With a compound bow the muscles work less than with a recurve during the draw

With a compound bow the muscles work less than with a recurve during the draw · What changed https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/compound-recurve-muscle-activity-draw Changes to this claim in Matteo Campagna's evidence registry: its status, its year-by-year history, revisions of the page. en-gb Claim page revised, version 2https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/compound-recurve-muscle-activity-drawThe comparison exists, but it is small and comes from a single laboratory: two master's theses from the University of North Dakota, in 2000 and 2001, recording the electromyography of seven and then six archers experienced with both bows, shooting a compound set to 55 lb with 75 per cent let-off and a 55 lb recurve. In the first, looking only at the draw up to full draw, seven of twelve shoulder and arm muscles work harder with the recurve, almost all of them on the drawing arm, with the largest difference in the middle trapezius (16.5 per cent); the other five, almost all on the bow side, work slightly harder with the compound, with small differences going down to 1.4 per cent. The second looks at the wrist and forearm and finds the same pattern over time: with the compound activity is higher in the first part, up to about 30 per cent of the time, then falls steadily where the authors place the let-off, between 20 and 46 per cent, and stays below that of the recurve. So the answer depends on the point in the draw: the compound asks for more up to the let-off, while the force is at its peak, and less after it. Both pieces of work share the same limits: no statistical test, no peer review, and the six archers of 2001 were already in the 2000 sample. On top of that, the second thesis gives averages up to the release that include the hold, because its archers reached full draw only at the very end, and the hold lasted three seconds with the compound and one with the recurve.claim:compound-trazione-lavoro-muscolare:revision:2026-04-04:2Sat, 04 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT "With a compound bow the muscles work less than with a recurve during the draw" added to the registry as Contestedhttps://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/compound-recurve-muscle-activity-drawclaim:compound-trazione-lavoro-muscolare:new_claim:2026-03-17:contestatoTue, 17 Mar 2026 08:00:00 GMT