe you want to be able to pick up your 45 lb child and swing them around without thinking “oh my back ow ow ow ow”. Identify your short and long term goals. Whether it’s run a mile in 6 minutes, deadlift 250×5, or “do a pull up”, pick a goal and a method of getting there.
- Avoid gimmick exercises. If I could destroy every Ab-Blaster, Shake Weight, and other similar gimmick machine on the planet I would. There’s a reason we’ve been doing push ups, pull ups, squats, and similar exercises forever. They work.
- There are no shortcuts. We are addicted to the “get ripped in just 10 minutes a day” mentality. But just like there are no shortcuts to becoming a world class shooter, there are no shortcuts to being fit.
I will say, do not underestimate the importance of finding a routine that you do not hate to work on. I started out on some pretty basic weight lifting and cardio, that I could do in 30 minutes a few times a week. It wasn’t as comprehensive or advanced as it could have been, but I did it, and made progress. Then the trainer moved me to a move advanced workout, hitting more muscle groups together… but it took longer, and it was *really* boring… and I eventually lost the motivation to keep doing it.
If you like lifting, do more lifting. If you like yoga, or dance, or running, do that. You’re going to need some combination eventually to be in awesome shape, but the vast majority of people can make good progress just by doing what they’ll actually enjoy (or at least hate less). It matters much more that you’re still doing it in 6 months than exactly how efficiently you’ve been working.
“Lack of goals: Do you want more endurance? Do you want to be stronger? Maybe you want to be able to pick up your 45 lb child and swing them around without thinking “oh my back ow ow ow ow”. Identify your short and long term goals.”
I want to fit into tighter pants!
Kidding aside great article! Maybe you could do a breakdown of your weekly workout and why each is good for what, and how that improves your performance on the firing line.
I’m actually on a very simple routing right now that I’ll breakdown in the upcoming weeks as I work through various exercises.
I do know my shooting improved dramatically when I (re)started a comprehensive weight loss and fitness program. Just to throw my $.03 (inflation) in, I generally run 2.5-3.5 miles four times a week at a pace between 8:30 and 8:00 minutes per miles (I’m 41 and don’t intend to run marathons or anything) and I do a TRX workout three times per week. I have the old TRX Force setup, so I do both the upper and lower body week 12 exercises in one session three times a week. It’s a good full-body workout, and the core portion is great.
At the last Nationals I followed the production super squad around for a bit. With a few exceptions, those guys are jacked! Vogel may look skinny on tv, but that’s because he’s about 6’3″. In person he’s pretty physically imposing. Ditto the rest of them. It definitely inspired me to make physical fitness a competitive advantage going forward.
Yeah, shaking hands with Vogel is a scary experience.
Professional shooting seems to have a few more John Daly types than golf does. But being in shape and regularly working out enhances everything in your life – sleeping, sex, eating, everything that matters. Don’t be the fat guy mall ninja/operator who thinks you’re tough just because you carry a gun.
Yes I think it does. Plus I think you get a confidence boost from working out.
resistance training makes yo a better shooter for numerous reasons. The key being, if executed properly, it’ll desensitize you to the affects of an elevated heart rate and adrenaline. If your resistance program is designed optimally, for maximum adrenaline release, it’ll stimulate the fight/flight response. This hormanal cascade, will then induce: elevated heart rate, tunnel vision, micro-tremors in the extremities, etc. By consistently and repeatedly inducing the fight/flight response, you’ll be able to better condition your body to mitigate the response.
The key however, is to utilize protocols which induce the fight/flight response…your typical “Performa set and rest 3 minutes until the next set,” will not achieve it.
Additionally, a resistance training program can strengthen your grip, along with your upper body pulling muscles, which are predominately responsible for controlling recoil. If utilizing long firearms, then the rotator cuff muscles come into play.
Full disclosure: I have written for S.W.A.T. Magazine and am currently writing an article on the protocols I utilize improved shooting.
That’s even more thinking though, because for most people simply becoming better fit will improve their physical skill at shooting.
NASCAR drivers used to be good ole’ boys. But today’s drivers are fit.
A good man I attended church with was 5-10 175lbs and played defensive end on the 1951 NCAA National Championship team. At the time, we had just repeated as the 1999 National Champs and he remarked that the kids playing today were “monsters”.
