The weight of shooting clothing does not change how the leg muscles work
1 study
The summary today
No study of archers, and no study of a general population sample, has measured whether shooting clothing changes how the leg muscles work. The only paper on the subject had thirty young men aged 18 to 25 who were not archers, half blind and half sighted, shoot three arrows at ten metres without and with shooting clothing, recording eight leg muscles with electromyography while taking up the bow, during the draw and at the release. The effect of the clothing is calculated on the two groups together, and the blind half makes the sample unlike the people who usually shoot: the registry does not rest its claims on samples of this kind, so the study stays as context. Read that way, it says little even on its own terms: of seventy-two uncorrected tests only four fall below 0.05, and only one concerns the clothing, the vastus medialis at the release, while the authors infer that the clothing may help balance.
Also phrased as: "shooting clothing and leg muscles"; "heavy clothing in archery"; "clothing weight and shooting posture"; "does clothing change balance when shooting"
In practice
Shooting clothing is discussed for comfort and to keep the string clear of the garments, hardly ever for the muscles: it is taken for granted that, freedom of movement aside, what you wear does not change the work of the legs.
Evidence
-
2024
Context General population Published later
30 young men aged 18 to 25 who were not archers, in two groups, blind and sighted; three arrows at 10 metres without and with shooting clothing, electromyography of 8 lower-limb muscles while taking up the bow, during the draw and at the release, two-way analysis of variance. Across 24 combinations of muscle and phase, each with three effects tested, only 4 results fall below p=0.05, with effect sizes between 0.262 and 0.490, and no correction for multiple comparisons. The effect of the clothing is calculated on all thirty together, half of them blind: for this reason it stays as context and does not count towards the status. Regional journal.
The Effect of Clothing Weight on the Range of Lower Limb Muscle Activities during the Execution of Archery Skills in Blind People · Mohsen Barghamadi, Sara Imani Broj, Hamed Sheikhalizadeh
-
2024
Context General population Published later
In the same study, the only effect linked to the clothing: vastus medialis activity at the release changes between without and with shooting clothing, p=0.030, with an effect of 0.262. The other three significant results concern the difference between the two groups, not the clothing. The authors infer that the clothing may improve balance, but one effect out of twenty-four does not carry that conclusion.
The Effect of Clothing Weight on the Range of Lower Limb Muscle Activities during the Execution of Archery Skills in Blind People · Mohsen Barghamadi, Sara Imani Broj, Hamed Sheikhalizadeh
Status history
- 2024 Not studied The first paper on the subject arrives, and it does not answer the question for people who shoot: thirty young men who were not archers, half blind and half sighted, loose three arrows at ten metres without and with shooting clothing, with electromyography of eight leg muscles, and the effect of the clothing is calculated on the two groups together. Of seventy-two tests only four fall below 0.05, just one of them linked to the clothing. With a sample that is half blind the study stays as context, and the question remains unstudied.
Related
Related articles
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). The weight of shooting clothing does not change how the leg muscles work (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/shooting-clothing-weight-leg-muscles
@misc{campagna2026_abbigliamentotiromuscoligambe,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {The weight of shooting clothing does not change how the leg muscles work},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/shooting-clothing-weight-leg-muscles},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
Follow this claim
RSS is an address you paste into a feed reader: each time this claim changes status, adds a year to its history or is revised, a new item appears there.
Registry updates by email
At most one email a month, sent only when something has changed: claims that change status, new claims, Lab predictions registered or resolved, new studies and new books.
Sign-ups are handled by Systeme.io, the service that runs the newsletter. Every email has a link to unsubscribe with one click.
Other claims in this domain
- CorroboratedAlong its flight the arrow loses an appreciable part of its launch speed12 studiesStatus since 2011
- CorroboratedAs it leaves the bow, the arrow flexes and snakes around the riser instead of leaving straight19 studies · 47 archers measuredStatus since 2012
- ReportedA camera-based scoring system misreads some arrows: the ones barely sticking out and the ones that shift the target face7 studies · 2 archers measuredStatus since 2017
- ReportedA chest band with fibre optic sensors measures breathing and mean heart rate with small errors, and an archer can wear it while shooting2 studiesStatus since 2019
- ReportedA compound bow stores between 70 and 100 joules and sheds about two thirds of the force at full draw4 studiesStatus since 2015