Weight Training

I'm very very new to the sport. I want to get better fast. To me weight training seems to be a key - in addition to shooting a lot.

-build endurance
-build muscle control
-minimize arc of movement

The obvious one is to hold your gun at a target until your arm falls off. I'm not sure, alone, if that is enough.

I added a wrist weight, and held until my arm fell off. Still not sure...

Larry Carter told me of Bill Blankenship who practiced for windy days by holding his gun while another gun hung from his wrist swinging on a string. I took a 5 pound weight, made a wrist strap, and hung it from my wrist - swinging it as I held the gun until my arm fell off.

Better - I could feel more muscles being used to stabilize the motion and weight.

Dawned on me that if I built all the muscles of my arm, upper back, and shoulder (for endurance, not mass) that the muscles used in the pistol hold would be better supported, less prone to overuse injury, and all around happier. I'm finding that my scores are dropping and it takes much longer now for my arm to fall off during hold training.

I am doing the following:

--Dumbbell Curls - Classic bicep exercise.

--Dumbbell Press - Press dumbbell from shoulder, up, over head.

--Arnold Curl - Hold dumbbells in each hand. Arms bent at elbow at right angle to the side - dumbbell up, upper arm perpendicular to body, weights above they head. Press up so dumbbells touch over your head, return to start position. Keep arms at right angle - bring arms and elbows to front by face so that hands and elbows touch.

--Push Ups

--Sit Ups

--Angel Wings - Hold dumbbell in each hand arms down, palm facing body. Bring arms up slowly to side, arms straight until hands touch overhead.

--Frankenstein - Hold dumbbell in each hand, arms at side, palms facing back. Raise arms straight up until your arms are out straight in front of you. Hold.

--Front Row - Hold dumbbell in each hand, hands facing you, on your waist. Bend elbows, bringing dumbbells up to your chin.

--Bent-Over Butterfly - Hold dumbbell in each hand, bend at waist, arms hanging down. Look ahead (not down), bring arms up until they are outstretched, arching your back and chest.

--Forearm Curls - attach a weight to a 4 foot string. Attach the other end to a pipe or dowel (@1" in diameter). Extend your arms and roll your wrist so that the rope curls around the dowel and the weight is winched up all the way to the dowel. Unroll and do it again.

All these exercises are done verrrrrrry slooooowly - controlling the weight throughout the motion. No jerking and no swinging of weights. This is about relatively low weights done many times through a range of motion without strain. If grunting is involved, your weight is too much or you are over doing it.

I weight train every other day - for three sessions then two days off (usually Mon, Wed, Friday). I do a variety of exercises in a session - many slow repetitions in multiple sets - not the same routine every day. I do not want my muscles to get use-to any single exercise. I am building my arms, chest, back and shoulders - again, not mass but endurance and strength.

I am also doing stretching sessions, hand grip exercises, and arm holds of various weights.

I do dry-firing with the wrist weight on days when I am not weight training and I try to shoot 4 times a week.

I told you. I want to get better fast.

Anyone have other training techniques? Perhaps they have been discussed before. I'm open to any suggestions. My biggest concern is preventing an injury - strain or overuse. That would sidetrack my goal of going to Camp Perry next year.

All input appreciated.

Scott Simmonds
Newbie From Maine

Scott, you are wise to be concerned about overdoing the exercise. Having a body like Schwarzenegger is not necessary to be a good shooter. You should strive for balanced fitness that includes stamina to complete a day of shooting.

Walking, running or bicycling will build the cardio-pulmonary fitness necessary. Shooting arm strength is more an issue of control than brutishness. Training with weights that do not conform to the grip of or pistol is not as good as simply using your pistol as a weight. If you feel you must increase it's weigh get an old magazine and remove the internal parts. Fill it with lead wool or cast it with molten lead (plug all those holes). PLEASE DO NOT USE A LOADED MAGAZINE!

Exercise by standing and addressing the target (a blank wall will do). Lift your pistol to shooting position and acquire sight alignment and hold for 10 seconds. This exercise will strengthen the muscles that control your stance, ALL muscles on your "shooting side" from back, shoulder, upper and lower arm and grip. It also has the advantage of training your muscles to remember the actual position required to assure that recovery during recoil will return the aligned sights to the target.

I am not an exercise physiologist, but experience and association with good shooters over the past 25 years has taught me what works and what does not.
Larry (WA)

Larry, from your avatar it looks like you won't need to add a weighted magazine to you wad gun to get the desired result! In "The Pistol Shooter's Treasury" Bill Blankenship said that he didn't lift weights because it didn't result in the desired benefit for him. He also stated that one size doesn't fit all. I've used a milk jug, partially filled with water and held it out to build muscle tone in the shooting arm and shoulder. I also tied a string to it and stapled the string to a piece of wooden broom handle for roll up exercises. This is to increase grip strength and muscle tone in the hand. After the muscles are toned, for me, shooting matches regularly and dry-firing will keep them in shape. Like Larry says, you don't have to devote so much to weight lifting to shoot well. Take some of that time and effort and learn proper trigger control. Bill Blankenship has some very good articles about learning trigger control in "The Pistol Shooter's Treasury". A very few learn to be a good bullseye shooter quickly. Most of us learn over a matter of years.

Based on my younger days experience, tennis or racquet ball type type activity does wonders for the shooting game. Youth probably had something to do with it. Whatever you do for hold exercise, do not teach yourself to hold and NOT pool ze triggaire.

Never hold only on a bull unless you pool ze triggaire too. I think it is Blankenship who wrote to hold on a horizontal line, a vertical line, then both. I recall using a box with an X across it. Start on the perimeter and move along the X to the center along each leg. Of course size it appropriately. Above all, keep it in your head that you are practicing keeping the gun up, alignment, steadiness, and placement.

From what I've read, LIGHT weight training, with the goal of keeping muscles toned and lean is the way to go. Bulking up doesn't appear to help. I use a 3lb or 5lb weight to do forearm, wrist exercises, as well as shoulder exercises. These exercises also help for my tennis game in preventing injury.

Tennis I think is a great all over sport...however the downside is that it is really easy to hurt your wrist and shoulder...both of which have directly affect your shooting.

Thanks for the comments.

The heaviest weight I'm using is 12 pounds - most of the time I'm using 5 pounds.

Many reps, very slowly.

Scott,
Would you share your actual pistol training plan with another newcomer to BE. I imagine it must be as detailed as the weight training plans.

Pretty simple...

Dry fire an hour a day (4 sets of 15 minutes) - 6 days a week.

Shoot two targets slow fire - 50 shots per target - at 50 yards - 4 days a week. Track only the shots in the ten or x ring. Focus on shooting Xs.

One night a week I shoot a 900 - scoring and tracking each target.

All scores are entered into a spreadsheet so I can track my progress.

Read and re-read the Army Marksmanship Unit handbook.

Read and re-read Gil Hebard' s Pistol Shooters Treasury.

Read and absorb half of what is said on this board. I have not figured out which half yet.

S

Then there are times like now that I don't have time to touch my guns for weeks at a time.

Dang work, and other stuff I gotta do.