It only makes sense that being physically fit improves the quality of life. It will not give you inherent skill or talent, but it will improve the physical quality and endurance of shooting.
I have the Wii Fit Plus. That’s my work out!
Fitness should definitely be a part of any serious shooter’s training regimen.
At the very basic level anyone can do a few exercises that emulate requirements they are trying to meet. Presenting a 10 pound dumbbell for example to strengthen muscles in the arms used for shooting or sprinting to lessen it’s impact on your accuracy.
If I may make a suggestion, if you have twenty to thirty minutes a day (i.e. your hour lunch break minus shower time and stretch and cool down), get some boxing gloves and hit the bag. A good boxing routine is just as good cardio as running while adding upper body strength. Even better, substitute your minute rest interval with some plyometrics like box hops or do lunges and you have a good thirty minute exercise that will get you in decent shape for the range. It won’t make you fitness super star but it will give you the edge you need over the softies and the ability to keep up with the more fit people.
Zombieland Rule #1: Cardio. :)
“As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives [only] moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks.”
– Thomas Jefferson, writing to his teenaged nephew.
As it relates to self defense being fit is always better.
I’m apt to agree, but still, being able to shoot when you need to is the most important skill we can have.
Look at Rob Leatham – he’s had knee replacement, etc. He was .5% of Vogel at the Lim10 Nationals?
Sevigny was only 2% better than him at Single Stack?
And Angus Hobdell ain’t exactly svelte, either. And Vic Pickett, who regularly cleans up at ICORE and other revolver matches is kinda large, too. I should know, I shoot with all three.
Now, does being in shape HURT your shooting? No, of course not. But is it up there with trigger, transitions and movement? No.
But, your transitions and movement will be faster if you are fit. I can think of more than a few IDPA stages, which is supposed to de-emphasize movement where being a better athlete has helped me.
If the path one wishes to walk involves lifting weights, I highly recommend Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength” series of books. It will teach you how to lift properly (and safely), how to build strength, and give you a simple template for doing so. That is, just read and follow; many have gone down this path before, so take from their experience, do what they suggest, and you will progress and improve.
After that, consider looking at programs such as the Jim Wendler 5/3/1 method, or at least studying the philosophy underlying that program (N.O.V.). Things such as hill sprints, Prowler pushes, sled pulls, etc. will take you further than long-slow distance running. Whether you’re shooting for competition or shooting for self-defense, any running you do won’t be over the course of 26.2 miles, but will involve sprinting. Train for your problem set.
FWIW, I know some people in the shooting community are big into CrossFit. A great article summing up the good and bad of CrossFit was just posted yesterday and is well worth the read for anyone considering CrossFit.
http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/12/whats-the-deal-with-crossfit/
(I have no affiliation with 70sbig.com, I just read the blog).
Hsoi is spot on. I made incredible gains on Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Program. I also did and enjoyed CrossFit. Reading the entire post on 70sbig was pretty eye opening, especially the crossfit white pages:
http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/Crossfit_White_Papers_–_Timeline.html
Things such as hill sprints, Prowler pushes, sled pulls, etc. will take you further than long-slow distance running. Whether you’re shooting for competition or shooting for self-defense, any running you do won’t be over the course of 26.2 miles, but will involve sprinting
I agree that short movements that mimic motions we do at matches are probably more appropriate, however there is something to having to dig down really deep to finish a grueling match that things like marathons can help with.
The fact that I have run marathons made it easier to deal with the “99F in the shade” weather we had for the Wisconsin Sectional this past July. I finished 5th; how I dunno since I 0′d a stage (magazine issues…). Only thing I could think I was that people less fit buckled under the heat and self doubt…
Still, Ben Stoeger won because he outshot everyone else…
If you want to talk about digging down deep, try pushing a Prowler. :-)
This isn’t a pissing contest tho. Your point is quite valid in that any sort of exercise we undertake does need to push us outside of our comfort zone, else we’ll never progress, never improve, and never become tougher and stronger so that when we’re in a tough(er) situation we can push through it.
So what’s the mathematical formula that reflects how much your times and scores improve with each pound lost?
I specifically avoided saying “pounds lost” because losing weight may not be everyone’s goal.
Finally! I agree whole-heartedly. I have been doing Power90 for the last two years. Considering graduating to P90X.